The humorous spot begins as horses and riders line up for the starter's pistol of a race. As horses and riders hit the first fence one falls sending his jockey tumbling. Jumping up, he turns to check on his steed who remarkably, tells his jockey to run on! Our hero does indeed turn, run and join the race, passing the competition as the crowd cheers him to triumphant victory. The spot closes with the tag line, "Someone's had their Weetabix".
True to his visionary style, director Ringan always throws us inspired creative and technical challenges, and this was no exception - "make a man run as fast as a horse". We got our thinking caps on and explored several options of how to achieve this visually, our Shoot Supervisor and Lead Flame, Barnsley explains, "We were keen to avoid using as many standard green screen shots as the viewer would be quick to pick up on this technique.
"Most shots were achieved by shooting two plates - one of the horses and one of our hero, which were mixed with further tricks to 'cover our tracks'. On some occasions we mixed the film speeds of the horses and jockey to allow the two to run together; on other shots, we allowed the foreshortening that long lens allows, to hide the disparity in running speeds. Often the jockey was lifted off his background and added to the horses' plate."
CGI was then used to add additional mud and clods of glass to dirty up any scene which was too clean and rogue reins held by the horse trainer removed. The head of the stuntman was also replaced occasionally with that of our hero jockey. Barnsley, adds: "Finally we filled the empty stands to the rafters with excited spectators to turn the event (and the ad) into a real occasion."
Agency: WCRS
Producer: Gemma Smith
Creatives: Larry Seftel, Dave Day
Production Company: Rattling Stick
Director: Ringan Ledgwidge
Producer: Sally Humphries
Director of Photography: Jess Hall
Editing Company: Work Post
Editor: Rick Orrick
VFX & Design: The Mill
VFX Producer: Gemma Smith
2D Lead Artist: Andrew 'Barnsley' Wood
3D Lead Artist: James Sindle
3D Artists: Teemu Eramaa, Ivor Griffin