Brilliant Plays
Brilliant Plays
Nike knows that sports fans can’t get enough of superstar athletes. That’s why they hired AKQA to come up with an innovative way to show off Kobe Bryant’s brilliance on the basketball court. Robinson and his team decided to shoot high-speed video of Bryant in his natural habitat: a court full of formidable foes. Robinson went to director Jesse Dylan for help with the shoot, and used his MacBook Pro and Final Cut Studio to put it all together.
Thus the Kobe Bryant “One Move Ahead” project was born. The interactive website fuses slow-motion video, motion graphics, and a slick Flash interface to showcase Bryant’s basketball skills.
“It was the first time that Nike had commissioned AKQA to do a shoot for this type of project,” says Robinson. “We met Kobe and explained the concept to him. During the shoot we used digital cameras to ghost the high-speed film cameras, and to make live comps on the set using our MacBook Pros and Photoshop. It was important that our systems worked flawlessly, as you normally don’t get a chance to do retakes with an athlete like Kobe.”
AKQA built a Flash site that allows users to view the footage at various speeds, revealing the intricacies of Bryant’s moves. “One speed displays the game the way you and I see it,” says Robinson. “Then there’s a speed that represents how Kobe sees the play. We then provided a third, super-slow-motion speed, which allows ballers to explore how Kobe anticipates and outwits his opponents.”
The film footage was scanned to digital and edited in Final Cut Studio. The AKQA effects team added motion graphics to further expound upon Bryant’s moves, and the agency development team brought it all together in Flash for the web. “Speed was key for us,” says Robinson. “The day we came back, we did our editing in Final Cut and then made a working prototype in Flash. Final Cut is incredibly intuitive for us, and the workflow is incredibly fast. Maintaining creative momentum is massively important in these types of projects, and Final Cut comes through.”
Edited by magicbalala245, October 11, 2008 - 10:12 PM.
