Thursday, January 18, 2007

Behind the Bouncing Balls

I thought you might be interested in seeing this little clip about the making of the Sony Bravia advert(see previous post). When I first saw this commercial, like some of you, I thought that many of the balls must have been produced using CGI but apparently they are ALL real. The makers thought it was important to use real balls and not 'cheat' so they basically bought up as much of the stock as they could in the US and ended up letting 250,000 of these colourful balls bounce through San Francisco!

The footage on the clip below is quite informative (just ignore the marketing bit at the front - I'm not trying to work for Sony!!). They used 23 camera men instead of the usual 4 in order to capture the live action as it happened from different angles and locations on the road. It seems you don't get too many chances to capture hurling that many balls down a hill at once. It's quite funny as it shows the crew cowering behind riot shields as they are bombarded with bouncing balls. I love seeing behind the scenes stuff. It always reminds me of my time working behind the scenes in theatre.

28 comments:

kenju said...

I enjoyed seeing that. It is nice to know what goes on behind the scenes - and it is more involved than most would realize.

Anonymous said...

I've not seen this one before...I love the one that's showing all the time over here of the paint exploding from the old style multi-storey flats...it's awesome! Had a fight..sorry discussion...with my brother yesterday over if they actually set up hundreds of paint bombs or if it was cgi! Personally I'm going with the paint bombs as so many of these estates are being torn down they probably got to do it a few days before the demolition guys arrived!

utenzi said...

So they really were real. Amazing, B-K.

Bobkat said...

Would I lie to you Utenzi? :-)

Katherine said...

Wow, how cool was that?! Loved all the colors too flyin' down the street.

Rayne said...

This is fantastic. I've seen the commercial before but never the behind the scenes film. It looks like so much fun.
The first time I saw the commercial I wanted to do the same thing. Unfortunately, I currently live in Nebraska and things are a wee bit flat here.

Preeti Shenoy said...

That was really interesting.Loved watching it.Am mailing this one also to my brother.Wish you had added the link which enables you to email a post that you like, with just a single click!

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Very Very interesting, my dear...I have to come back when I am not so sleepy and watch it again...I'm just on the edge of sleep...Going to sleep, that is.

BTW: Peter O'Toole did not win the Golden Globe on Sunday night...Forrest Whittiker won for "The Last King Of Scotland" and that is a stunning performance...I think he will win the Oscar, too...

Zeus said...

Whoever said using real things brought soul back into the production was dead on. I think it's fantastic that everyone within the vicinity of the production was touched by their creativity. No one left without a smile on their face. That's saying something!

Natsthename said...

What a cool payoff to see all of those balls bouncing! I'd HATE to have to clean that up, though!
Michele sent me!

Anonymous said...

That was super cool! Thanks for sharing. I got itchy just thinking about having to pick up all those balls though. LOL! Must be the mother in me.

Michele sent me!

Bunny said...

Hi bob-kat. I'm at work so can't see your ad thing at moment.
I'll look later.
Thanks for the comments on my blog and yes, tis a shame about Jacks big stalk.
Michele sent me

srp said...

Here from Michele this time.
I loved that commercial... It's a shame they don't show it very often around here. Rarely do commercials make me smile. Even less often do they show imagination and originality. Brava!

srp said...

I went on down and read some of your other posts... my daughter and I visited New York for two weeks and I loved your pictures of the Met Museum. Then I saw you had worked as a stage manager and that "you stepped on the fingers of the Phantom of the Opera". Can I ask where? My brother traveled with the first traveling company of that show for eight years from its opening in Chicago in 1990. He was in the chorus and covered for Piangi. Now, he is living in Vienna and specializes in Wagner opera pieces all over Europe. I think he's in Dresden doing Peter Grimes right now.

Catherine Detweiler said...

Fascinating! I don't think they show that commercial in the U.S., so I may have to poke around the Net and see if I can see the finished product.

Oh, btw, Michele sent me!

utenzi said...

Ummm. No? I'm not sure, B-K. Would you lie to me?

Michele sent me over this time, Bob-kat. I'm going to have to see this commercial (and the making of it) in a large bandwidth version. I'd love to see the bouncing balls in all their glory.

Gordon said...

Yeah the whole thing is 100% real no cgi as well the "bounces" would have been perfect ever time and well all know nothing is 100% perfect, it might have hit a little stone etc and bounce off.
Utenzi - hmm Im sure it's available some place someone's bound to have a direct from TV rip of it even if it was from a commerial break..
I wondering if anyone's see the latest one with the "paint" it again makes No sense what so ever but then again who says "sense" is required.

Gordon said...

found it - few google clicks later...
http://www.bravia-advert.com/balls/

Michael K. Althouse said...

That's amazing! Talk about going the extra mile. I wonder... How many balls were accounted for??

Michele sent me,

Mike

craziequeen said...

I was impressed by this, but the new Sony Bravia advert has blown my mind since then.....

Talk about visually stunning.... :-)

cq

Niall young said...

Have been showing various people these ad's..I still prefer the paint commercial. Incidentally filmed in Glasgow, Scotland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_Q-82NUzo

craziequeen said...

two words....

'mmmm uniforms'

:-)

cq

Anonymous said...

What a blast! I want to play! I haven't seen the ad but will be looking for it. What will happen to the balls when the ad is done, I wonder?

carmilevy said...

That is SO cool!

Reminds me of the Honda Accord commercial that came out a couple of years ago where they set up a domino-like progression made up of all the parts of the car.

It was shot in one long take...and it's magic to watch.

Melody said...

Yeah, that's what I saw a while back. How good and clever is that?

Suzanne said...

I work behind the scenes at my city theater now and I have always thought it was interesting to see the contrast of what takes place where no one can see, and what the audience is allowed to see. cool video.

Anonymous said...

Michele sent me. My husband and I enjoyed this so much that we went to YouTube to see the actual commercial.

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable visit!

Unknown said...

Hey loved your pictures of Chepstow Castle you have captured an essence of the castle there without doubt ;)

I also really enjoyed the behnd the scenes Sony advert that was brilliant 250,000 balls and the enthuasiasm of evryone involved was brilliant.