NYC Skyline Before & After

After our recent New York City shoot, Kmotion Media took on the NYC skyline, executing a complicated, multi-layered series of high-end digital enhancements in post.

This NYC shoot is part of a nationwide campaign Kmotion has produced for Aurora Health Care. The testimonial campaign highlights the great distances real people have traveled for care at Aurora St. Luke’s. The local scenery plays a large supporting role in the spots.

However, the shoot was plagued with torrential rain during the day and heavy drizzly fog at dusk.  We had one chance to shoot our family overlooking the NYC skyline. It was an undesirable evening, with heavy fog that covered the entire city.

But it was our one chance to get our closing shot with the family, so we pressed on.

We came back the next night to shoot the same scene, but without the family, hoping for better weather. It was a bit better, but still quite foggy.  Knowing we’d need to work quite a bit of magic, we shot the scene for about an hour, capturing all phases of sundown.

Back at Kmotion, we combined the family’s scene with several of the second night scenes and then actually digitally “built” the remaining parts of the NYC skyline that were obscured by the fog on both days.

By special client request, we added spotlights to the Brooklyn Bridge where there are none and adjusted some of the skyline to be more aesthetically “balanced”.

The NYC shoot also had some real highlights.

In addition to shooting in the heart of Manhattan, around Lexington and 51st, we also shot the interview on a rooftop that’s frequently used for commercial shoots and movie productions. Scenes from “Men in Black 3” were recently shot on the rooftop.

The final spot:

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