Ibanez Guitars

Founded in 1908, Ibanez has a long legacy of designing next-level guitars that have a way of turning heads. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, the guitar manufacturer gained significant traction designing instruments for Frank Zappa’s guitarist Steve Vai. It comes as no surprise then, that the company has wowed the marked once again with their upcoming electric guitar, The Darkstone.

Perfect Lighting Vs. Perfect Location

Astronaut Ice Cream Productions and Ibanez Guitars hired Venture Visuals to shoot the HD studio footage for the guitar company’s new television commercial. The footage was shot in our Venture Visuals studio in Santa Barbara, CA and cut to appear as though it were shot on location. Such a requirement is common for commercial work since products must be free of all blemishes, reflections, and perfectly lit (an order extremely difficult to achieve outdoors). Furthermore, the commercial would contain multiple beauty shots of the guitar revealing its sexy curves and lines.

Best Of Both Worlds

Using various techniques we found a great method of hanging the guitar in such a way that it appeared to be suspended in mid-air. This allowed us to capture fascinating angles of the guitar without having to spend hours in postproduction “fabricating” the same effect. We pushed the guitar on dolly tracks, spun it on rotating tables, hung it from the ceiling… you name it, we did it.

The end result was a solid base of footage that could be easily integrated into the location shots with no additional editing or styling (a benefit that saved hours of time and thousands of dollars). Both Ibanez and Astronaut Ice Cream Productions were thrilled by the final commercial.