Commercial automotive advertising with photography and filmmaking has always been a challenge for new car releases. Shooting a hand built prototype before the real production car became available was the method. The prototype cars are expensive to build and transport to production studios a year before the consumer car model launches. I can tell you from painstaking experience. These prototype cars are not product correct. Thus requiring tons of extra post-production magic (zen like diplomacy).
Around 2006 CGI and 3D rendering of car exteriors started to get good enough to replace production teams on location. Commercial automotive advertising production teams waiting for good light in exotic locations were quickly replaced. Manufactures (OEM’s) already had the CAD models. Alliances were made with ad agencies and companies like Speedshape. Commercial advertising photographers producing 360 degree HDRi panoramas started filling the need for background plates. Three stock photography agencies like Maground specializing in HDRi back plates appeared on the scene.
Fast forward to now in 2016. The Blackbird is a mobile camera rig designed to morph into any car in the world. At the push of a button the fully adjustable chassis can modify its length by 4 feet and width by 10 inches. It can fit any wheel set and be altered for any type of suspension and chassis design. High quality 360 degree environment data is also captured for background plates, reflection maps, and virtual reality content production.
The Mill BLACKBIRD® sets out to transform the way automotive advertising is made: it has the ability to be any car, anywhere. Until now, automotive content has been dictated to or hampered by car availability, limited access to locations and footage that can quickly become irrelevant. The Mill BLACKBIRD® is the first fully adjustable car rig to create photo-real CG vehicle assets, acting as a production tool to inspire car brands, agencies and film-makers to do things in new, innovative and efficient ways.
If your next automotive advertising campaign, or content marketing budget, can hire the Blackbird please post links to the results. Until then, contact me, to discuss your commercial automotive photography, virtual reality, and video content productions.
