Toshiba’s Cool Matrix Ad

For my money, the British make the best technology commercials. A year after the London-based agency Fallon produced this Sony Bravia ad, Toshiba tapped Grey London for an equally impressive spot.

The new 60-second commercial for Toshiba’s upscaling technology, embraces “timesculpture” photography, an evolutionary version of the “bullet time” filming technology made famous in “The Matrix” trilogy.

Director Mitch Stratten conceived the technique of looping action in 360 degrees, which Toshiba said has never been done before.

A custom camera rig more than 40 feet around and weighing a half ton, including the cameras and electronics, was used for the shoot. All 200 cameras were triggered using a single remote control

It took four focus pullers three days to properly focus and align all 200 cameras and four weeks of around the clock processing power to handle the 20 terabytes of resulting footage.

The spot is airing now only on European TV, which is a shame because I’d love to see it in HD.

There’s also a 3-minute film about the making of the piece:

Hat tip to Brand Republic