Brief:    Again, a fantasy world built, as if by a child, but this time we wanted Vegas Baby!  The catch here being: we weren’t allowed by Legal to have any references to gambling.  That is right, do Vegas, but NO GAMBLING! So, no craps tables, no roulette, no slots, no dice, no dominoes, no cards, no chips, no gambling... That leaves us with trailer parks, showgirls, neon and glitter, pawn shops, and theme park atmosphere (prostitution was an obvious no no).

(1-4)  The worse though, was legal didn’t tell us 
this until we had built more than half the set pieces!  

So the slot machine got changed to a cash register, dice were transformed into blue blocks lining the road, the craps table surface which was to be the road for the Mazda Protege to drive upon, became a simple green road (felt was too boring, so glossy, glittery green it was).  We were barely allowed to use the “$” sign!  And I thought this was so ridiculous, I devised an international symbol for gambling (see below), and displayed it prominently in the opening shot sequence.  If anybody got it I don’t know, but it was satisfying for me.

Early in prep we considered using miniature neon lights throughout the set, and we worked hard on how we would solve the glow-of-Vegas vibe. 

Where we ended up was using phosphorescing materials, and casting UltraViolet light over the entire set, as an ambient source, while utilizing low voltage halogens and fluorescents to create on camera lights (set  pieces).   I proposed this to Chuck Schuman, the miniature cinematographer, and after several calculations and technical conversations between the visual effects supervisor, Kathy Seigal, Chuck and I moved forward with the idea.  So what is seen in these images that looks like neon is simply lightweight plastic tubing that is phosphorescing under UV light.  

(5)  An Overhead view of the Showgirls Bldg. that 
was under construction.  One of the things we 
noticed when we visited Vegas and photgraphed the city and surrounds, was that there seemed to be construction everywhere!  So, we decided to have a little construction in our set too, in fact, Charlie worked it into the driving:  The block we see in this photo, would be lowered onto the street, blocking the way of the car, and as the car moved around the block, a side would flop down, opening to reveal an amazingly adorned showgirl with legs up to here, and a glorious feathered head dress!  

This segment of the live action would inevitably be shot stop motion and the crane with its cables and slings around the block all had to be made from maleable materials for the purposes of manipulation between frames. We made this commercial around the time of the opening of Titanic, and so Charlie thought it would be funny to show a half sunken Titanic as a hotel on the strip.  Ironically, I had been working with Russell Carpenter while working with Zack Snyder (plus Russell and I had the same agent), and had the occasion to introduce him to Charlie.  Well, Russell ended up shooting the remaining Mazda spots in the campaign (full scale live action).

(6)  This awning was for the final shot of the twenty somethings getting out of their Protege to enter a casino  (uh hm... I mean hotel).  The lights cycled in several patterns and reflected beautifully (though this was done in post). (7,8)     A couple of views of the Mayan Hawaiian, our invented themed landmark.  

(9) This is a shot of our workspace.  In every 
case with the Mazda commercials, we ate up a lot of space because really, each set was a sculpture, and had to be assembled meticulously. In the photo you can see my Technical Art Director, Dave Goldberg (now a successful Visual Effects Supervisor; Flight of the Pheonix, We Were Soldiers)