Ghost Writers in the Sky

     Mad Dog Marketing's Mary Fawcett wanted to show the idea of working together as a team for her client Schneider National (trucking) ad targeting over the road team drivers. Starting with a stock shot of three red biplanes making a sharp banked turn with skywriting smoke, we worked up this visual of a tractor trailer rounding a corner. To make it as smooth as possible, we treated the truck almost as a banner being towed behind the planes, letting the curve of the turning aircraft create the shape instead of the boxy outlines an actual truck would have required.

     The truck image was built by hand entirely of smoke image from the original stock shot, taking care to allow the smoke to swell and dissipate as it was left farther and farther behind the planes. Shading and proportion were carefully sculpted into the smoke.

     Finally, it was decided that the red biplanes had to go. Luckily, studio stock files included original photography of a Blue Angels show which was quickly scanned and used to update the file with spiffier aircraft.


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