Paris-based special effects and art house BUF Compagnie provided the eye-challenging visuals for Gap's three-spot "That's Holiday" campaign. The spots are "Mountains," "Trees" and "Kids."

The campaign was directed by Michel Gondry of Partizan Midi Minuit, whose past collaborations with BUF include Levi's, Polaroid, Smirnoff and a video for the Chemical Brothers, "Let Forever Be."

"BUF's work consists of very elaborate realizations of transitions. The effect creates the illusion that the dancers are trapped in a kaleidoscope. The dancers appear, disappear, come towards the camera and backwards, are substituted one for another, and go from one to an infinite number of dancers or objects," says a BUF representative. "Infinity seems to be the theme of these effects, wrapping reality around infinitely repetitive effects, multiplying the amount of dancers."

By carefully planning how each shot would be modified with effects, BUF was able to edit the number of transitions needed for the commercial and work out the timing before the shoot even began.

"I don't choose motion control in general. For every shot, it was timed to the half second. It was very precisely timed with the script; also, the supervisor who worked with the choreographer and I kept very precise timing," says Gondry. "We knew that with a certain shot we had two and a half seconds, for [another], we had three seconds. In one of the three spots, we went one second too long and it was really hard to get rid of this second. The main thing was the timing, as with the position of the people; I would shoot one time with the one guy, then shoot three guys with the same timing, and we had to check very carefully with their positions to make them match."

Once the shoot was completed, BUF went to work using its repertoire of in-house software, as well as Softimage. BUF says its only guideline was to present the visual idea, and not have it stand out as special effects.

"All of the transitions should be transparent to the viewer; by making the effects transparent, you enhance the visual impact," says BUF's representative. "Once the film has been scanned, the artistry lies in the decision as to which part of the work should be done in 3D and which should be done in 2D."

"The transitions of the sets between mountains or Christmas trees or slides were all realized in 3D. The transitions of the characters were done in a mixture of 3D and 2D, morphing 2D and 3D transitions. The team looks at the elements and decides what to do with them, what is the best approach for each transition and which elements fall within each transition."

"That's Holiday" was not the first spot work the special effects house has done for Gap. BUF produced the frozen moment effect for "Khaki Swing," directed by Matthew Rolston of bicoastal Venus Entertainment.

BUF was founded in 1985, and has offices in Paris and Los Angeles. In addition to commercial and music video projects, BUF has provided effects for feature films, including Fight Club.

WEB.FILES:
BUF Compagnie: http://www.buf.fr
Gap: http://www.gap.com