THE MILL PUTS THE SPARK INTO ADIDAS
The Mill and 180 Amsterdam have ignited the new ad campaign for Adidas' F50i football boot.
A 90 second ad features football legend Zinedine Zidane on an epic quest to uncover the secret of Barcelona midfielder Lionel 'The Spark' Messi's past. The spot had its UK television premier during the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United and is part of a digitally led global marketing campaign.
The ad, shot in the style of a graphic comic book, opens in the streets of Buenos Aires and features the hooded figure of Zidane embarking on a journey to discover what caused Messi's 'spark'. As he sparks his lighter, we are transported back in time to see a group of children playing football in the city's back streets. When a van crashes into an electricity pylon, electrical sparks rain down over a little boy casting him in a heavenly beam of light whilst a mysterious stranger hides in the shadows. Could this be the secret of Messi's success?
The scene then cuts to a crowded football stadium. The Mill used Massive to create thousands of digital characters with artificial intelligence giving them realistic individual behaviour. There we witness a grown-up Messi demonstrating his electric footwork on the pitch as Zidane looks on, pondering over the intriguing myth behind Messi's talent.
Adam Scott, Head of Telecine, explains how he realised Director Rupert Sanders' vision of a comic book feel for the spot, "The source material was 35mm, HD video and Data capture so the final ad had to seamlessly blend these different formats together. By adding a lot of contrast and sharpness to the material as a base layer and pushing the saturation of specific colours, the result was that the hero characters and football boots were made to stand out more prominently. Next, mattes were created to achieve layers of separation and enhance the two dimensional effect before finally giving the whole film an unusual golden brown hue that produced an unnatural look and complemented the cyan football kit and boots."
To support the multi platform marketing campaign for Adidas F50i, Mill Studio has created five online virals centred around the main television spot. These include two 'trailers' for the web and three viral films, entitled 'The Child', 'The Legend' and 'The Spark'. Each is over a minute long and tell a longer more detailed story based around the TV ad.
A number of shots were taken from the original master but Mill Studio also created work using a mixture of Shake and After FX, with all the new shots being added into the edits using FCP, and finally being DCP'd in Baselight by Adam Scott.
Beam Link: http://www.beam.tv/beamreel/mcwmRNSpsq
CREDITS
Agency: 180 Amsterdam
Creative Director: Andy Fackrell
Creatives: Peter Albores, Martin Terhart
Producer:Joe Togneri
Production Company: MJZ London
Director: Rupert Sanders
Producer: Nell Jordan
Editing Company: Work
Editor: Neil Smith
Post Production: The Mill
Producer: Matt Williams, Darren O'Kelly
Shoot Supervisor: Jimmy Kiddell
Telecine: Adam Scott
Lead Flame: Richard de Carteret
Lead Shake: Pete Hodsman
Shake Assist: Ben Smith, Ben Perrot, Vanessa Duquesney
Additional Flame: Gary Driver
Matte Paintings: Jimmy Kiddell, Dave Gibbons
Assist: John Price
3D Supervisor: Jordi Bares
3D: Suraj Odera, Sergio Xisto, Naweed Khan
Kit: Flame, Shake, Massive, Combustion, Baselight
