Nike's Next Level

creative showcase 1 8 commercials review

back of the net for ritchie and nike Ever since rumours of a collaboration between Guy Ritchie and Nike Football started circulating at the beginning of the year, mouths have been watering at thoughts of what the end result may be. Admittedly in our case it was more like a rabid foaming, but let’s not dwell on those details too much...

Shot as a point-of-view narrative that charts the career of a footballer as he ascends through the ranks, the first of three mini-films, The Next Level, has just been released amid an avalanche of blogging and buzz. Whether you’re a football fan or a football philistine you have to admit the new campaign, created by agency of the moment 72andSunny, is, well, rather special. And judging by the reaction online it seems that expectations have been well and truly exceeded.

Dave Morrison, executive producer at Anonymous Content, says he knew Nike were on to a winner as soon as he saw the script. “From the beginning, the agency and the client had a really strong sense of what they wanted to do with the spot – which is always really inspiring,” Morrison explains.

“The script had an incredibly strong narrative through it, which you don’t often get on sports spots. On top of that there was this amazing first person experience for the viewer that was all about making the film as authentic as possible.”

Recognising that football fans are a notoriously details-driven bunch, Morrison sat down with Nike and 72andSunny co-founder and creative director Glenn Cole to work on the specifics of each game, right down to the choreography of individual movements and shots.

“The agency was really possessed by the details of the games we were going to be filming,” says Morrison, elaborating on the pre-production. “The whole story and the games were mapped out from the outset and then fine tuned throughout the shoot – right down to the exact moves the players executed, who scored, and how they scored.”

Having signed Ritchie to the project, Cole says it soon became apparent that the right choice had been made. “The energy, fun and inventive storytelling in Guy’s work drew us to him, but it was his vision and collaborative approach to the production that earned him the job.”

SH108_P18-19_Nike.indd 18

15/5/08 15:43:38

commercials review 1 9 creative showcase

“The script had an incredibly strong narrative, which you don’t often get on sports spots. There was also this amazing first person experience for the viewer, making the film as authentic as possible.”

Recognising that the spot needed to be high-tempo and hardhitting was one thing, but what Ritchie really brought to the table, Cole explains, was an extra layer of detail. “Guy was adamant about giving equal attention to the human and humorous side of the story; the autographs, the loose teeth, the good and the ugly...”

As you’d expect from a spot starring some of the biggest names in football, a key challenge was working round the players’ limited windows of availability. The production saw Morrison and Ritchie yo-yo around Europe, shooting in a range of stadia from London to Milan and Holland. They decided to keep green-screening to a minimum, meaning that most of the footage had to be captured in camera.

To create the POV experience, Morrison reveals, Anonymous designed and custom built a head rig, light enough to allow the actor to move freely in a variety of situations while at the same time producing a high image quality.

“We knew the spot would lack impact and energy if the experience wasn’t completely authentic,” Morrison says of the decision not to rely too heavily on post production. “The problem we had was that up to this point POV spots have tended to use steady cam, a rig or a lipstick camera, which gives you a pretty low image quality. The only way round this was to build our own head cam from scratch.”

Morrison keeps some of the more technical details up his sleeve, but says the solution came in the form of a new mini digital camera, which provided the right balance between image resolution, live playback and weight restriction.

As fans are wont to do, much has been made of who the possible star of the spot might be, with amateur pundits by and large plumping for Arsenal’s Robin van Persie. Morrison, naturally, is tight lipped on the subject. “Suffice to say we had many discussions about it,” he laughs.

What he will say though, is that the next spot in the series, Rock and Rolla, is already in the bag and slated for an October launch.

“It’s completely different from The Next Level. It’s more about Guy going back to his Snatch and Lock Stock roots and getting inside crime in London. It’s not football-based either...” SW

SH108_P18-19_Nike.indd 19

15/5/08 15:43:42