Golden Compass ace’s visuals for Indian toffee ad

Fink,visual effects veteran and president of VFX Worldwide at Prime Focus,one of India’s leading visual entertainment services companies,says that he is constantly delighted by Indian advertising. “The absolutely fearless use of colour and composition to sell a product is amazing. And the very direct approach to the product being pitched is always refreshing.”

Yet,he does not think the advertising scene in India is picture-perfect. “The biggest shortcoming I could see is a tendency to want to explain much to the audience that they already know. With only 30 seconds to make the point,and with the added challenge of selling products to different cultures,Indian advertising has to develop a greater universality of visual language.”

Fink was an artist in Los Angeles earning a pittance and wondering where he would get his next meal from,when he decided to follow in the footsteps of many of his friends and work on movies. He began with The China Syndrome followed by a string of big budget movies like X-Men,Vanilla Sky and The Road to Perdition. The icing on the cake was of course,the Oscar that he won for his work on The Golden Compass.

So,is there any signature style that one should look out for in the ad? “I tend to direct digital creatures to be true to themselves. I don’t try to make frogs look like talking humans. I generally want digital performers to act as the creatures they are,with as few human traits as possible. This makes the animals more accessible and makes the audience feel less like they are watching a cartoon.”