Depeche Mode - "Precious" (music video)

The music video for Depeche Mode's first single, "Precious", from their new album to be released in fall 2005 was created with the help of CINEMA 4D.

A ship glides through the night, passing strange creatures on its way. The mood is mysterious and cool, yet beautiful. A ballroom, golden and warm; mirrored halls; machine rooms and keyboards; underwater landscapes in which unknown life forms swim. This is all part of Depeche Mode's "Precious" video, created with a production time of eight weeks by Berlin-based Effekt-Etage.

"Numerous scenery, backdrops and life forms were created especially for this video. Over thirty of the one hundred-twenty shots were created entirely digitally. In the remaining settings, the band (i.e. Dave Gahan, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore) are the only live elements", reveals post-production supervisor Bjoern Kowalski. CINEMA 4D was used for all character setups, texturing, lighting, etc. No external renderer was used. "We are completely convinced of CINEMA 4D's capabilities and excellent rendering engine. The network renderer in particular once again proved its worth", said Effekt-Etage's CEO Holger Schaal.

Live shooting was done in 35mm format and completed in a single day in a blue screen studio in London. Effekt-Etage supervised on location, checking body sensors for subsequent 2D and 3D tracking, making sure the blue screen scenes were correctly lit, and made all set decisions pertaining to matters of post-production. The film material was then processed in London and made available to the post-production team in Berlin in HDCam format.

Combustion 4.0 was the compositing tool of choice. In addition to keying and rotoscoping, numerous 3D tracks were implemented in order to integrate the band into the virtual world that had been created.

Each frame was rendered on the in-house render farm in several passes, using separate masks, in order to be able to selectively edit them in compositing, which ensured the maximum amount of flexibility. "The actual look of the video was created in compositing", told us Effekt-Etage lead artist Andreas Bötterger, "this would not have been possible if not for the excellent raw material generated by CINEMA 4D".

CINEMA 4D has once again proven itself a reliable, flexible and effective tool, easily able to meet and exceed the expectations of international film and video production.

Animago Award 2006

Effekt-Etage was able to win several prizes at the Animago Awards 2006. The Animago Awards is the most important contest for digital content creation in German-speaking countries.
 
More than 1.300 submissions from more than 1.000 artists from 56 countries took part in this year's contest.
 
A team of specialist voted the best works in the categories still, animation, compositing, interactive and games.
 
In addition to placing first in the categories professional compositing music clip and professional interactiveproduct design, Effekt-Etage also won one of the desired main awards with their Depeche Mode music video.
 
The MINI GP Online Special won the first place in the category professional interactive product design.



More information: www.effekt-etage.de
  
Client:
Mute London
Production:
QFilmproduktion GmbH
Director:
Uwe Flade
Postproduction / 3D / FX Company:
Effekt Etage Berlin
Camera:
Fabian Hothan
Cut:
Markus Gerwinat
Postproducition Supervisor:
Holger Schaal, Björn Kowalski (www.bjoernkowalski.de)
Lead Compositing / 3D Artist / Interior Designs:
Andreas Böttger (www.andreasboettger.de)
Exterior Designs, Character Designs, Art Direction:
Niklas Briner
3D Operator:
Kay Tennemann, Maurice Jochem, Nico Schwenke
Compositing Operator:
Rayk Hemmerling
Trainee:
Daniel Brkovic

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