- Published in Film
Derek Cianfrance, director of “The Place Beyond the Pines,” “Blue Valentine,” and a milieu of documentaries, recently helmed spots for Dick’s Sporting Goods that dare to use single-shot storytelling to hawk their goods. In between “Pines” and his next film, “Cagefighter,” he’s also done some work for Chrysler, Nike, and Grey Goose.
From a director well versed in long tracking shots, these two commercials are well played amalgams of cinematic filmmaking brought over to brands that want stories with their products.
“Every Pitch”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpbU8vlGlzk
Check out some behind the scenes photos taken by Scott Boyajan, post producer for the spot, which reveal how they rigged the dolly.
Client: Dick’s Sporting Goods
Spots: “Every Pitch” and “Every Snap”
Agency: Anomaly
Chief Creative Officer: Mike Byrne
Creative Director: Seth Jacobs
Creatives: Taylor Twist, Mike Warzin
Brand Director: Damien Reid
EP / Head of Production: Andrew Loevenguth (“Every Pitch”)
Producer: Chris Noble (“Every Pitch”)
Production Company: @radical.media
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Director of Photography: Peter Deming
Executive Producers: Donna Portaro, Frank Scherma
Executive Producer / Line Producer: Tommy Turtle
Production Designer: Gill Gayle (“Every Pitch” only)
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Biff Butler
Assistant Editor: Dan DeWinter
Executive Producer: Eve Kornblum
Producer: Melanie Gagliano
Color Correction Facility: Company 3 NY
Colorist: Tom Poole
“Every Pitch” Only
VFX Studio: A52
VFX Supervisor / Flame Artist: Andy McKenna
CG Supervisor: Kirk Shintani
2D VFX Artist(s): Andy McKenna, David Parker
3D Artists: Joe Chiechi
PreViz Artist: Matt Neapolitan
Producer: Scott Boyajan
Executive Producer: Jennifer Sofio Hall, Megan Meloth
Music: MAS – Music and Strategy
Executive Producer: James Alvich
Producer: Alex Derhohannesian
Music Composers: Eric Hachikien and John Jennings Boyd
Sound Design: Brian Emrich
Mix Studio: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Rob Sayers
From AdWeek:
@radical.media director Derek Cianfrance shot for two nights at Blair Field, a college park in Long Beach, Calif. In the end, they used a take from the first night, when a lifting fog gave the air an ethereal quality. Cianfrance used zooms—something of a forgotten art. “We were looking at old Westerns and the way they used zooms,” Jacobs said. “We all felt if you could do it with zooms in one take, moving around on a dolly track, that you’d get a much more real, on-the-field feeling, instead of going all digital with spidercams and crazy stuff like that.”
Each spot was lensed by DP Peter Deming ASC, who had just shot “Oz the Great and Powerful” and its sweeping long takes, among other studio films. Interesting footnote: no Steadicam used for either effort.
“Every Snap”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4v0i9wLaYU
Client: Dick’s Sporting Goods
Spot: “Every Snapâ€
Agency / Production / Editorial: see above
“Every Snap” Only
Head Of Production: Cathy Dunn
Production Supervisor: Rebecca Deelo
1st AD: Mark Frishman
Art Director: Timmy Hills
Costume Designer: Jim Mancusso
Casting/Football Supervisor: Mike Fischer
Executive Producer: Tara Dowd
Visual Effects/Flame: Framestore
Executive Producer: James Razzall
Senior Producer: Graham Dunglinson
VFX Supervisor: Alex Thomas
VFX/Comp Supervisor: Sharron Marcussen
CG Supervisor: James Dick
Flame Artist: Raul Ortego
Flame Artist: Tom Leckie
Music: Soup Music
Composer: Andy Huckvale
Song Title: Sawtooth
The football one took the same crew, but a different approach. Creativity noted the following:
According to Anomaly Creative Director Seth Jacobs, while the baseball spot Every Pitch used a motion control dolly track, the football ad required a tricked-out spider cam. “We kept it inches from the ground and had to customize the rig to make this possible,” Mr. Jacobs said. “A deflated soccer ball was inserted into the rig to act as a shock absorber to help make it smooth.”
(h/t Jessica Engel)
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