Drinking kills driving skills
The RTA’s drink driving campaign, ‘The brain ’, continued a recent trend of scientific based ads to explain road safety issues.
The campaign challenged the belief that having a few beers has no impact on driving ability. It followed disturbing accident statistics and recent research into drink driving attitudes.
Drink driving appears to be losing its status as a socially unacceptable behaviour. There’s a belief, particularly among young men, that while drunk driving is unacceptable drink driving is OK.
Statistics
The majority of drivers killed have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of between 0.08 and 0.15 despite the NSW limit for full licence holders being 0.05. However, medical experts confirm that even low levels of alcohol increases risk taking and impairs your ability to deal with unexpected situations when driving.
Science sells
The RTA has found the evidence-based approach of its recent fatigue and speeding ads very effective in shifting entrenched attitudes to road safety issues. By explaining the effects of alcohol on the brain rather than scaring people the ‘Brain drain’ campaign aims to provide a rational explanation why drink driving is a crime.
Alcohol will reach your brain in five minutes
Focussing on the physiological effects of alcohol on the brain, the ad explained the effects in terms of pub behaviour. Set in a pub after work the blokes are having a few quiet beers, not a big night out. High tech graphics were used to show how each beer effects their brain and their ability to coordinate movement, make sensible judgements and deal with complex problems. This may be embarressing in the pub but it can be dangerous behind the wheel.
The ad ended by saying that ‘Drinking kills driving skills’.
Production details
The RTA’s 60-second ‘Brain' ad was filmed over two days at a Sydney Hotel and one night of driving sequences by Silverscreen’s Oscar nominated director, Chris Dudman.
Animation and visual effects were provided by the technical wizardry of New Zealand post-production company, Oktobor. Oktobor, the only company to contribute to all three ‘Lord of the Ring’ movies specialise in computer-generated special effects for TV commercials and feature films.
One of the masterminds behind the brain was flame artist, Paul Freeman. The 28 year old 2D compositor was also the creator of the sequence in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where Gandalf appears to die.
“The idea for the brain in the ad was to show realistically how the more you drink, the more impaired it becomes,” Mr Freeman said.
During the film shoot, actors had to wear skullcaps where an animated brain would be attached in post-production. These plastic caps were covered with bright markers, newspaper and road reflector tape for the 3D animators to be able to build the brain, its internal structures and to ensure it moves in the correct way. The job of the 2D animator was to take the digital versions of the brain and make it more realistic by adding light and movement.
“The trick was keeping an eye on the skullcaps on the shoot to be able to track the brain and then restore the background. We had to be able to recreate the heads and the scenes,” he said
A flame artist is like a chef taking all the ingredients and putting them together.
“We wanted to make it look anatomically accurate but also as a complex and beautiful thing that is vulnerable to alcohol,” Mr Freeman said.
“The interesting thing about creating the brain in this way was that most people would not be able to visualise it until they see this ad.”
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