Pontiac G8 Gets the Spy Hunter Treatment

I burned through stacks of quarters playing Spy Hunter as a kid. Someone at Pontiac’s marketing department knew that, and they commissioned this slick spot catering to my demographic’s sense of nostalgia. Spot on viral marketing there.

For an action spot, the camera work and editing are a little uninspired. But I dig the concept so much, I’m willing to overlook the lack of effervescence.

I have no idea who created this project. Any help would be appreciated. I do know that the soundtrack is based on the legendary “Peter Gunn” theme, composed by Henry Mancini (also responsible for the “Pink Pather” theme).

UPDATE: Thanks to a little help from the comments, it’s been revealed that Sway directed this spot. In the realm of CG car adverts, they reign supreme. You may remember that they handled all the vehicles in the recent Toyota “Through the Roof” spot directed by Buck. In the making of video for that project, Sway shows off their custom driving simulator that use to control their virtual vehicles. Amazing.

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

8 Comments

nixx

I have this feeling it might orginate from this studio :)

Their portfolio is full of pontiacs cgi commercials with a related look and feel..

https://www.withatwiststudio.com/what.php?portfolio=motion&id=25

M NINE

SWAY directed this spot.

Note: It’s squished, should be letterboxed.

justin

Thanks M NINE: Did Sway direct it or just do the CG cars?

doodoobrwn

taking me back…

Jean_Pierre

Geez, I can’t even begin to estimate the amount of time that I spent playing this game as a kid. Even though it’s a vehicle that I’d probably never buy. It still gives me goose bumps to see Spy Hunter brought to life. By the way, has anybody actually beat Spy Hunter? Because I seem to remember thinking that game didn’t really have an end.

justin

I don’t know if it had an end, either. It was insanely hard. I think I rarely lasted more than five minutes.

erikferna

Yes, this spot was directed and created by Sway Studio. Sway studio created two spots for Pontiac; The “Spy Hunter� commercial and also “Pontiac Mine� which does not air until next week, but has been leaked on youtube (https://youtube.com/watch?v=xf30j8pYplM). I was a freelance 3d artist on the pontiac mine project. Sway is awesome

justin

Thanks all. I updated the post with info for Sway. I’ll let the link to the leaked spot stay in the comments so it doesn’t attract too much attention and get yanked. :-)

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