The ad was created to launch Samsung’s world first curved UHD television, with the commercial shot and delivered entirely in 4K and directed by Park Picture’s Nathan Price.

MPC’s VFX team, led by Franck Lambertz and Carsten Keller, extended the purpose built coliseum, replicated the braying crowd and created the wide shot completely in CG. MPC’s pioneering technology and engineering departments re-worked parts of the pipeline in order to work at three different resolutions and frame rates simultaneously: HD, Ultra HD 25P and Ultra HD 60P for which viewing devices are still in development. 

Franck said “4K is effectively 4 times regular HD, so this means working with a huge amount of data. As our current software wasn’t designed to work with the technology, we developed entire new toolsets and integrated them into our workflow. When viewing the spot on a 4K monitor the detail is absolutely mindblowing - even the most minute expressions on members of the crowd are amplified, and all the architecture - concrete and wood, and even the leaves on the trees are incredibly detailed. 4K is going to be standard in the future, and working closely with Nathan and CHI it was a rewarding challenge to be one of the pioneers in this field.”