SANDERS, ZIDANE & MESSI WARM UP FOR WORLD CUP
27 May 2009
Holy football boots, it's 180's graphic novel-inspired campaign for adidas.
180 Amsterdam and Rupert Sanders have kicked off the run up to next year's world
cup with an epic spot, to launch the new F50i football boot.
The 90 second film sees a hooded Zinedine Zidane track down a player with
legendary lightning fast skills - The Spark, played by 21-year-old Barcelona FC
hero Lionel Messi. 180 and Sanders have woven a mythical origin story for the
talented young player - a truck crashes into an electricity pylon, showering the
young Messi in sparks. Could this be the source of his supernatural soccer
skills?
According to ECD Andy Fackrell the idea was borne out of a desire to marry
adidas' core values of teamwork with the pizzazz of a personality-driven spot.
"The team structure is always an adidas thing - it's always about teamwork
first. But by doing that you tend to negate the individual, they become just
another number in a group," he explains. "It's hard to capture the sexy
individualism as well as teamwork, but the line 'Every Team Needs' delivers that
quite easily."
And the natural evolution for the idea was the world of comic books. In
geekspeak, think the X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or The Boys - a
group of individuals with unique talents, coming together. Like, well, a
football team. And, following the popularity of superhero origin stories like
Wolverine and Batman Begins the team created their own origin myth for Messi.
So the comic book idea isn't just an aesthetic thing - it's integral to the
concept of the campaign. "I felt it was important to take not only the look of
graphic novels, but the narrative structure. The protagonist, the villain, the
keepsake, the origin story comes from a super hero graphic novel world. We
didn't just want to shoot a commercial and slap a ready-made comic book look on
top," says Sanders.
While Messi may be the hero of the tale, The Spark, he's not the only footballer
to step into a comic book role for the film. Zinedine Zidane is the mysterious,
storyteller who looms in the background.
According to Fackrell, Zidane's role is just as important as Messi's. "Zidane
was the integral part of this story - when he played he was known as the
Phantom, but he was slightly flawed so this darker side of things really suited
his personality. He's a gorgeous looking guy but he's got this look in his eyes.
I won't say what we're doing next, but he could well play a part later. This
charismatic figure - it's the right time in his career to play this character."
And Sanders is full of enthusiasm about directing the French football legend.
"He's got a natural ability, ol' Zidane - and he's a super nice guy," says
Sanders. "We talked to him about the story, allayed any fears he had, and
explained that the character was moving through the night, unseen by other like
someone from Wings of Desire. There was something quite monk-like about him and
he had a very superhero feel - Zidane was excited by that and he took it on
board. He worked very hard for us."
In fact it was hard work for all involved. Shot in three days, the team had to
cram in an astounding 43 set ups a day. Because Sanders wanted to give the spot
a feeling of hyperrealism, rather than diving into full-blown fantasy he
eschewed the idea of shooting on green screen. Instead, the crew shot in
Barcelona, a city which was transformed into a foreboding, orange-tinged Buenos
Aires - Messi's hometown. Sanders only had limited time with the in-demand
footballing prodigy, and so shooting in his current football home, Barcelona,
was the only option.
A team from London post house The Mill spent a couple of nights shooting stills
of Barcelona, which were then used to build up the city. And after the shoot,
The Mill spent over six weeks using matte painting techniques to give the film
its dramatic appearance.
A seasoned geek might find themselves seeing Will Eisner in the voyeuristic
storytelling and crammed, shanty-esque cityscape and picking up hints of Frank
Miller in the dramatic shadows and voiceovers - but in fact Sanders found
himself referring to film noir movies and was keen to avoid borrowing shots
directly from comics.
"If you look at the history of graphic novels, they stole from cinema first," he
says. "A lot of it comes from film noir and I think that cinema gave birth to
the graphic novel. I do like graphic novels but I think there's a problem with a
lot of cinematic adaptations from them. In 300 there wasn't much directing
because they were copying the book frame by frame."
adidas and 180 were keen to make a statement with the film - opting for an epic,
cinematic film that is markedly different from the documentary style that has
characterised much of 180's output for adidas. As well as the grand 90 second
film, there will be cut down trailers for TV, and online content that will add
layers to the story.
"I don't know when the other brands kick off their campaigns for the World Cup -
and this is a year out, a little early perhaps, but it gives us lots of scope to
push the campaign along a little bit over the next 11 months. We wanted to do
something big and put a stake in the ground, and say big communications is
back," explains Fackrell. "We wanted to take adidas away from its feel-good
connotations and say 'you know what, we're a kick-arse brand, we've got all
these great players and we can be a bit aggressive as well'. Hopefully we've
caught the other brands by surprise."
"We spoke early on and thought it was time to turn the tables a little bit, be
the Sopranos next to Big Brother," agrees Sanders. "It's a big story with big
characters."
And the team at 180 are remaining tight-lipped about just how big the story is.
As the spot ends, it teases us with the words 'And so it begins…" hinting that
there may be more to come from 180's league of extraordinary gentlemen (and
women) before next year's World Cup Finals.
The spot broke last night during the Champions League Final between Barcelona
and Manchester United. So one thing's for sure - the crew at 180 Amsterdam will
be celebrating Barcelona's 2-0 win - and Messi's killer goal.
Watch the post here.
180’s digital group RIOT has created the online experience which can be found on
www.adidas.com/football and will be distributed through social media. The work
includes extra content films of which there are more to come in the next weeks
source:
http://www.shots.net/article_detail.asp?atype=1&id=8707
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