Raleigh, North Carolina—June 13, 2006— Sony and its agency, McKinney in Durham, North Carolina, have reprised their comedic "Lo-Def Productions presents..." campaign with a new look at a thrilling moment in collegiate sports edited in HD by Raleigh’s Serious Robots.
On the heels of their work last year on "Lo-Def Productions presents...Cal vs. Stanford - The Play," which re-enacted the famous football game with players on a magnetized board and a ball on a wire coat hanger, Serious Robots recently posted "Lo-Def Productions presents...Kentucky vs. Duke - Buzzer Beater." The new comedy spot features mannequins, inflatable spectators, and life-size 2d cutouts in an elementary school gym, choreographed to spoof the big play.
With the score Kentucky 103 and Duke 102 and just over two seconds left on the clock, "Will the dream die here for Duke?" the announcer from the original broadcast asks. A curiously headless referee gets the ball-on-a-string in play, it travels the length of the court and lands in the hands of a Duke player whose stiff-armed shot scores the game-winning basket. Randomly shaking the camera helped simulate the crowd’s celebration; the game-winning player (barely) jumps up and down but manages to dislodge his wig. "If you’re not watching Sony HD...What ARE you watching?" asks a hand-lettered title. Overcome with joy, a crying Duke player is shown with water dribbling down his face and chest; enthusiastic Duke players cause a pile up on the court as their bodies are literally tossed from off-screen into a heap, loose arms and all.
The campaign promotes Sony’s Grand Wega SXRD HD televisions, named America’s favorite HD set for watching sports in a consumer survey among leading brands’ 50-inch HD TVs. It flies against conventional wisdom, which would have Sony’s spots looking as technologically-advanced as the TV they’re selling. Instead, Sony has taken a decidedly low-tech route to illustrate edge-of-the-seat, game-changing endings in college sports.
"We were delighted that McKinney returned to us to post this new Lo-Def Productions spot," says Serious Robots executive producer Bill Blankinship. "Having been through the process with them before, we were able to work with their creative team and quickly assemble numerous versions for review."
Serious Robots had a number of early discussions with production company Hungry Man, in Santa Monica, to determine which HD format and frame rate to shoot. Serious Robots convinced Hungry Man to opt for 59.94 with a Sony Cine Alta HD camera.
"What set this spot apart from the first Lo-Def Productions commercial was that this one was entirely edited in HD (for creative reasons and to meet the demands of a quick turnaround)," says Serious Robots’ editor Scott Roy.
Hungry Man’s HD footage was digitized directly into the Avid Nitris by Roy who cut the action -- or lack of it -- to the game’s original audio track. Utilizing Avid’s DNxHD offline codec, Roy was able to load 4.5 hours of footage for his HD offline.
The "powerful tools of Nitris" enabled Roy to edit in HD while showing his client both the HD output on one monitor and the 4x3 center-cut SD output on another -- simultaneously. "While the HD version used the full 16x9 frame, we needed to pan/scan the HD footage in the 4x3 SD version to capture the same feeling of those quirky shots," Roy points out. "Being able to see the HD and SD outputs simultaneously gave us complete control in deciding whether the shots were usable in both the HD and SD versions, saving us time when we moved to online."
Roy also did extensive rotoscoping, tracking and paint to remove logos from close-ups of the mannequins’ sneakers to make them generic. He also animated the hand-scrawled signs showing the number of seconds remaining in the game.
Roy created both Sony HDCAM and SD deliverables of the final spots: 30-second versions were made for broadcast with a 60-second version crafted for Sony’s web site.
Willie Elias remixed, restored and edited the original call of the Kentucky-Duke game at Serious Robots’ sister company, Blazing Music + Sound.
Serious Robots, one of the Southeast’s top commercial postproduction companies provides all aspects of animation, editorial, post and visual effects to companies in the commercial, music video and other industries. Its clients include Sony Ericsson, IBM, McKinney, and Rockett Burkhead & Winslow. For more information, call 919-645-6650 or visit their website at www.seriousrobots.com.
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CREDITS
Client: Sony
Title/length: "Lo-Def Productions Presents...Kentucky vs. Duke - Buzzer Beater;"
:30 broadcast, :60 web
Agency: McKinney/Durham, NC
Producer: Toni Ingle
Prod. Co: Hungry Man/Santa Monica
Director: Brendan Gibbons
Post: Serious Robots/Raleigh, NC
Editor: Scott Roy
Audio Post: Blazing Music & Sound/Raleigh, NC
Mixer: Willie Elias
