HP Mini 'Hyper Girl'

'Hyper Girl', the fifth spot in the HP series stars a self-confessed webaholic who is portrayed in a state of constant flux, constantly on-the-go changing outfits, activities and environments as she rattles on excitedly about the endless things she can do with her HP Mini 1000 to stay connected with friends, trends, blogs and reviews.

Creative Director Joe Lin, and Creative Team Ginny Lim & Georgina Gray of Publicis Modem created the spot for the APAC launch of the slim and sleek HP Mini 1000. The brief was to ensure that when consumers think of connectivity on-the-go, 'Make mine an HP Mini'would instantly come to mind.

With the talent walking through a series of seven wardrobe changes with a different background for each new look director Karl von Moller and production company The Shooting Gallery Asia had a myriad of issues to consider.

"There were not many locations that had the street feel I was after so we set about transforming Haji Lane into a mecca of pop culture! It's kind of a blend of street party meets hang-out zone for skateboarders, bikers and buskers based on the backstreets of New York and London," commented Karl.

The production team further dressed the lane up with a vintage Mini Cooper, hot dog stand, artfully destroyed trashcan and graffiti that the law-abiding art department spray-painted on paper before mounting on the walls.

Director Karl von Moller chose to shoot on RED whose QuickTime proxy file system proved a major advantage for production. BMD Head of Offline Tammy Quah attended shoot and as each scene was captured, transferred the SD QuickTime proxies of the raw RED rushes onto her laptop. As Karl was shooting, Tammy was simultaneously selecting the go takes and assembling the edit.

Tammy's ongoing scene assemblies added a new and unique dimension to the VFX shoot. As each scene was captured, Karl could see how the plates and elements lined up enabling him to be confident that a scene was going to work and helping him to move on quickly and efficiently to the next shot.

Amazingly, by the time "It’s a wrap!" rang out, Tammy had completed the first offline. Commented E-Vonne Loh, Marcom Program Manager, HP PSG, Asia Pacific & Japan, "Being presented the first rough cut at the end of the shoot was a real treat, we usually have to wait for up to a week after shoot to see the first cut. With all the different wardrobe and background transitions, this spot is very technical and hard to visualise at the production stage. Being able to see the rough cut on the shoot was a very welcome reassurance."

With a rough cut approved the BMD VFX team could immediately spring into action designing the complex sequence of CG particles that fluidly metamorphose through a variety of ever-changing shapes from a keyboard to a swirl of letters to a guitar and finally a shoulder bag.

Using what Director Karl von Moller coined as "highly ambitious post production techniques", BMD CD Damien Yang expertly stitched together with split second timing all the different body parts and pieces of clothing from the multiple plates along with the CG to create the final series of seamless transitions.