Citroen Ice Skater Alive With Technology
Citroën has produced a follow-up to the dancing robot, this time promoting the C4 with an ice skating robot. The Citroen C4 transforms into a ‘carbot’ and launches out onto a frozen lake, astonishing all who watch. It’s alive with technology!

Men in red jackets drive a Citroën C4 to a remote lake, setting it free to transform into a ‘car-bot’ complete with ice skates. The carbot skims around the iced lake, passing an axe-carrying woodsman, navigating past red curling stones and leaping over a jetty with technical precision. Finally the carbot stops back where it started, spraying the camera-wielding passengers with ice.
Credits
The Citroen Ice Skater campaign was developed at Euro RSCG London by creative director Justin Hooper, with producers Caroline Guillard and Mana Catford.
French directors Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Ludovic Houplin and Herve de Crecy, operating together as H5, worked with H5/Undercover producer Robin Accard.
The setting for the ice skating television commercial was developed by filming a real speed skater going through his moves on a frozen lake in Canada, in temperatures as low as 10 degrees F (-12 C). Still photographs were taken to be used in the post-production adjustment of lighting, rendering and virtual plate reconstruction.
To develop the human-like moves of the Citroen ice-skating robot, British speed skater Nicky Gooch was filmed on an Olympic-sized skating rink in Sheffield. Automotion Studios used thirty Vicon MX40 cameras set up around the rink. All filming in Sheffield had to be done at night. Automotion crew set up at 9pm, started shooting at 9 pm and finished at 6.30 am.

Post production was done at The Mill, London. Telecine was done by Paul Harrison. The VFX team included CG Supervisor Russell Tickner, CG Animation team Chris Rabet, Martin Contel, Eva-Maria Kuehlmann, Alex Hammond, Jordi Bares, Lead Flame Barnsley, Flame Assists Chris Knight and Neil Davies, Lead Shake Compositor Pete Joplin and Shake team Lise Prudhomme, Grainne Freeman, Paul Bellany. Smoke artist was John Thornton.
Walking Away Music
The soundtrack for the Citroen Ice Skater TV Ad is “Walking Away”, by “The Egg”, the Tocadisco Remix. Purchase the album from Amazon.com.
Citroen Ice Skater Online
The Citroen Ice Skater can be viewed in streamed form at Beam TV, in flash format at the Citroen C4 UK site, and in quicktime format at Boards Mag Screening Room. Citroen UK provide a 4.8 mb mpg version of the ad for download at their C4 site.
Read up on the Citroen Dancing Carbot, directed by Neill Blomkamp, here at Duncan’s TV Ad Land (August 20).

Posted in Inspiration, TV Ads
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Murray Larkin August 6th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Hello,
I’m a Lighting & Sound Engineer and i believe the Track your after is :
Artist: Touche Feat. Hector Vector & Jerry Damage
Title: She’s At The Club
reguards Murray