Disguise Services powers Apple Music's Commercial for Thomas Rhett's Radio Show

When director Sam Siske approached Disguise Services with the vision for Thomas Rhett’s commercial for his new “Where We Started” radio show, he provided a clear vision for the creative concept.

“Thomas will take a cinematic journey through an abstract rooftop environment populated with scenes from his life as an artist…All these elements will meld to create a grand, cinematic tone that will ultimately feel like a movie trailer.” - Sam Siske. 

The cinematic journey took viewers through different scenes of the life of country-artist Thomas Rhett.

Physical and virtual sets blend together to create one seamless experience.

Based on this underlying concept, our design team created a virtual city skyline scene at dawn in Unreal Engine, which was inspired by large cities like New York and Chicago. The team added cinematic frames from movies to create a dramatic composition and overall tone. 

To capture the perfect golden hour, a timeless sunset was added to the scene with low haze and twinkling city lights.

With only 4 hours to utilise with talent Thomas Rhett on shoot day and the requirement to shoot in multiple locations within this time restraint, the virtual production studio Arc Studios provided the ideal solution. 

During pre-production, our team makes sure everything on the technical side is set up for a flawless and efficient shoot.

Enjoying the view on top of a skyscraper from the comfort of a studio. 

For the most efficient production possible, our trusted production partners at Gear Seven brought in physical set designers to build two physical sets within the studio in addition to the virtual set displayed on the LED Volume. This allowed the production to ‘flip’ between the ‘Recording Studio’ set-build and the ‘Roof-top’ virtual set with minimal downtime.

A physical studio set was built in addition to the virtual set to enable efficient production. 

Our xR designers are on set to make sure the scene is displaying exactly the way it is intended to. 

Director and crew at Arc Studios could see almost completed footage of the virtual production shoot right on set. 

Because of the endless golden hour that virtual production enables, the perfect shots could be captured within the given timeframe without worries of lighting changes or changing weather conditions. The perfect sunset stayed consistent. 

Take as long as you need: a virtual golden hour is perfectly captured, the lighting is dialed in and most importantly, it is timeless. 

The entire production was wound up in three hours and 50 minutes, providing the teams with an extra 10 minutes to sit back.