You have seen it: a giant bra landing softly on a city street, a church wrapped in curtains, a landmark tower lifted by a helicopter and flown to another city. FOOH stands for fake out of home. It looks like an outdoor installation or a stunt, but it only exists in the video. Mixed reality is the wider name for the same technique: real footage with a computer-generated object composited into it.
How a FOOH film is made
It starts with a plate: real footage of the location, filmed with the camera move the idea needs. The plate is tracked so the software knows exactly how the camera moved. The object is modelled in 3D, placed into the tracked scene and lit to match the footage, including the shadows on the ground, the reflections in windows and the people walking past. Then it is composited, graded and cut for the feed. The illusion holds only when the object obeys the physics of the footage.
- 01
Place and idea. Which location, which object, which impossible thing.
- 02
Plate shoot. The real place, filmed with the camera move the CGI needs.
- 03
Build and composite. Model, animate, light and render into the footage.
- 04
Release and push. The post, the seeding and the paid reach.
Why it travels
It surprises people in a medium that has run out of surprises, and it starts a conversation. People tag friends to ask whether it is real. That comment thread is distribution the brand did not pay for. Our April Fools film of Himmelbjerget's tower flown to Copenhagen reached 11 million views and was covered by TV 2 News the same morning. The SKIMS softest-landing film made with our team at WHY.CGI passed 300 million views.
FOOH or a real installation?
A real stunt needs permits, engineering, insurance, a build crew and a location, and it happens once. A FOOH film needs a plate and a CGI team, can be revised, and can be made for a city the brand has no presence in. What it cannot do is put a real object in front of a real crowd. If the idea is a launch event, do both: the real inflatable for the people there, the CGI version for everyone else. That is what we did for the NYX giant duck.
When not to use it
When the audience must believe the object is physically there for the message to work. FOOH is a creative format, not a deception, and we recommend captioning it as CGI where it matters. Also when the product is not the hero: a giant version of something nobody recognises is just a giant something. Scale gets the first look; the idea is what gets shared.
What to send us
The product in 3D if you have it, otherwise the product itself. The city or landmark if the place is the idea. Brand guidelines, where the film will run, and the tone. We come back with references and a treatment before anything is built.
Questions
What does FOOH mean?
Fake out of home: an outdoor advertising moment that only exists on screen. A CGI object is composited into real footage so it looks like a real installation or billboard.
How long does a FOOH film take?
Typically two to four weeks from brief to release, faster for a single object in a location we already have footage of.
Can you make FOOH films for the US?
Yes. We work with brands in the US, Europe and Asia from Copenhagen, Singapore and the US, and the location can be anywhere we can film or license footage.
Mixed reality & FOOH
Want a film like this? We plan it, make it and get it seen, from Copenhagen, Singapore and the US.
