Marco Velez Esquivia is an exacting director, tireless jack-of-all-trades and a keen listener. When he recognizes a problem, he focuses on the solution, and when he finds one, he focuses on getting it done. His wide array of hats allows him to pull answers from any of them. So when he came to us with the challenge of creating a digital city, we knew he had thought it through and wanted all the benefits of a 3D concrete jungle.

He needed the city to feel gritty but alive, to accentuate the ambience of his noir film. It had to have people ambling the streets in the middle of the night, midnight traffic, and 6 am early workers. There were graffitis on walls, lit and lived in apartments, smoke from sewers and storefronts.

And we needed to match a scene that occurred at the top of the police building, a lonely midnight phone call made by the increasingly frustrated police detective. This called for an establishing shot with a digital double on a rooftop, right before we cut to the main actor’s live performance.

We even had the chance to offer the services of product placement by promoting brands on lit storefronts and highways signs!

We were very happy to take up this challenge and help Marco expand his who-dun-it world.