Art Streiber was thrilled when creative agency the Garage Team Mazda asked him to shoot the print-ad corollary to a television commercial that magicians Penn & Teller were shooting for the new 2016 Mazda CX-5.
“An opportunity to work with Penn & Teller…?” he says. “Absolutely!”
The ad centered on a “levitation” concept by brand ACD Melissa Webber, art director Hide Konishi, and creative director Kaoru Seo at Garage Team Mazda. “The magic trick that my crew and I had to pull off was getting Teller into the air and then build the CX-5 around him. And getting the light to match,” Art explains.
“Due to limited time with our talent (and the fact that there was only one production final CX-5 model), we had to match our light on Penn & Teller to the light that was being used to light the car for the commercial. We had a three-minute window on the commercial stage to get background plates and examine their lighting, and then we hurried back to our stage to build our light to match.”
As for putting Teller in the air, Art and his team put him on a 12-foot ladder and gave him a Matthews Mini Boom to use as an elbow rest.
“A thousand thank yous,” says Art, “to Angie Hayes at the Happy Pixel Project for seamlessly assembling the final comp.”
Photo by Art Streiber for Mazda.
