Special Olympics 'Encouragement'

Framestore has just collaborated with Director Johnny Green for JWT's intimate and emotive Special Olympics spot. The film sees Omar Haddad, a Special Olympic gymnast with learning disabilities, take to the arena.

Through clever direction, sound design and visual effects, we feel the intense experience from Omar's internalised point of view. The 60 second cut encourages people to view a longer version on www.encourageomar.com where viewers can interact with the film by using a slide bar to increase the crowd's encouragement for Omar. Framestore's Dave Ludlam crafted a naturalist grade and the VFX team, led by William Bartlett, provided crowd duplication to populate the empty stadium.

Finding a suitable crowd that fitted the performance's camera angle, lighting and lenses proved difficult. So Bartlett created a crowd panorama from pre-built assets and location stills that could be tracked into each shot. The crowd was also made to react to Omar's performance and the stadium's ambience was further enhanced with camera flashes.