STORY teamed with Filmworkers Club for visual effects to produce a spot for Goodyear’s new Eagle Response tires in which a silver sedan winds through a field of dreams.
STORY’s Toby Phillips directed the spot in Western Australia on a perfect road “built” with the aid of Filmworkers’ magic.
Through Hitchcock Fleming Associates of Akron, the spot mandated the idealized setting of a flat, gently winding road through a field of grain. Since a location that met the criteria was non-existent, Phillips concluded he’d have to build the perfect road himself.
Phillips, an Australian, located a 1,000-acre wheat field in Western Australia and laid out a general course for the road through the field. He had a 20-foot wide swath of wheat removed and the ground graded to a smooth surface.
Although asphalt for the road was not viable, Filmworkers’ Club effects supervisor Todd Freese devised a plan for finishing the road in CG.
The road was covered in a black tarp that served as a matte element Freese could use in laying in the CG, explained Phillips. “We were able to create the illusion that wheat was growing in perfect rows right up to the edges of the highway.”
