The Briefing Room

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — On the heels of their highly successful collaboration, Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., the largest chain of double drive-thru restaurants in the United States and parent company of both the Checkers® and Rally’s® concepts, has returned to Guerilla FX (GFX) for their latest campaign. Guerilla FX has completed the 3D animation on a trio of :30 spots, ““Mechanical Bull,â€? Slam Dunk,â€? and “Welder.â€? Developed through ML Rogers Agency (New York, NY), “Mechanical Bullâ€? rolled out in up to 30 spot markets across the country on September 29; “Slam Dunkâ€? on August 11; and “Welderâ€? on July 7.

For the previous campaign Guerilla FX’s first challenge was to define a style. They chose a 3D rendering technique that had both a sense of whimsy and provided a photo-real sense of the Checkers and Rally’s stores. The agency didn’t want to lose the sense of an actual building so GFX pushed the parameters as far as they could and played with the morphing of the building until it became ½ chicken and ½ store and their animations gave the brand a strong personality while allowing the buildings to do a number of outrageous things.

For this new campaign, the sharp, playful animations continue to add a great deal of fun to this commercial genre. “These are character driven spots and our objective was to develop the personality of the store by pushing the animation further than we had previously. We did not spend a lot of time morphing the store into the character but got immediately into the action, “ explained Vance Miller, GFX Technical Director/Animator/Character Animator. “Our challenge was to make something that is essentially a rigid move in an appealing way. Our character does not have a lot of flexibility but we still want him to be able to emote, to display his feelings so the audience will care about him. We introduced subtleties as far as how he executes certain actions to give him attitude and confidence. To accomplish this, we referenced a lot of footage online to capture, for instance, the movements of a basketball player or a mechanical bull correctly.�

Your taste buds go for a wild ride in “Mechanical Bull� which opens with a tight shot of the restaurant, already established as a character, on the bull. We see the grip on the saddle horn, a spur, the cowboy hat, then the character being bucked and ultimately bounced out of the saddle and thrown into the distance, whipping his hat in the air to promote Checker’s new Smokehouse Buford.

In “Slam Dunk�, the animated building spins a basketball, rolls it from shoulder to shoulder, dribbles and dunks to promote Checkers “hot new taste� – their Buffalo chicken sandwich hand dipped in Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Sauce.

For “Welders “ the animation lowers the visor on his welder’s helmet, fires up his blowtorch and toasts to perfection Checkers New Toasted Frisco Melt and their American Melt.

Creative Director/Art Director Mark Mueller added, “The animations get applause at client presentations. We don’t know who performs harder… the little restaurant character or GFX’s animators.”

Under the direction of Guerilla FX Director/Creative Director Thor Raxlen, the 3D animations were completed by Technical Director/Animator/Character Animator Vance Miller (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�, “Mechanical Bull�); Character Animator Ricardo Vicens (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�); Animators Steve Sullivan (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�), Eric Bribiesca (“Mechanical Bull�) and Caius Wong (“Mechanical Bull�); 3D Modeler Todd Danielle (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�, “Mechanical Bull�); Executive Producer Doug Robbins; and Post Supervisor Jody Peters.

Representing ML Rogers Agency were President/Executive Creative Director Mike Rogers, Creative Director/Art Director Mark Mueller, Creative Director/Copywriter Scott Barbey and Producers Lorraine Schaffer (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�) and Steve Amato (“Welder�).

Guerilla FX utilized 3D Studio Max and V-Ray for the 3D work, After Effects for compositing.

Director Michael Schrom of Michael Schrom Films (New York, NY) lensed the tabletop footage at Silvercup Studios (Long Island City, NY).

Chemistry (New York, NY) Editors Jim Rubino (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�) and Ilya Magazanin (“Welder�), and Assistant Editor Erin Bowser handled the post-production assignments.

Colorist Billy Gabor at Company 3 NY (New York, NY) handled the film-to-tape transfer for the three spots.

Music and sound design were completed at Face The Music (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA) with Executive Producer Adam Joseph, Composer Tony Shimkin and Sound Designers Tony Shimkin (“Slam Dunk� and “Welder�) and Michael Schmidt (“Mechanical Bull�).

audioEngine (New York, NY) and Engineer Hillary Martell completed the final audio mix.

About Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. (www.checkers.com) is the largest double drive-thru restaurant chain in the United States. The Company develops, owns, operates and franchises quick-service Checkers® and Rally’s® double drive-thru restaurants.

The Checkers®/Rally’s® 820 locations are known for their full-flavored, hand seasoned burgers, thick shakes and famous fries, and provide great tasting, fresh food with the robust flavors. Bottom line — it’s all about the food. That’s why the new tagline “little place. BIG TASTEsm” is such a great fit for the brand.

About Guerilla FX
Guerilla FX, an independent design, effects and post finishing company, is the natural out growth of the relationship created when 0:2:60 Executive Producer Doug Robbins first signed Visual Effects Designer/Editor/Director Thor Raxlen for commercial direction. Together they launched Guerilla FX in January 2006 and this uniquely creative, vertically integrated company now takes projects from preliminary discussions through the shoot, editing and effects. They have recently completed high profile projects for clients including Citibank, FedEx, Foot Locker, General Mills, Kyocera, Montefiore Hospital, MTV, Nexxus, Nike, Subway, TRESemmé, and Verizon, among many others.

Guerilla FX and 0:2:60 are headquartered at 121 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001. For further information about the effects and editorial facility, or the advertising production company, contact Theresa Loquercio at (212) 807-7123; and please visit the Guerilla FX website at www.guerillafx.com http://www.0260.com/ and the 0:2:60 site at www.0260.com

Credits:

Airdates: Mechanical Bull� rolled out in up to 30 spot markets across the country on September 29; “Slam Dunk� on August 11; and “Welder� on July 7.

Client: Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Title of Spot(s): Checkers trio of :30 spots, “Slam Dunk,� “Welder,� and “Mechanical Bull�
Description of Spot(s): three sharp, playful 3D animated spots, which, combined with live-action footage, add some enjoyment and fun to this genre of commercial.

3D Animation/Visual Effects: Guerilla FX
City/State: New York, NY
Director/Creative Director: Thor Raxlen
Technical Director/Animator/Character Animator: Vance Miller (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�, “Mechanical Bull�)
Character Animator: Ricardo Vicens (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�)
Animators: Steve Sullivan (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�), Eric Bribiesca (“Mechanical Bull�) and Caius Wong (“Mechanical Bull�)
3D Modeler: Todd Danielle (“Slam Dunk�, “Welder�, “Mechanical Bull�)
Executive Producer: Doug Robbins
Post Supervisor: Jody Peters

Equipment: 3D Studio Max and V-Ray for the 3D work, After Effects for compositing.

Agency: ML Rogers Agency
City/State: New York, NY
President/Executive Creative Director: Mike Rogers
Creative Director/Art Director: Mark Mueller
Creative Director/Copywriter: Scott Barbey
Producers: Lorraine Schaffer (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�) and Steve Amato (“Welder�)

Postproduction: Chemistry
City/State: New York, NY
Editors: Jim Rubino (“Slam Dunk�, “Mechanical Bull�) and Ilya Magazanin (“Welder�)
Assistant Editor: Erin Bowser

Production Company: Michael Schrom Films
City/State: New York, NY
Director: Michael Schrom

Film to Tape: Company 3
City/State: New York, NY
Colorist: Billy Gabor

Music/Sound Design: Face The Music
City/State: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA
Executive Producer: Adam Joseph
Composer: Tony Shimkin
Sound Designers: Tony Shimkin (“Slam Dunk� and “Welder�) and Michael Schmidt (“Mechanical Bull�)

Audio Post Production: audioEngine
City/State: New York, NY
Mixer: Hillary Martell

To view:
www.guerillafx.com/clients/checkers/video/Checkers-Slam_Dunk_Small.mov
www.guerillafx.com/clients/checkers/video/Checkers-Bull_Small.mov
www.guerillafx.com/clients/checkers/video/Checkers-Welder_Small.mov
www.guerillafx.com/clients/checkers/video/bull-welder-dunk_Small.mov

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