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Car, Commercial

BMW China - “Alien”

This is one of a series of commercials for BMW China after-sales.

“This is one of a series of commercials for BMW China after-sales. Caption reads... "Unfortunate events may occur and we are not responsible for it. However, your warranty extension may save you from other disasters. Visit Us now! BMW." Shot at 1000fps on location in Beijing, China on the Phantom Flex 4K using Cooke 5i lenses.”

Lens/Camera Information
Lens series: 5/i Primes
Focus Lengths: 18mm, 25mm, 32mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (16×9)
Cameras: Phantom Flex 4K
Format: Digital

DOP Information
Director of Photography:  Eric Oh, CSC, MySC
Agent: Plan B http://www.planbfree.com/dop/eric-oh
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ericoh_csc
Vimeo: http://www.vimeopro.com/ericoh/dop
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericohcsc

Production Information
Production: BMW China – “Alien”
Director: Henry Ooi
Production Company: Tidi Beijing in association with Playhouse Pictures (Malaysia) https://www.playhouse-pictures.com/

DOP Eric Oh on his camera, lens and equipment choices:
“We used the Phantom Flex 4K for this series of BMW commercials (which this is one of) as we needed the action to be slowed down dramatically.  I am a fan of Cooke lenses and often they are my first choice due to it’s organic colour rendition and focus fall-off.  I decided to use the Cooke 5/i for this series of commercials as I felt I would need the fast aperture seeing we are shooting 1000fps and I had a limited budget for my lighting package. Shooting was done using “low-tech” methods as we did not have access to robotic arms/moco for the fast movement needed when shooting 1000fps.
Framing was done by levelling the track so that the head could be locked and I did not need to be operating the shot on the dolly making it lighter and so we could move the dolly faster.  An offset had to be used so that I could get close enough for the opening frame. This had to be braced so that we did not experience any wobble on the fast dolly out (5 guys pulling the dolly). Everything was done in-camera except the background buildings which we augmented the lights in post. We also shot additional sparks and flame elements for post so that could be added to the shot. In addition we shot a scale miniature of the car that was being “beamed up”.  ”