The Mill take it to the next level for Nike

21st April 2008 - Fasten your seatbelts for Nike’s action and adrenaline-packed spot The Next Level, promoting the sports brand on screens across the globe in the run-up to Euro 2008.

Directed for advertising, brand strategy and design company 72andsunny by Guy Ritchie, the two-minute film – which features soccer superstars including Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Ronaldinho, as well as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – represents a major international collaboration between the Mill’s offices.

Given the schedules of the high-profile talent involved, coordinating the shoot involved military precision and a great deal of patience on the part of production company Anonymous Content, LA and Independent films in London. Filming spanned a month, taking place in London, Manchester and Barcelona, using possibly the world’s smallest HD camera – the SI 2K Mini to get to the heart of the action. The Mill’s VFX shoot supervisors Hitesh Patel and Austen Humphries played a vital role at this stage, ensuring that all the fx shots and plates – nearly 60 of them – were ready to use in 3D and Flame back at the Mill to create the ‘machine-gun energy’ Guy had in mind.

The Mill pushed the post production envelope to the extreme on this project, going into some unchartered fx territory, firstly setting up a new data pipeline for the camera (used here for the first time in commercial production) and also for the camera tracking required, in order to track shots previously considered impossible.

Senior Flame artists Giles Cheetham and Chris Knight and senior 3d animators Jordi Bares and Suraj Odedra led the immense VFX work on this project. One of the trickiest tasks for the Flame team was compositing shots that were filmed under different natural lighting conditions. The 2d team also focused on compositing extra elements into the crowd, and re-timing them so that they matched the action on the pitch.

The Final piece in the jigsaw was Adam Scott’s data grade. The 2D & 3D work had been undertaken on flat, ungraded images. Using the Baselight in London, with clients online via Minerva in Los Angeles, Adam finished the film to give it a striking saturated look.

The Next Level is two minutes in length, with 90, 60, and 30 second spin-off films also screening.

Product - Nike / Title - The Next Level / Agency - 72andsunny / Executive Producer - Sam Baerwald / Agency Producer - Angelo Ferrugia / Creative - Glenn Cole - John Boiler - Jason Norcross - Bryan Rowles / Production Company - Anonymous Content - Independent Films / Director - Guy Ritchie / Executive Producer - Dave Morrison / Producer - Aris McGarry / DP - David Higgs / Editing Company - Spotwelders / Editor - Robert Duffy / VFX - The Mill / Senior Producer - Liz Browne / Deputy Executive Producer - Helen Hughes / Production Coordinator - Arielle Davis - Miles Pettit / Executive Producers - Gabrielle Gourrier - Stephen Venning / VFX Shoot Supervisors - Hitesh Patel - Austen Humphries / Lead Flame - Giles Cheetham - Chris Knight / Additional Flame - Rich Betts - Paul Kirch - Neil Davies - Grant Connor / Flame Assist - Paul Downes - Ross Goldstein - Jeanette Williford / Smoke - James Pratt / Shake - Becky Porter - Pete Hodsman - Grainne Freeman - Felician di Giorgio / 3D Lead Supervisor - Jordi Bares / Massive TD - Suraj Odedra / 3D Animators - Sergio Xisto - Robert Holmes - Luke Tickner - Martin Contel - Daniel Marum - Meng Yang Lu - James Spillman - Richard Costin - Telecine - Adam Scott / Combustion - Sharon Marcussen / On-Set Final Cut & Data Mgr - Daniel Budin / Data Transfers - David J Phillips / Kit - Baselight - Inferno - Massive - Xsi - Shake - 3D Equalizer - Maya

Site by Engage.