TNT - The People Network - directors cut

Amsterdam agency Etcetera turned to PostPanic director Mischa Rozema to take on the challenge of their hugely ambitious Human Network script. Central to the integrated global campaign for TNT, is a stunning 50 second television spot highlighting the delivery giant's far-reaching network of dedicated couriers. With an accompanying tvc cutdown of 30 seconds, personalised video for TNT's existing clientbase and several key print visuals, PostPanic took on producing the main bulk of the integrated campaign followed by localising to 32 countries.
The hugely ambitious script appealed to director Rozema's taste for taking on the epic, "There was just no way to turn a script like that down," says Rozema "Even though it had ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ written all over it. The complexity, the size, the craziness. Maybe that’s what really pulled me in to this. I just loved stepping into the unknown and finding out how we could make this work."
For Rozema, the biggest challenge was how to avoid the vfx becoming the focus of the tvc. "PostPanic is set up differently then most production companies because we have our own in-house post production team which works instinctively with the directors. The temptation would have been to apply all that specialised knowledge and make this into a vfx fest but actually we threw out a lot of vfx when we started the project. We stepped into this trying to create as much ‘in camera’ as we could." This meant the production company had to set up major shoots in 5 locations across Europe ranging from live action drone-powered aerial mountain road scenes to complicated motion-capture acrobatic performances. Rozema, "We decided to really push what could be achieved in camera by actually creating a full size human truck on the set. It worked by having a huge, truck-sized, metal rig that could be pulled by an actual truck. We then filled it with an incredible Czech stunt team (famous for big Hollywood blockbusters) that had been rehearsing for weeks and gave the whole project a realistic approach. To be honest in the end, we used more VFX in the backgrounds (creating a non-existing airport, alpine road-tunnels and cities) than on the actual vehicles where you’d expect them."
Credits TNT “THE PEOPLE NETWORK”:
Agency: Etcetera
Concept : Peter van Leeuwen, Markus Ravenhorst
Art Director : Peter van Leeuwen
Copywriter : Markus Ravenhorst
TV-producer agency : Robert Roosenstein
Date shoot : July 2014
Locations/Studios : Prague, Austria, Belgium & Amsterdam
Film / Video-Material : digital (Epic Red Dragon)
Production Company : PostPanic
Director : Mischa Rozema
Executive Producer : Jules Tervoort, Annejes van Liempd
Producer (Liege) : Liene Berina
Production Assistant : Kristian Stoykov
Post Production: PostPanic
Head of PostProduction : Ivor Goldberg
Supervisor on set : Chris Staves, Matthijs Joor
Line Production Company : Savage, Prague
Executive Producer : Klara Kralickova
Line Producer : Vojta Ruzicka
Art Direction : David Baxa
Stunt Team : Filmka stunt team, Czech Republic
Stunt Coordinator : Jiri First
Making of : Jan Svejkar
D.O.P. : Jon Gaute Espevold
Grading : Scott Harris @ Glassworks
Off-line edit : PostPanic
Editor off-line : Benjamin Putland
On-line edit : PostPanic
Music composition & Sound Design: Pivot Audio / Guy Amitai
Sound Mix: Lawrence Horne
Stills
Photographer : Jiri Svorc
Image manipulator : Nick Strong
Cast
Marek Zelinka : TNT driver, Daan Daams : wink guy, Sabina Feldmanova : customer woman, Petr Kocourek : truck driver, Mikulas Matous : Kid 1, Matej Splichal : Kid 2
Post Production team PostPanic
VFX Supervisor : Ivor Goldberg, Chris Staves
Assistant Post Producer : Liene Berina
3D & VFX Artists : Matthijs Joor, Jeroen Aerts, Chris Staves, Marti Pujol, Dimos Hadjisavvas, Juri Agostinelli, Dieuwer Feldbrugge, Guido Ekker (intern), Francois Heysen (intern)
2D/3D Artists : Doma Harkai, Erwin vd IJssel, Stefano Paron, Donat Aron Ertsey, Hubert Heutinck (intern)
Matte Painting : Marco Iozzi, Marti Pujol
Tracking & Match Moving : Giso Spijkerman
Additional Post Production:
Additional VFX support : Andrea Staiano, Thiago Porto, Dennis Volkerts, Glassworks
Rotoscoping : Dot VFX, Roto Art Studios
Motion Capture : Stepan Kment, Bohemia Interactive a.s.