Halftime Touches Down

Each year, the world’s biggest TV audience tunes into the Super Bowl final with the expectation that something spectacular might happen. From the moment Mekanism approached Framestore, with Executive Creative Director Tommy Means' genius idea for setting the stage for halftime, the team (led by Director Ben West) knew that they had their work cut out.

'It’s the most watched part of the Super Bowl, with around 120 million sets of eyes glued to the screen. That creates a lot of expectation. We wanted to grab the audience’s attention from the first frame and carry them on an awesome journey to halftime. Revealing the UFO as the stadium was always going to be the great payoff. In some ways it’s a no-brainer, that stadium really looks like a UFO', said West of the proposal.

Shooting in California and the Arizona desert, Framestore's LA team was armed with a 100 ton crane and a huge mothership-style light rig to create the effect of a stadium-sized UFO, hovering above. The vast creation could then start beaming up all of the components of the halftime show – guitars, Katy Perry’s famous blue wig, and, of course, a whole truck load of Pepsi.

In the studio Framestore artists set to work creating the UFO/stadium, referencing the real University of Phoenix Stadium. The landing area also called for some CG work, needing to be populated with 14,000 CG cars. Smoke, dust and debris FX played a key part in the look of the tractor's beam, as well as conveying its anti-gravity pull and the stadium’s massive scale as it lands. We also variously removed The wires used to lift the objects were skillfully removed, with artists carrying out full CG takeovers in places to give complete creative control of their movement and lighting. The final touch came in the form of the grade, completed by Head of Colour Steffan Perry.