Hasta La Motion!

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/adidas_messi_shoe.jpg”]20095[/NEWS]The Mill and 180 Amsterdam have ignited the new ad campaign for Adidas’ F50i football boot. A 90 second ad features football legend Zinedine Zidane on an epic quest to uncover the secret of Barcelona midfielder Lionel ‘The Spark’ Messi’s past. The spot had its UK television premier during the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United and is part of a digitally led global marketing campaign. The ad, shot in the style of a graphic comic book, opens in the streets of Buenos Aires and features the hooded figure of Zidane embarking on a journey to discover what caused Messi’s ‘spark’.

As he sparks his lighter, we are transported back in time to see a group of children playing football in the city’s back streets. When a van crashes into an electricity pylon, electrical sparks rain down over a little boy casting him in a heavenly beam of light whilst a mysterious stranger hides in the shadows. Could this be the secret of Messi’s success?

The scene then cuts to a crowded football stadium. The Mill used Massive to create thousands of digital characters with artificial intelligence giving them realistic individual behaviour. There we witness a grown-up Messi demonstrating his electric footwork on the pitch as Zidane looks on, pondering over the intriguing myth behind Messi’s talent.

Adam Scott, Head of Telecine, explains how The Mill emulated the look of a comic book based on Director Rupert Sanders’ vision.

“The source material was 35mm, HD video and Data capture so the final look had to blend these different formats together. I added a lot of contrast and sharpness to the material as a base layer for the image and pushed the saturation of specific colours so that the hero characters and the boots stood out. Then I created mattes to achieve layers of separation and to enhance the two dimensional effect before finally giving the whole film an unusual golden brown hue that created an unnatural feel and complemented the cyan football kit and boots.” said Scott.

About The Mill
The Mill is a world-leading visual effects company with bases in the globe’s three most important advertising centres – London and New York and now Los Angeles. The Mill has worked on some of the most memorable visual effects projects in the world (including Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator’ for which it gained a VFX Oscar) and has won more awards for visual effects than any other facility in Europe, including work on Johnnie Walker ‘Human’, Sony ‘Balls’, Sony Playstation ‘Mountain’ and Honda ‘Cog’.

The Mill has built relationships with the industry’s finest directors including Chris Cunningham, Frank Budgen, Fredrik Bond, Ringan Ledwidge and Michel Gondry. Data Grading suites have been installed in the London and NY offices bringing movie best practise to our clients and making The Mill the only facility ‘data’ grading for commercials.

CREDITS
Agency: 180 Amsterdam
Creative Director: Andy Fackrell
Creatives: Peter Albores, Martin Terhart
Producer: Joe Togneri
Production Company: MJZ London
Director: Rupert Sanders
Producer: Nell Jordan
Editing Company: Work
Editor: Neil Smith
Post Production: The Mill
Producer: Matt Williams, Darren O’Kelly
Shoot Supervisor: Jimmy Kiddell
Telecine: Adam Scott
Lead Flame: Richard de Carteret
Lead Shake: Pete Hodsman
Shake Assist: Ben Smith, Ben Perrot, Vannessa Duquesney
Additional Flame: Gary Driver
Matte Paintings: Jimmy Kiddell, Dave Gibbons
Assit: John Price
3D Supervisor: Jordi Bares
3D: Suraj odera, Sergio Xisto, Naweed Khan
Kit: Flame, Shake, Massive, Combustion, Baselight

RELATED LINKS
www.the-mill.com