Matt Cardle 'Run For Your Life'

Framestore gets the VFX Factor with Matt Cardle’s Run for your Life

Framestore’s proved it’s got the X Factor by creating VFX for the programme’s 2010 winner, Matt Cardle, and his Run for your Life video – the much anticipated first single from his debut album.

Directed by Howard Greenhalgh through Crossroads Films, the promo was turned around in less than a week, from shoot to approval, post and delivery. Greenhalgh wanted to capture as much imagery in-camera as possible, so he opted for creating imagery of textures and footage that could be projected onto intriguing architectural surfaces.

Greenhalgh engaged Framestore’s producer, Laura Penta, and Flame artist, Sav Nagi, in pre production, giving them a day to produce a variety of images and textures for use as projections during the two night shoot in London. Greenhalgh combined Framestore’s images with his own footage of an actress – Cardle’s love interest – to create the final projections.

Peepshow editor, Matthew McKinnon, cut the promo, and after final approval from Mr Simon Cowell himself, Framestore’s very own Simon Bourne was able to start the final grade. Shot on Alexa and 7D, Simon had the challenge of grading nighttime footage. This entailed dark shadowing combined with bright projections, skin work and a vivid red running track all in the same shots.

Everyone was delighted with the grade, but to achieve the final look, a separate grading pass for the running track was produced to aid overall feel and composition. The final grade and passes were then sent to Tim Osborne to conform in Flame. Osborne was in charge of clean up and combining various passes to create the perfect shots. Such was the anticipation around the promo that Framestore had to additionally provide a one minute 'taster' for transmission on BBC news the following day.