In a collaborative showcase between their top-flight color-grading and VFX departments, full-service post studio Nice Shoes just finished work on the latest stunning spot for GE Capital's ongoing co-branding campaign, this time spotlighting the company's relationship with Polaris.

Polaris opens on a panoramic shot of a stunning, jagged-edged dunescape. A Polaris dune buggy streaks across the screen, tossing a trail of sand behind and adding a flash of red color to the brown-and-tan-hued land. A voiceover extols the merits of GE Capital's intensive client relationship with Polaris before the spot ends with the occupants leaping from the buggy and dancing joyously across the sand.

The naturally beautiful color palette, the epic landscape, the contrasting shades, and the sand trail stirred up by the dune buggy called for special cooperation between Nice Shoes' powerful color-grading and VFX units. "More than anything, the finished product shows how well Nice Shoes' various departments unite," noted Nice Shoes Colorist Ron Sudul. "Plus we have done so many of these spots now for GE that we are particularly tuned in to their desired look and style."

Nice Shoes took the 35MM footage, scanned it in at 2K, and color corrected in Baselight to capture the unique tint of light reflecting on sand. The VFX department contributed with Autodesk Flame, taking advantage of its ability to composite within a 3D workspace.

The crew faced myriad challenges, from trying to reproduce accurate looking sand to maintaining the integrity of the pristine desert scenery. Nice Shoes enhanced the natural lines and shading in the sand dunes to really bring out the contrasts and contours. In nearly every shot, the VFX crew then removed tracks from the dune buggy and the film crew and recreated clean sand to fill the space.

"We had a very short turnaround for this project, so it was important that each group cooperated with the other," noted Nice Shoes VFX Artist Jason Farber. "Luckily we have a long history of collaborating not only internally, but also with the agencies and production companies we work with, so we were able to come together and turn out a beautiful final spot."

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