Grey's Anatomy producers looked to New Leaf Media to create a high-concept promo for the finale of season six. The spot, directed by Philip Boston of New Leaf Media, alludes to the crushing end of this season when a vengeful man enters Seattle Grace Hospital and shoots several doctors.

Entitled "One Gun Shot," the promo features a bullet traveling slowly through the halls of the hospital. Nurses, doctors and patients dive and move for cover as the bullet flies and eventually pierces the white lab coat of an unnamed doctor. To create the bullet and its trajectory through the narrative, New Leaf Media turned to the digital production and visual effects experts at Zoic Studios.

Zoic Studios & New Leaf Media Create Lethal Bullet for Cliffhanger "Grey's Anatomy" Promo from Hype Communications on Vimeo.

Zoic's CG animation was derived from the work the company has done for numerous episodic and feature presentations with bullet flights. Zoic's team, headed by creative director Les Ekker, assisted New Leaf's production with a laser, which described the bullet's path for all the actors in real life and assured a convincing path through that panicked crowd. Zoic also shot a real 9mm slug for reference and captured the lighting and reflections with HDR photos on set.

During pre-production, the Zoic team remodeled the bullet, enhanced its textures and shaders and created a new shock trail with a signature look. The drama of the natural action of actors and bullet combines with the cinematic soundtrack to make for a dramatic piece that draws the viewer into that frightening moment.

"We are proud to have helped create this compelling piece of drama that promotes this dramatic and excellent show," notes Ekker. "It was great collaborating with such talented creatives as the team at New Leaf and the clients at ABC."

Zoic Studios senior editor Dmitri Gueer notes, "The task of isolating great takes for the visual effects shots was facilitated by the fact that the [Vision Research] Phantom footage looked absolutely stunning. The bigger challenge was building the story of mystery and suspense around the visually gripping imagery of an ever-advancing bullet that is about to hit someone. The overall level of creativity of our clients at New Leaf and ABC made this a dream job."