A man goes from flabby couch potato to elite athlete, running seemingly continuously from his living room across the globe–all the way to a stadium in South Africa, a journey powered by his Visa card which he uses to buy essentials along the way.
As his journey progresses, he steadily slims down, grows a beard, and grabs a quick shave in order to make a clean-cut debut on the soccer field.
He ends up scoring a goal and breaking into celebration in this spot which ties Visa Europe into the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, dovetailing with the ongoing “life flows better with Visa” strategy.
Chris Palmer of Gorgeous Enterprises directed “Football Evolution” for Saatchi & Saatchi, London. Ian Foster was the DP.
Editor was Paul Watts of The Quarry. Flame artist was Framestore‘s Tom Sparks. Seamus O’Kane of The Mill served as colorist.
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