The famous bullet time effect from The Matrix got pretty staid after it was used in (seemingly) hundreds of commercials in the years that followed. But I found my interest piqued by this spot for Rip Curl -- not only because it's a surfing commercial and it's getting colder in NYC, so I find myself wishing for warmer climes -- but also because you can't quite figure out while you're watching it just how they got 52 Canon DSLRs safely positioned over the water. What's their secret?
It's a wave pool. They're not on a boat, they're on the shore nearby. Very clever... Here's the spot:
And the behind the scenes video, where you can see the positioning of the cameras:
Some more details on the shoot:
In collaboration with Timeslice Films, Rip Curl took on an ambitious bullet-time campaign shoot in Malaysia's Sunway Lagoon Wavepool with lead surfers Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmore, Owen Wright and Matt Wilkinson. The revolutionary campaign captures surfing in a way never seen before, with the final visuals baring more resemblance to a fight scene from the famous Matrix movies than a promotional surfing video. The two-day rental of Sunway Lagoon Wavepool allowed Rip Curl and Timeslice to operate in a more stable environment than the open ocean offers. The Rip Curl surfers were repeatedly towed into the machine-controlled waves by Jetski and their operational space was determined by the 52-camera rig set up in the pool.
[via CheesyCam]
