This spot juxtaposes images of youngsters who grow up to be NFL stars Ladainian Tomlinson and Troy Pomalalu. We see them as both kids and adults–the former images showing their dreams running wild as they run and jump in wonderment, showcasing the athletic prowess which someday will help to make them professional athletes. To see these images intertwined, it feels like fate will bring these two together as professional athletes.
Inevitably we see these two youngsters meet–or more accurately collide–as adults on the football field as Tomlinson is tackled by Pomalalu during a game. A show of sportsmanship after their mano on mano encounter on the field gives way to them as youngsters laughing and playing.
This high impact yet heartwarming spot was directed by David Fincher of bicoastal Anonymous Content for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
The agency team included creative directors Jeff Williams, Alberto Ponte and Tyler Whisnand, copywriter Jason Bagley, art director Ryan O’Rourke, senior producer Matt Hunnicutt and associate producer Juliana Montgomery.
Fincher’s support team at Anonymous included executive producer Jeff Baron, exec producer/head of commercials Dave Morrison, head of production Sue Ellen Clair, producer Robin Muxton and production supervisor Patrick Malloy. DP was Emmanuel Lubezki.
Effects house was Asylum, Santa Monica. Sean Faden was VFX supervisor.
Editor was Angus Wall of Rock Paper Scissors, Santa Monica.
Ren Klyce of Mit Out Sound, Sausalito, Calif., served as sound designer. Audio post mixer was Loren Silber of Lime, Santa Monica.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More