Production
Two of the commercials ("Hot Date" and "Riddle Me This") were directed by Vincent Ward, and the other four were directed by Andrew Davis, working with DoP Thomas Kloss. The production company was Millennium Pictures (Detroit), special effects were provided by Flash Film Works, and the scripts were written by Nancy Wellinger and Jim Millis. The Batman OnStar commercials helped promote brand name awareness of the system, leading to a large increase in subscribers and a higher rate of susbcriber renewals.
The commercials were shot at the Warner Bros. lot. Flash Film Works did the special effects, including creating and compositing the Batsignal, airbag, the Riddler's skywriting (copying the writing style from Batman Forever) and erasing/covering various shots of the Warner backlot. Back in 1997, John Dykstra chose Flash Film Works to work on the motion picture Batman & Robin. They created a digital matte painting of an ice-laden Gotham City, as well as performing some rig and wire removal work on the film.
OnStar's licensing agreement with DC Comics had additional benefits, as the production teams were given access to DC's creative resources. The advertisements were thus able to use the 'real' Batcave, as well as utilising the Batmobile that was featured in the two Tim Burton-directed Batman films (Batman and Batman Returns). Also featured in the OnStar commercials was composer Danny Elfman's score from the films. The Batsuit that was featured in the commercials was an altered one that Val Kilmer wore in Batman Forever.
In addition to set, costume and prop details, DC provided access to footage from the films (in particular, scenes of Batman jumping from a building in "Minor Setbacks" derive from the films) to emphasise the differences between Batman's use of the OnStar system and the more normal mundane usage. In addition to DC having input on the scripts, customer research reminded the company that "Batman always gets the villain," which had apparently been missed.
Read more about this topic: Batman On Star Commercials
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