Throughout the spot we’re introduced to a number of people in different situations, going about their day. From a hairdresser to a window cleaner, a chef to an office worker and someone training in a boxing gym; they all appear to be in their own world singing out loud to the soundtrack of Queen’s 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
We are then introduced to a group of friends, with bottles of Heineken in hand, turning into a momentous stadium with an impressive CG crowd joining them in song. It’s a powerful spot, full of humour and the feeling of collaborative cheer.
2D Lead Artist Richard de Carteret explained; "Our main role in this project was to create the huge stadium where the Heineken concert is taking place. Where possible, live action crowd plates were shot for each scene to fill the areas close to the camera, then using CG crowd replication software “Massive", we filled in the rest. The stadium, although shot in LA, had to look generic so we changed parts of the construction along with creating the stage, speaker rigs and lights. We also removed signage, comped in cityscapes, screens and foliage to further enhance the story.”
Visual Effects Supervisor Hitesh Patel commented; "It was lovely working with Antoine again as he always comes with his own special brand of humour. Seeing him get ordinary people from all walks of life to “destroy" Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody on its 40th anniversary was great to be a part of. Some of the highlights of the job were being able to control the Jumbotron at the 90,000 seat LA Coliseum to act as a giant karaoke machine for all the extras, and also being part of the aerial 2nd unit filming the stadium wide shots for our Massive crowds to go in."