Hundreds of people take part in a water balloon fight in an engaging new Xbox 360 spot that premiered during a recent episode of ABC’s Lost. Aptly titled “Water Balloons,” the :60 commercial was created by McCann Erickson, San Francisco, in collaboration with 72 and Sunny, El Segundo, Calif.
“Water Balloons” is one of two new spots the other one is titled “Jump Rope”–that promote the mid-November release of Xbox 360, the latest version of Microsoft’s gaming console.
Among other things, the Xbox 360 has been optimized to allow players to interact even more closely with other players who also own the game console and subscribe to the Xbox Live online gaming service, according to John Boiler, 72 and Sunny creative director.
With that new level of interactivity in mind, “Water Balloons” as well as “Jump Rope” serve as an invitation to everyone to join in the fun, McCann-Erickson creative director Geoff Edwards said, noting that the joyful, fun spots were designed to appeal not only to hard-core gamers but a wider audience of potential players.
Frank Budgen, who runs Gorgeous Enterprises in London and is represented in the U.S. by bicoastal Anonymous Content, directed both “Water Balloons” and “Jump Rope.” Budgen only does a few–if even that many–commercials for the U.S. market each year. So how did McCann-Erickson and 72 and Sunny convince him to take on this job? In addition to sending treatments and scripts to Budgen, “We wrote him a personal letter and told him how we thought this involvement would be crucial in bringing this idea to life,” Edwards shared. “I think it was that personal touch that really inspired him to take on this project and own it.”
Budgen, who couldn’t be reached at press time, and DP Simon Richards shot “Water Balloons” over the course of seven days on location at a housing development in Buenos Aires. The location was the perfect venue in which to stage the epic water balloon fight, Edwards noted, because it had lots of levels, windows everywhere and passageways.
Nearly 700 locals were hired to take part in the battle, which was shot by multiple cameramen on multiple formats–35mm, 16mm, 16mm reversal, video and Super 8. “[Budgen’s] approach with all the different cameras lent a lot to the feeling of spontaneity and immediacy,” Boiler commented. “The fight felt like it was something that just broke out spontaneously and was covered by a lot of different people who just happened to wander in and watch the thing happen.”
Out of curiosity, did anyone keep track of how many water balloons were used in the making of this commercial? “We went through over 70,000 water balloons,” reported freelance agency producer David Verhoef. “There were eight people making water balloons twelve hours a day [throughout the shoot]. It was like a little factory near the location.” The water balloons were transported from the “factory” to the location by tractor, safely tucked away in fifty-five gallon drums.
All those water balloons meant a lot of wet performers and soaked streets. “After every shot we had to dry everybody and everything off. It was a little painstaking,” Verhoef said.
Drying stations equipped with industrial-strength fans were set up just off camera for the performers. There were also heaters for the talent to warm up by. “We shot this in September, which is late fall [in South America], and we wanted to make sure everybody was as comfortable as they could be when they were getting pelted with water twelve hours a day,” Verhoef said laughing.
Operating out of much drier accommodations at Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles, editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter cut “Water Balloons,” and on Wall’s recommendation, according to Verhoef, the crew at 740 Sound Design in Santa Monica was hired to complement the action with sound design.
“From a practical sense, the toughest thing we faced was that there was no production sound at all–the reason being that they shot this with many cameras and hundreds of extras, so they weren’t able to do sync sound,” according to 740 Sound Design producer Scott Ganary. “So we were looking at five thousand sound events that had to be covered that weren’t covered.”
At the outset of the project, the crew at 740 Sound Design combed through wild sound recordings made during the shoot, found the usable portions, then reconstructed them in the best sync they could come up with.
Sound designer Eddie Kim worked on the production dialogue and sound effects, utilizing the water splashes you would expect to hear as well as more war-like sounds, including bullets whizzing by and explosions to amp up the feeling of this being a real battle.
In addition to sound design, the soundtrack for “Water Balloons” features music, more specifically the lullaby “Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” Edwards credited Budgen with suggesting the tune, which helps underscore the childlike play aspect of the spot yet has a bit of an edge.
Edwards, who took in the “Water Balloons” shoot from the sidelines, admitted that it was hard to watch and not take part in the fun. He finally got his chance to though after the shoot wrapped. “After we called wrap on the seventh day, there was a huge water balloon fight that broke out with cast, crew, agency, client, Frank himself and people around the community that lasted at least two hours past the shoot and into the night. It was fun,” Edwards said, adding, “But it was a little strange walking through the lobby of the Sofitel completely soaking wet.”
