The unusual combination of techniques and an eleventh hour change of casting didn’t stop director Michael Williams of London-based Draw Pictures from creating a striking viral campaign to promote Nike‘s new five-a-side football initiative. Wieden +Kennedy London commissioned Williams to helm five films, each representing a killer move–a.k.a. The Deadly 5, which can be found on the Nike website. In addition to offering a range of five-a-side products, the initiative includes training camps where players can learn these ‘Deadly Five’ moves, watch the films and find out about how the nature of a five-a-side game is different than a regular game of football–it’s faster, tighter, more aggressive and to play it at its best, it’s helpful to know these special moves.
Responding to the agency’s brief of ‘graphic, moody and urban,’ Williams chose to shoot at night in industrial locations across London, including a squatters’ camp under a motorway, a factory in Greenwich Docks and a commercial building site.
“I had this idea in my mind after reading the brief that can most simply be described as ‘Apocalypse Football,’ shared the director. “It was an umbrella term that gave me a directional mood for every part of the creative–from performance to lighting and sound design. I wanted to pull off a one-shot film for each of ‘The Deadly Five’ moves, but within that one shot different bits of action would be running at completely different speeds, from one frame-per-second up to 900 frames-per-second. The aim was to create an unsettling, moody and unreal feeling to the images. W+K was also keen on this high contrast cross-lit look in a dark world.”
The outdoor locations were prepped with greenscreen to allow for background compositing. Then the footballers were shot at extremely high speeds. Williams used a Weiss HD camera rig to capture the main foreground action.
A combination of frame-cut footage and long exposure stills taken on a Nikon were combined in post to build the backdrops. Williams explained that he combined greenscreen action plates with additional smoke and dust elements in the backgrounds. Some 3D elements were also involved in getting all the elements to fully integrate.
“We shot digitally to give us flexibility on performance choices. With the Weiss rig, playback of takes can be seen very quickly and the files deleted if further refinement of the move is needed. For the background plates I wanted a very over-exposed look for the nighttime industrial locations. This coupled with the time-lapse factor meant that using thousands of consecutive digital stills was the best option,” said Williams.
Last-minute substitute
An hour and a half before filming was due to begin, there was a casting change. Williams turned the situation around by using sound design to “narrate” the techniques. Specifically synced sound effects, such as a certain touch of the ball or move of the foot, were incorporated to draw attention to certain points in each skill. Adding the cutting edge music of artists such as dubstep pioneer ‘Burial’ completed the sonic effect.
While some of the challenges surrounding parts of the project were obviously not planned, Williams revealed that there was an overall boldness about the project that was intended. “I saw the spots as being a perfect opportunity to push techniques and processes in order to assemble something really visually distinct and new. The agency was really into these ideas and though time and circumstance were often against us, through good communication, we got there,” he said.
