The Briefing Room

Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX completed work on “Fishing” and “Entrepreneur,” the newest spots from Mass Mutual Financial Group. Directed by Anonymous Content’s Robert Logevall for agency Mullen in Boston.

Both commercials feature moody lighting and weather effects. The :30 “Entrepreneur” opens on a businessman inside a high-rise office building looking longingly at a photo of his daughter while peering out the window into the dark city. The scene transitions to a shot of the same man looking out the window in his sunlit home, watching his daughter leap into the backyard pool. A child’s crayon scrawl on construction paper reads “Daddy’s Office.” The :30 “Fishing” opens on two fishermen enjoying a quiet, sunny afternoon. A peal of thunder rumbles and dark clouds encroach on the idyllic scene as the two men give each other anxious looks and speed their motorboat back to the pier. The spot closes with a shot of a window being gently pelted with the first drops of rain. Both spots close with the voiceover, “What is the sign of a good decision?” and end with the Mass Mutual logo and tag.

Brickyard VFX performed extensive compositing for the spots, creating day for night looks in “Entrepreneur” and adding storm clouds and lightning effects to “Fishing.”

“In addition to overall effects, for ‘Entrepreneur,’ we added the element of a woman sitting at the edge of the pool with her legs dangling in the water. This was filmed matching lighting conditions with our RED camera. The element was acquired without the use of water, we added photo-real water displacement and color correction,” explained Brian Drewes, executive producer, Brickyard VFX.

About Brickyard VFX

Bicoastal Brickyard VFX has been delivering top quality visual effects and CG for commercials since 1999. Brickyard’s sought after artists are equally comfortable supervising shots on-set as they are at bringing imaginative effects sequences to life inside the studio. The Brickyard ethos comes through in the inspired, comfortable and technologically state-of-the-art spaces that make the company a first stop destination for visual effects in both historic downtown Boston and sunny Santa Monica. Brickyard’s talented VFX and CG teams have completed projects for such brands as Fidelity, Target, Sprint, Pontiac, Hummer, Budweiser, Visa, Comcast, Adidas, Volkswagen, Honda, ESPN, Orbitz, Bank of America and many other. For more information, call Brickyard VFX Pacific at (310) 453-5722, Brickyard VFX Atlantic at (617) 262-3220, or visit www.brickyardvfx.com.

CREDITS

MassMutual Financial Group “Fishing” :30

MassMutual Financial Group “Entrepreneur” :30

AGENCY:

Account Supervisor: Amanda Chandler

Chief Creative Officer: Edward Boches

Executive Creative Director: Mark Wenneker

Creative Director: John Wolfarth

Copywriter: Karen Schwartz Alpert

Art Director: Jim O’Brien

Executive Producer: Zeke Bowman

PRODUCTION

Production Company: Anonymous Content

Director: Rober Logevall

Executive Producer: Jeff Baron

Line Producer: Nadine Brown

EDITORIAL COMPANY

Editorial Company: Bug Edit

Editor: Andre Betz

Producer: Joy Copeland

POST PRODUCTION

VFX Company: Brickyard VFX

VFX Compositing Artist: Jimi Simmons

VFX Compositing Artist: Geoff McAuliffe

VFX Executive Producer/Producer: Brian Drewes

AUDIO

Audio Mix/Engineering: Soundtrack Boston

MUSIC: “Fishing”

Music Company: Stimmung

Music Composer: Jason Johnson

Executive Producer: Kelly Fuller

Producer: Jack Catlin

MUSIC: “Entrepreneur”

Music Title: Catch the Wind

Music Artist: Donovan