While it’s not quite the proverbial "walking on air," the young female protagonist in this Nike :60 for the Canadian market clearly gets where she wants to go without having to put her feet on the ground. That’s the offbeat, yet on-feet premise of this charmingly entertaining commercial, entitled "Going to School," conceived by Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore.
We open on the teenage girl getting ready to go to school. She leaves the house-except not out the front door. Instead she makes her way out onto the balcony and walks across a succession of garbage dumpsters—staggered in height as if individual steps. Next, she’s walking along a fence, which serves as a makeshift balancing beam. Then, she’s racing across a succession of park benches.
Even waiting at a stoplight and drinking juice from a plastic bottle, she isn’t standing on terra firma—but rather on a traffic light lamppost. She "crosses the street" by sprinting across the hoods of cars stopped in traffic. She then hitches a ride on a dolly cart—full of boxes—being pushed by a worker.
Next, we see her stepping on boxes in an alley to reach a fire escape ladder on the side of a building. She climbs up the ladder and races across rooftops, before descending on a flight of stairs alongside another building. Upon reaching the foot of the stairs, she jumps aboard a cement mixer truck, which is proceeding along back alleys through the city.
She then hops off the truck onto a short brick wall, which she runs along in order to reach a tree. That tree stands next to the main high school building. At this point, it’s clear she’s not entering class through the door, like her fellow students already have. She climbs the tree, steps into class through a second-story window, and proceeds to walk across a row of desktops to her seat. All the while, the teacher is writing on the chalkboard and has his back turned to the class. When he finally turns around and faces his students, he does a double take upon seeing the girl attentively listening to the class lesson. His facial expression of self-doubt almost seems to silently ask, "was she there the whole time and I just didn’t notice?"
The familiar "Just Do It" slogan and the Nike swoosh logo tag the spot, which was directed by Gregor Nicholas of bicoastal/international @radical.media. "Going to School" was co-produced by @radical and Toronto-based Imported Artists Film Company. Suzanne Allen and Donna Portaro were executive producers for Imported Artists and @radical, respectively. Line producer for Imported Artists was David Cyrano. The spot was shot by DP Danny Hiele.
W+K’s creative team consisted of creative director/art director Hal Curtis, copywriter Jonathan Cude and producer Shannon Worley.
The spot was edited by Peter Wiedensmith via Joint Editorial, W+K’s in-house editing arm. Assistant editor was Matt Hilber, with Patty Brebner producing. Henry artist/online editor was Andrew Eksner—backed by producer Mark Tobin—of Santa Monica-based visual effects studio Method. Colorist was Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3, Santa Monica. Audio mixer was Loren Silber of POP Sound, Santa Monica.
Creative director/composer was Jeff Elmassian of Endless Noise, Los Angeles. Andy Rehfeldt and Kacy Palmieri, also both of Endless Noise, served as arranger and producer, respectively. Sound designer was Eddie Kim of 740 Sound Design, Santa Monica. Scott Ganary produced for 740.
The principal actress for this spot was Alison Bulger.
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