It’s a rainy day in Buffalo, New York, where the Mitchell family is gathered in their drab living room to watch a Buffalo Bills game at the outset of a new stop-motion animated spot for ESPN titled “Believe” (:30). Sadly, it looks like the Bills are going to lose yet again.
But, suddenly, there is hope. The Bills make a fumble recovery that leads to a touchdown. With that, the sun comes out from behind the clouds, the inside of the Mitchell home is filled with glorious color, and the family joyously celebrates. A little boy who had been sitting on the couch curled up in a ball gets on the floor and starts spinning with delight like one of the Three Stooges; dear old grandma even gets into the act, doing the old churning butter dance. Despite her advanced age, she has some serious moves.
Unfortunately, their elation is short-lived. Within seconds, officials disallow the touchdown, and the Bills lose once again. With the team’s loss comes the loss of color and joy in the Mitchell family’s world.
But they had hope–at least for a little while. Part of ESPN’s “Without Sports” campaign, the spot ends with the super: “Without Sports, We’d Stop Believing.”
The work of creatives Scott Hayes and Eric Stevens, copywriter and art director, respectively, at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), New York, the spot aims to–and succeeds in–depicting the dramatic highs and lows sports fans experience. “Your mood changes as your team’s fortunes change,” Hayes said, using his agency partner, a long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan, as an example. “Eric here is in a much better mood when the Bills are winning, but when the Bills are losing, he’s kind of grumpy.” (In turn, Hayes is in a much better mood when the Boston Red Sox are winning but kind of grumpy when they are on the short end of the score.)
Given the range of emotions that needed to be portrayed in “Believe,” W+K chose to go the animation route, which allowed them to take advantage of color cues to underscore feelings. “Color is a quick read,” Stevens remarked.
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’
W+K put its faith in director Mark Gustafson of Laika/house, Portland, Ore. to execute “Believe.” Hayes noted that Gustafson “had a few things on his reel that went to a dark place, and that’s where we were starting out with this.”
To help Gustafson bring “Believe” to life, Laika/house executive producer Lourri Hammack surrounded him with high-profile talent–art director Nelson Lowry, who most recently art directed Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, and DP Eric Adkins, who was the cinematographer on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Character designer Gesine Kratzner, who is perhaps best known for the Esure mouse character in the United Kingdom, also worked on the project.
Two set designs were created for the spot–one dark and gloomy, the other colorful and vibrant. The desired mood was enhanced through the use of lighting and color timing.
Mood was also depicted through the performances of the characters, of course. “There is no dialogue in the spot, so each family member’s feelings had to be expressed through body language,” pointed out Gustafson, who had fun making the Mitchell family an especially demonstrative bunch during the portion of the spot where the Bills are on top.
Gustafson also peppered “Believe” with more subtle touches. If you look closely, you will see that some of the people that are celebrating the Bills touchdown out in the street drop to their knees when they realize that all is lost. One guy throws himself off a roof, and the mailbox slumps in defeat. “That’s the fun stuff for us to come up with–that really dense imagery,” Gustafson commented. “You have to look at the spot over and over before you see it all.”
The spot is eighty-five percent stop-motion with a smattering of CGI, including the rainfall we see at the top of the spot.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
The sound design was also a key element of the production, offering a means for viewers to get more specifics regarding the developments in the game the family is watching. (We never actually see the TV screen during “Believe.” We only see the Mitchell family’s reactions to the TV.)
Lance Limbocker of Downstream, Portland, Ore. took on the task of sound design, infusing the spot’s soundtrack with everything from commentator chatter to crowd sounds. Fortuitously, Downstream is just down the road from Laika/house, so Limbocker and Laika/house were able to work closely. Laika/house actually sent Limbocker the cut as it evolved, allowing him to build up the track, which includes touches of music provided by Santa Monica’s Endless Noise, as they went along.
All in all, the project proceeded smoothly, according to Hammack, who credited the creative team at W+K with having a clear vision of what it wanted from the start. That clear vision was particularly important given the short timeframe Laika/house was given to shoot “Believe”–only three weeks for a project that ideally would have been shot in six or seven weeks. “We threw an immense amount of resources behind this to pull it off,” Hammack said, “and it shows onscreen.”