Swisscom is a leading communications
company that offers telephone and digi-
tal TV services. The story of Rocketman
derived from a previous Swisscom cam-
paign called Vivo Casa, which featured
little people inside electronic devices.
The new Swisscom Liberty advert was
to promote Swisscom’s mobile services.
Little rocketeers would shoot out of vari-
ous mobile devices. They
would fly around, collect
the desired information
and then return to dis-
play what was gathered.
Stories AG was approached by Jung
von Matt with the idea for the world of
Rocketman. We were given only 7 weeks
from the first phone call until broadcast-
ing was scheduled. This time constraint
forced us to keep the production as
close to home as possible and kept it an
all Swiss production.
A special idea was the integration of the
billboard as part of the TV campaign.
The billboard featured a burnt out out-
line of a person next to the advert’s tag
line. The TV spot was created around this
to explain how the hole got there.
In addition, we were tasked to create a
web campaign with banners that had to
be shot and designed separately.
What was detrimental to finishing a pro-
ject of this size within the deadline was
to create an accurate priviz that showed
everybody what to do. This not only
included camera movement and tim-
There is one particular scene where
Rocketman dives from above the clouds
down into a city to retrieve flight tickets
from a travel agent. The dive shot was
filmed with a GoPro camera attached to
an R/C plane. The pilot featured a gog-
gles rig that let him see from the planes
point of view to steer the plane with the
necessary accuracy needed for this ma-
neuver.
Great detail was payed to the set build
and costume design. Reto Trösch was
able to take the measured out digital
set layouts and created a intricate scaled
up circuit board in record time. The cos-
tume designer Caroline Harris designed
a wing suit around existing design ide-
as from selected biker’s gear to give the
character a steam punk kind of look.
The rain was made possible by the SFX
wizards at k-stunt. Usually, the local fire
department does the job. Since the bus
was moving throughout the most part
Despite the daunting deadline, we were
able to finish the project in time. Great
planning, an even better pool of experi-
ence and a post-production process that
started during the pre-production phase
made this feat possible in the first place.
Contrary to regular practices, we had to
start our post our post process already
during the pre-production phase. This
was only possible thanks to the very ac-
curate and closely executed previz.
Post Production was split in two main
teams. One team, responsible mainly
for compositing and one full 3D shot,
was managed in house. The other team,
Cloudscape Studios, worked at their
own location and was responsible for
the main 3D scenes.
Despite the relative close
distance between Stories AG
and Cloudscape, we held our
daily meetings through Sky-
pe. This saved everybody on
travel time and increased ef-
ficiency.
The data from the shoots was
brought to the post teams by
delivery services directly af-
ter shooting. The post teams
could then work on the captured scenes
parallel to shooting still going on.
An important characteristic for Rocket-
man was the smoke trail. It had to look
like he was propelled by a powerful
ing, but also the production design was
layed out together with the production
designer Reto Trösch digitally.
Having the Rocketman’s movements in
the previz helped us dealing with a lim-
ited studio size that was available to us.
We had to give the illusion of flight in
a very compact space. In the previz we
could plan small movements for camera
and Rocketman that would result in fast
motion for the viewer.
of the scene though, which covered a
long way, the director and production
wished to have a less complicated and
time-intensive way to create the rain. So
k-stunt came up with an inventive setup
of on-board tubes, which were attached
to the bus. The rain was then intensified
by men-operated hoses that specifically
put the right amount of rain on certain
spots according to the scenes needs.
Rocketman was able to fly thanks to a sim-
ple but very effective stunt rig provided
and operated by Valentin Vasilescu. The
stunt rig allowed us to shoot Rocketman
through the small-sized studio at accel-
erated speeds. This way we got the most
out of the limited studio space available.
Actor Tim Atwill who played the part of
Rocketman went through some major
doubts about the safety of his private
parts during the two studio days. He was
a great sport and after the shoot luckily,
confirmed that everything was still in-
tact. Thanks Tim!
rocket, yet the client did not want to give
the impression of pollution. With the ex-
ception for the take off sequence, we
had decided not to use a fluid dynamics
approach. More freelancers could work
on the smoke scenes with the Trapcode
Particular asset that was created.
An interesting feature is the actor’s hand
in the fly-in scene. No production cam-
era is capable of delivering this kind of
shot this close. Therefore we had to cre-
ate this scene almost completely digital-
ly which included reproducing a CG rep-
lication of the actor’s hand. Cloudscape
excellent work for this shot.
The billboard crash scene was originally
planned as a dolly shot on top of a roof.
However, to save production costs, re-
duce risks of injury, and save time, the
whole scene was created in 3D from a
photograph. An additional benefit was
that the camera move was much more
flexible.
Initially, a second installment of the
Rocketman advert was planned as the
first stereoscopic theatre advertisement
in Switzerland. Unfortunally, this part
was canceled in mid production.
story
pre-production
production
conclusion
post
One of the most complicated shots of
the commercial was the fly-through from
outside the mobile phone through the
glass of the phone to the inside, where
Rocketman lives in the midst of micro-
electronic equipment. To pull it off, the
shot was divided into 2 parts: the out-
side was shot on location in the bus and
later combined with a 3D mobile phone
and hand. The inside was shot in the stu-
dio. To combine the two parts into one
consecutive move you would tradition-
ally use a motion control camera. Due
to the budget constraints we fell back to
our ‘human motion control’ - our won-
derful DP Filip Zumbrunn. With a normal
crane and a simple servo-head, we were
able to provide the compositing depart-
ment a nearly perfect shot. The shot was
so smooth that our on location compos-
iting guys from cloudscape whipped
together an appealing preview of the
shot just 30 minutes after we wrapped
that day. Ever since, we consider ‘human
motion control’ a great alternative to the
costly Milo rig when on a tight budget.
