A car is driving towards the camera down a city street with explosions in the background.

Parking Spot

Reprising his role of Kingo from Marvel’s upcoming film, Eternals, actor Kumail Nanjiani jumps into the driver’s seat of a Lexus IS 500 to showcase a level of action and adventure fit only for a film sequence -- all in a challenge to find the perfect parking spot.

Involved from the earliest stages of the planning process, Framstore’s Los Angeles-based team collaborated with agency partner Team One as well as Bullitt’s brother directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo alongside Anthony Leonardi to bring the cinematic sequence, complete with Marvel storyline “Easter eggs,” to life.

Environments
Effects Simulation
Visual Effects Supervisor
side shot of a lexus car driving by a destroyed cityscape
a flipped car that is on fire

Beginning with multiple units of shoot supervision, the team led by Creative Director Alex Thomas blocked out the effects distribution and destruction narrative throughout the sequence, inclusive of previsualization for key moments. Extensive scanning of the shoot location streets and parking garage allowed the directors freedom of coverage to leverage reprojection of previously shot running footage in addition to the option of full CG workflows.

Once the edit was locked, VFX teams focused on substantial environment work and CG vehicle requirements. They also added matte paintings and countless CG and practical effects elements to build out and enhance the various destruction scenes that Kingo drives through. Additional Eternals characters were also added in post with the team’s signature effects, including Ikaris and Makkari, along with sky replacements to reveal the core of the battle.

a back shot of a lexus car driving through a destroyed cityscape
actor kumail nanjiani pointing his fingers that have been animated to look like they are illuminated while looking into the distance

“Combining Marvel IP, Bullitt direction, beautiful Lexus vehicles and masses of destruction is basically a VFX artist’s dream scenario,” said Thomas. “Rarely does a project come along with such a combination, and an edit long enough to support an engaging narrative, so the whole Framestore crew thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Russos and Anthony Leonardi are incredibly collaborative and passionate about every aspect of their craft, so it was an absolute pleasure to be a part of the project.” 

The campaign will appear on cable during coverage of college football, NHL games and soccer, as well as social and digital channels.

Credits

Agency
Team One
Production
Bullitt
Directors
Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Anthony Leonardi
Directors of Photography
Bojan Bazelli, Ben Kitchens
Editorial
Whitehouse Editorial LA
VFX
Framestore
Creative Director
Alex Thomas
Executive Producer
Pete King
Senior VFX & Color Producer
Andrew McLintock
CG Supervisor
Clement Renaudin
Compositing Supervisor
JD Yepes
Associate Producer
Jose Alvarado
Colorist
Beau Leon
Modeling Supervisor
Marco Amador
Head of Rigging
George Saavedra
Look Development
Andrew Thompson, Soren Barton
Animators
Edwin Schaap, Kevin Rooney, Sean Curran
FX Supervisor
Victor Grant
Lighting Supervisor
Richard Shallcross
VFX Editors
Chris Hamilton, Dustin Indrebo
Music
Scoretek
Sound
IMN Creative
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