Digital Domain created a cinematic, off-kilter world for Mercedes via AMV BBDO and RSA, as the foundation of an integrated campaign spanning online, TV, mobile, outdoor and point-of-purchase marketing. Directed by Carl Rinsch and shot in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, “The Escape” has viewers wake up inside a bizarre live action world inspired by Google Street View. A guide in a Mercedes C63 AMG helps participants navigate challenges where actions can lead to escape, the possibility of winning a Mercedes – or uncertainty. Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Barton, currently working with Rinsch on his upcoming feature for Universal Pictures, “47 Ronin,” developed the visual language of the world — replicating the experience of Google Street View but in moving video, and creating it using photogrammetry. The result is a feeling of discomfort and paranoia that comes from being trapped in a photoreal — but not truly real — world. Movie-level visual effects are found at every turn.
