Captain Morgan ‘Fireship’ is the final chapter of a campaign Framestore completed with Anomaly and Smuggler. This spot concludes the epic story depicting Captain Morgan locked in a titanic struggle with his arch nemesis, Don Alonso.

Two minutes long and containing 63 visual effects shots, ‘Fireship’ was a huge undertaking. From compositing in a miniature ship to replacing the ocean plates with CG water, this spot accomplishes a great deal from a VFX standpoint. The on-deck scenes were filmed on a moored ship in Palma harbor, and the dramatic beach of Sa Calobra was used as the backdrop for the bay and arch, with the arch itself and adjoining rocks being created through CG and matte painting. A second major phase of the shoot was the filming of a fifth scale miniature ship in Pinewood. A CG pre-visualization was created in order to figure out the position of the Captain's ship in relation to the enemy ships, and this was used as reference to shoot multiple plates of the single model ship that was built and redressed. The scale of the water around the miniatures was another issue. CG ocean and wake replaced the Pinewood tank water, which gave away the scale of the model. We added CG splashes from cannon fire, and the flames from the boat catching fire were reflected in the CG water to lend scale and grandeur.