bravissimo
↑KerLeone just told me that ↵thousand reminded him of the famous ↑Bravia television commercial:
Set to the stripped-down acoustic soundtrack of José González’ “Heartbeats”, 250,000 ‘superballs’ come flying, in slow motion, over the brow of a typical street in San Francisco, raining down on anything that gets in their way. And it was done without computer graphics. […]
In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days—with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.
An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you’d know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.
But when you get it right, you get it right. The goal at the beginning was to deliver a “really simple, visual celebration of colour”. We think you’ll agree the results speak for themselves.
In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days—with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.
An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you’d know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.
But when you get it right, you get it right. The goal at the beginning was to deliver a “really simple, visual celebration of colour”. We think you’ll agree the results speak for themselves.
I am perfectly aware that what I am going to say right now is the worst kind of conservative “cultural criticism” possible—especially if it is voiced by someone who dares to say that he is doing academical research on, and in the vicinity of computer games and gaming culture. But, especially after having watched the “making of”, I have to ask: where the hell are we, having 23 people working for days and burning resources for catching 250,000 jumping rubber balls on film?
