Aero Film Director Sam O'Hare Dazzles with CG Storytelling for Tesla

Sam O'Hare, director at Rocket Film and creative director of our partner company, Parachute VFX, made a splash in October with his CG tour de force for Tesla. The 100% cg spot-- yes every frame is cg, nothing was shot-- was shared on Twitter by the head of Ted Talks as well as Telsa Motorcars. 2 months later, it's had over 200K views on Vimeo and was noted by AdWeek, Fast Company and several car blogs.

It's been noted again in this article in AdWeek written by Nick Childs, CCO of Initiative Media. Nick not only is impressed by craft as well as the care for the brand and storytelling. Form and function. Strategy and creative. Sam came to this project to create something in a complete CG world as a show piece for the reel, but he also wanted to stay true to creating a great spot, which is something that could only be created for that brand.

Find out more about the backstory of how this video came to be HERE.

Chrysler Born Makers

When the Chrysler "Born Makers" boards came to Klaus Obermeyer, there were hundreds of scenes that needed to be shot, and not enough days to shoot them. But Klaus isn't a "we can't do it" kind of guy.  He called in Ken Arlidge and Sam O'Hare, and between the 3 of them, Klaus divided and conquered to get everything and then some. This is why its good have great partners on your roster.

All of the diverse locations would never have been possible with one crew. And those locations that couldn't be found, were created in CG with Sam O'Hare at Parachute.

Aero spreads Holiday magic with Wells Fargo

Always nice to have the family together at the holiday. We at Aero took this to a whole news level with the holiday spot we produced along side DDB-LA for Wells Fargo. Klaus Obermeyer was the director and brought on fellow Aero director Sam O'Hare for his VFX expertise (with the help from his crew at Aero Studios--which is being rebranded as Parachute in 2014!.. more on that later), and Aero alumni Bob Jenkis for the edit.

We do not condone snowmen smoking. It was just bubbles. We swear.

As you can imagine, it's not that snowy in Southern California in October... or really anywhere in the world. It's that sweet spot of entering spring in the Southern Hemisphere and still too autumnal in the Northern. So... With a mix of practical FX and movie magic, the winter landscape was born! We did a break down to show what was shot and what was CGI. Klaus oversaw the production from start to finish with Sam creating the pre-visualization with him and finishing all the VFX.

Nom nom nom nom nom. 

The shoot took place over one night and one day and the VFX took 4 weeks. There were a few late nights...

Sam O'Hare and Jesse Holmes (VFX lead) catch a nap. Totes adorbs. 

You can excuse the snoozy-ness when you consider this is what they'd been doing...

 Before...

 After!

 Kinda sad...

Magical!! and he got a new hat. Thanks, CGI. 

Other credits include Siggy at Company3 LA did the color grade; Jeff at Eleven Sound was the sound designer and mixer; HUM music scored the beautiful track.

Fun tidbits from the shoot... The dog was AMAZING. Her name is Jules and everyone wanted to take her home. The kids are really that cute. There were 28 horses in this production, and they were treated better than most people. And they really do like carrots... a lot.

From all of us at Aero Film, have a very happy holiday and we wish you the best in 2014!!!

Going Local, Short film by Sam O'Hare

About a year and a half ago, Lance O’Connor got sent a link to an essay on the Huffington Post from his brother in NY with the note, “I know this guy! Pretty funny!” Lucky for Lance he actually listened to his little bro, and BOOM!!! A short film idea was born! 

The essays were written by Robert Schwartz, a native NYer and modern day Woody Allen-type. He detailed his foray in to the online dating world after his divorce.  Jumping into online dating in your 30’s after not dating for 10 years or so can be a bit wonky... and so the comedy ensues.

Lance called director Sam O’Hare and said something to the gist of , “SAMMY BOY!!!!!! YOU’RE GOING TO SHOOT A FILM!” Lance rarely speaks in anything less than all caps.

Sam-- who is known for his tilt-shift films and VFX prowess-- had been wanting to work in more narrative and performance driven work and this was perfect for him. We brought our Aero team of  go-to crew to help: Pergrin Jung to DP, Katie Irish for Costume Design, Albert Dobyns for Production Design. Luke Rocheleau 1^st AC’ed and Steady Cam Op. Our NYU Intern Teresa Loera rose to the occasion and was the 1^st AD. Brooke Dooley and I produced (and did about 87 odd jobs.) Mary Egan Callahan at House Casting found our amazing cast, and Robert (writer) found his “if a celeb was to play me” ideal in Adam Busch. Adam generously agreed to be part of our production and boy howdy, are we lucky he did.  Not only is he incredibly talented and suited this role perfectly, but he’s super cool and nice. Which on long shoot days, goes a long long way.

Adam Busch

8 long shoot days in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and nearly a year in post production, the short film Going Local was launched on Vimeo through a follow up article in the Huffington Post.  Clear 25 minutes in your schedule, and enjoy! (If you’re at work, this can be considered “research.” So go ahead.)

Sticking to his post/VFX roots, Sam and Aero Studios created all the graphics, color correction and conform. For everything else, we’re very lucky to have many many talented friends.

Big thanks to:

Clayton Hemmert at Crew Cuts (Editor extraordinaire!)

Joe O’Connell, Gerard Collins and Mat Guido at Blast NY (Sound Mixing/Sound Design)

Rob Niederprum and Hyberballad Music

Dave Hodge and Eva Miller at Finger Music

Jesse Holmes at Parachute  (Graphics and Clean-up)

Full credits are here!

Pergrin, Arjun Sheth and Adam shooting in tiny spaces.

Sam O'Hare, clearly, directing. Pergin ponders. Teresa clutches her shoot schedule.

Production tries to not take up too much space, or have thing stollen (RIP generator). 

The "real" Robert and Evin.