JAMM London, RadicalMedia’s Dave Meyers Soar for Havas, Harman Kardon
Post production studio JAMM Visual recently collaborated with RadicalMedia director Dave Meyers and Havas on Harman Kardon’s latest campaign. The ad stars two people in a city apartment, who unfurl wings and take flight, dancing spontaneously around Harman Kardon’s Aura Studio 5, like a moth to a flame. The 60-second film seamlessly blends a large volume of VFX and live action together across more than 40 shots.
Says Louise Unwin, JAMM’s Executive Producer, “We were thrilled to collaborate with Dave. And equally excited to reconnect with CDs Ben Brazier and Johnny Ruthven from Havas, both of whom our Creative Director, Alex Lovejoy, and I worked with last year on Mobil.”
As the project kicked off, attention shifted to preparing for the studio-based shoot, chosen to support the wire-assisted performances. The studio setup gave production full control over lighting, making it possible to build a natural night-time, blue-hour look inside the space, ready for the cityscape extensions to be added in VFX.
JAMM worked closely with Meyers’ Production Designer Will Htay ahead of the shoot to understand his concepts for wing design and apartment scale. JAMM supported production planning by pre-visualizing the final scene, helping define shots, camera moves, and timing. “Our close relationship with Will and the rest of the production team at RadicalMedia was invaluable.” Lovejoy shares.
Together, JAMM and the production team created 3D printed ‘wing buds’ placed on the actors’ backs to mark the wing attachment points, improving the contact point with the wardrobe and enhancing the tracking process. Extensive witness-cam footage was captured during the shoot for clear motion reference and accurate CG wing tracking.
A practical build of the wings were executed as reference, and then recreated and enhanced in CG. “We wanted to make the CG wings look as natural as possible.” says JAMM Creative Director Ted Harrison. “We needed to match the wing action to the energy and performance of the actors and give the wings some natural bend and drag”. He and the team crafted the wing’s movement from hand-animated keyframes, and enhanced them with layered simulations to provide an extra level of finesse.
To elevate the natural feel further, JAMM integrated the wings seamlessly into the apartment’s environment by crafting digital replacements of the set’s plants and animating them to respond to the air displaced by the wings.
The film opens with a completely digital cityscape, crafted by a hybrid approach combining custom proprietary car and traffic tools, digital matte painting, and procedural CG building generation.
Across the main run of apartment shots, the VFX work included extensive wire and rig removal, changes to the interior environment, including the addition of a ceiling, and background extensions.
The closing scene features a hybrid pullback that moves from the featured apartment across the street into an overlooking apartment, with most of what’s visible crafted digitally. JAMM built custom proprietary tools to efficiently populate the surrounding apartments in the shot, where more dancers can be seen.
The grade was completed by JAMM’s LA colorist, Jess Jinx. Meyers started working closely with Jess on the grade early on to establish a palette for the CG and FX teams, making sure their work integrated perfectly. The film’s success was driven by shared creative vision and smooth collaboration across all parties. The result is a visually immersive ad that Harman Kardon are extremely happy with.
“JAMM were incredibly collaborative from day one,” says Adam Henderson, Production Lead at Havas. “They understood our tricky brief, brought great vision to every decision, and approached the project with real hunger and care – making the budget work without ever compromising quality. And are just genuinely lovely people to work with.”
JAMM Co-founder Asher Edwards added, “The London team and Jess have done a fantastic job and I’m looking forward to seeing them continue to grow from strength to strength in the near future!”
CREDITS
Havas London:
Creative Director: Ben Brazier & Johnny Ruthven
Copywriter: Alex Jones
Art Director: Emily Camacho
Agency Producer: Adam Henderson
Assistant Agency Producer: Hilary-Nyce Aremu
Creative Producer: Hannah Levy
JAMM Visual:
Creative Director: Alex Lovejoy
Creative Director: Ted Harrison
CG Lead: Vittorio Barabani
2D Lead: Mithun Jacob-Alex
Executive Producer: Louise Unwin
VFX Producer: Sam Ashby
Colorist: Jess Jinx
RadicalMedia:
Director: Dave Meyers
Executive Producer: Jodie Brooks
Producer: Kwok Yau
Production Manager: Matt Cummins
DoP: Scott Cunningham
