Director:
Johnny Green
Production Company:
RESET
Agency:
Wieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy turned to The Mill to make a creatively big idea with a distinct look and edgy feel a reality. The goal was to showcase Neymar's prowess on the field.
Led by Mill creative director Dan Williams the team came up with an overabundance of mirror references. The inspiration was the concept of an infinity mirror, which created a series of smaller and smaller reflections that appear to recede into infinity.
Almost a month was spent filming in Rio de Janeiro to get everything just right. Due to the careful conservation of the football pitch, no mirrors were allowed to be mounted onto the playing surface. The Mill created each and every mirror in post, using several 'witness' cameras to replicate the reflections. It was a real technical puzzle to solve. The reflections were created by being mapped out, and shot from a designated camera painstakingly placed at the correct angle. At any one time during the shoot there were four 'witness' cameras filming simultaneously.
Dan explains: "This had never been done before, and required a high level of technical knowledge, improvisation on set, and a small leap of faith. Since the players didn't always follow the same path during play, careful measurements were recorded for each take, then cameras were placed at the inverse. A huge tented studio was built next to the stadium, where the more complex mirror shots for infinite reflections were filmed. Live-action mirrors were configured to capture that 'hall of mirrors' effect."
Dan details the 3D process: "To create the mirrors the CG team worked on the very edge of what was possible and what computers could do, and in many cases the reflections had to be broken down and rebuilt step by step. This scale of job for Nike really calls upon the level of skill a company like The Mill has to offer. It required almost the entire CG department working in tandem at one point to make it possible. It's like a badge of honor amongst the senior artists to create a spot of this magnitude and greatness."
Nike 'Hypervenom' illustrates what it's like to go up against Neymar and his deceptive moves on the football pitch.
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Creative Director: Alberto Ponte
Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Producer: Jessica Staples
Copywriter: Dylan Lee
Art Director: Bertrand Fleuret
Account Supervisor: Alyssa Ramsey
Account Executive: Ricardo Hieber
Production Company: RESET
Director: Johnny Green
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Director of Photography: Dan Landin
VFX: The Mill
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
VFX Producer: Alex Fitzgerald
Shoot Supervisor: Dan Williams, Ruben Vandebroek
Creative Director: Dan Williams
2D Lead Artists: Ilia Mokhtareizadeh, Daniel Morris, Dan Williams
3D Lead Artists: Ruben Vandebroek
2D Artists: Greg Spencer, David Farcada, Leon Woods, Dan Defelice, Tommy Smith, Naomi, Anderlini, John Mangia
3D Artists: Ajit Menon, Yong Chang Kim, Vince Baertsoen, Wyatt Savarese, Josh Frankel, Nick Couret-Chailloux, Justin Diamond, Hassan Taimur, Jeffrey Dates, Dave Barosin, Thomas Bardwell, Jeff Lopez, Olivier Mitonneau, Olivier Varteressian, Isaiah Palmer, Raymond Leung, Timothy Kim, Josh Merck, Navdeep Singh, Katie Schiffer, Ren Hsien-Hsu, Laurent Giaume, Weichieh yu, Billy Jang, Lauren Shields, Gregory Gangemi, Alexandre Allain, Taylor Cook, Paolo Cogliati, Kevin Couture, Frederico Phillips, David Eschrich
Designer: Tetsuro Mise