The latest Nike spot from Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., features a beautifully filmed, subtly edited montage of athletic endeavors in a multitude of sports and settings. Airing nationally in both :30 and :60 formats, the spot "Before" is somewhat reminiscent of "Move," a W+K-created Nike ad that aired earlier this year. Directed by Jake Scott of bicoastal RSA USA, "Move" also features a gorgeous collage of amateur and professional athletes. (See SHOOT’s Top Spot, 3/1, p.10).
While "Move" no doubt blazed a creative trail for "Before," the latter spot is no cheap imitator. Creative directors Hal Curtis and Carlos Bayala have reprised their role in "Move" to bring off a similarly engaging and emotional commercial. Helmed and DP’d by Lance Acord, of New York-based Park Pictures, "Before" manages to achieve a style and effect all its own.
As "Before" opens, we hear the familiar "A" note of an orchestra tuning up before a performance. On the screen, a young man’s face rises up into the frame. He’s clearly nervous and excited, wearing a look of solemn anticipation. Before we find out what he’s anticipating, however, the camera has cut to a shot of New York Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano strolling up to the plate in a stadium lit for a night game.
Cutting away from Soriano, our focus turns to an anxious looking track contestant spitting out a mouthful of water. In the next cut, a swimmer preparing to dive into a race does the same. A shot of Arizona Diamondbacks fireballer Randy Johnson comes next; the lanky hurler is crouched down on the pitcher’s mound, marshalling concentration for his next home delivery.
A boxer leaving his corner is seen next, followed by a shot of another runner crouching down into the starting block. The camera zooms into a tight shot of the crouch, and we’re treated to one of the spot’s two straightforward product shots: A Nike swoosh on the runner’s shoes is clearly visible.
Another swimming shot follows the swoosh ID, and then, rapidly, we cut through scenes of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi and tennis star Lleyton Hewitt going through pre-action rituals. Giambi, for instance, is in the on-deck circle, loosening up before he come to home plate to bat. Next comes a montage of a volleyball player tossing sand, a hurdler limbering up and a very young boxer being encouraged before the opening bell.
All the while, the music score has been increasing the tension, with various instruments running through anticipatory warm-up scales and octaves.
Now we see Toronto Raptors guard Vince Carter, sitting on the bench, presumably at the end of a crucial timeout. Carter goes through a private hyping-up ritual and then lifts his eyes courtward as he gets up out of his seat to do battle.
The rapid cutting pattern well established, the spot goes on to show at least twenty more scenes of pre-competition conditions. Recognizable stars like Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie and New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd appear alongside everyday athletes like an old man yawning between racquetball points and a group of kids poised at the starting line of a cross country race.
One particularly interesting shot shows a young boy preparing to dive off an oceanfront dock, as a large wave looms in the background. The footage appears grainy and washed out—as if found from an old home movie.
The ad’s penultimate shot captures a drag racing light turning from red to yellow—on its way to green. And in the final frame, a whole row of swimmers rises up out of a pool, as competitors take their marks for a backstroke competition. The increasingly frenzied orchestra hits a climactic final note (think the Beatles track "A Day In the Life") and the action dissolves into a black screen with an unadorned white text pleading "Just Do It." The Nike swoosh graphic follows, and the spot concludes.
SIMPLE CONCEPT
W+K copywriter Jonathan Cude indicated that the spot’s elementary concept—depicting athletes on the verge of action with an orchestra warming up in the background—belied the difficulty of its execution. "We went all over the country to shoot the athletes," he said, "we used some stock footage. … We spent a week in Los Angeles shooting about 12 hours a day."
"Because it was such a simple idea, the look and feel and energy of the spot really had to be dynamic, and Lance [Acord] gave us that. … He shot on about four or five different types of film stock, and of course he’s an amazing cameraman." continued Cude.
Acord enjoyed the freedom to film a wide variety of footage, "Rather than structuring the thing into a two-day-shoot," noted Acord, "we had a two or three week period that really opened up a lot of possibilities."
In addition to several clips of stock footage from the Nike Film & Video library and a few other sources, "Before" includes over 25 different set pieces staged by Acord during the lengthy shooting process.
And therein lies the fundamental difference between "Before" and "Move," at least according to editor Adam Pertofsky, who cut both spots through Rock Paper Scissors, Los Angeles. "Before" is really the antithesis of "Move" in the way it was put together," stated Pertofsky.
"’Move’ was storyboarded out, and they shot it in over a couple of days. We pretty much knew where we were going—it was just multiple takes and camera angles. Whereas ‘Before’ used hours upon hours of film: Lance had so many different looks and feels. He really brought stuff in from all over the place," continued Pertofsky.
The aforementioned shot of the little boy preparing to dive off a boat-dock was one such example of Acord bringing in a distinctive looking piece of film. "We actually went up to a lake and built a dock," recounted Acord.
To produce the wave in the shot’s background, Acord had some crewmembers drive a boat by the dock at a ludicrous rate of speed. He then shot the scene on a super 8 for a home movie type feel.
"We really lucked out having Lance helm this job," offered Cude.
"He’s insanely talented," added Pertofsky.
Acord, who’s perhaps best known for his work as a feature film cameraman (Being John Malkovich, Buffalo ’66) just enjoyed the challenge of tackling a project with a clear concept, but no set boards or solidified plan of attack. "It was kind of exploratory in that way," said Acord, who indicated he’s beginning to pick up the pace of his spot career. "These days I’m mainly directing commercials and DPing features," he said.
Not to be overlooked is the music track for "Before," composed by Jeff Elmassian of Los-Angeles-headquartered music/ sound design house Endless Noise. Like the spot, the track was inspired by a simple idea, but became complex once realized.
"At first we tried to use a standard recording of an orchestra warming up," related Elmassian, "but it became apparent that it wasn’t going to work. … We needed to bring out specific instruments at certain times over the course of the picture, so that it didn’t just sound like a large swathe of white noise."
"The hardest thing was making it build. Even though you can make the music louder, that wasn’t really cutting it in terms of the visuals," continued Elmassian, who said he eventually decided to record with a live, 60-piece orchestra.
Elmassian said he sketched out a basic structure for how he thought the soundtrack should take shape, and then basically let the orchestra improvise. "There was no real music per se—just charts with some basic motifs I had written down," he said.
Having obtained from the orchestra recording about 90 percent of the sound he needed, Elmassian set out to integrate music with picture. "We really functioned a lot like editors with this project," Elmassian noted, "picking out what instruments sounded best with certain athletes and deciding where to up the intensity of the track was a fun process. So was collaborating with Lance and the guys at the agency."
No word yet as to whether Elmassian, the W+K team, Acord, Pertofsky and crew will be re-teaming on an "After" follow up spot.
