Sometimes, the alternate solutions to certain problems seem to be more complicated than a more straightforward approach. For instance, it may be a bit of a hassle to film a car in one particular situation, but wait until you see the solution proposed by British company Mill, and decide for yourself whether it's not actually making things even more complicated than they were in the first place.
And yet, what you and I think might not be too relevant, as Mill's Executive Vice President, Alistair Thompson, reveals that it all stemmed from a real necessity of the advertising world: “We can unequivocally say that The Mill BLACKBIRD® is a tool to solve real problems for the advertising industry. It is no vanity project. It was the genuine needs of our advertising clients that made the Blackbird happen and their constant support and input has shaped its design and made it the game-changing innovation that it has become. The Blackbird journey has only just begun though and the technology and the thinking behind it will evolve. We hope it will continue to provide inspiration for the whole industry and most importantly, in turn, our clients will create ways of using it that we have not even comprehended yet. This is what excites us the most!”
But what does the BLACKBIRD do? The name might make you think it's invisible, but in fact, it's more of a shape-shifter. With the help of technology (and lots of it), the BLACKBIRD can go on a set, shoot some footage like any regular car would, and then morph into virtually any vehicle you can think of, past or present, via some perfectly executed CGI.
Think of the BLACKBIRD as a moving green-screen, and you wouldn't be too far from the truth. It's there to substitute the real vehicle, and it only needs its wheels to do so. Its wheelbase can be adjusted by up to four feet (that's nearly 1.2 meters) and its track width by ten inches (25 cm). Its suspension system can also be tweaked, while the powertrain can mimic the performance of all kinds of cars.
The cameras capture the wheels and chassis complete with shadows and any other effect the real car would have had on the environment (dust kicking up, tire smoke, water splash, etc). Back in the studio, the car's body is then plastered over the footage, with help from the 360-degrees cameras placed on the BLACKBIRD, who can help with the information necessary to create the reflexions.
The Mill has taken things one step further by developing an application that allows the director of the video and everyone else interested to see the final vehicle in CG live, on location. And then there's the icing on the cake: the BLACKBIRD has been hand-built in the same hangar as the famous Blackbird SR-71 spy plane, which - together with its color - also explains the name.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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