Criminal dribble - Postings

Post, Sept, 2003

SANTA MONICA -- Moneyshots (www.moneyshotspost.com) recently completed visual effects and online work for three Reebok spots for the "Whodunit?" campaign via The Arnell Group promoting Reebok's Above The Rim (ATR) line of sports apparel.

The first spot, Discovery introduces the solve-the-mystery contest as "The Sports Crime Squad" probes which ATR athlete left a defeated opponent sprawled on the court after being "clowned by a serious move." The object is to figure out which of the ATR athletes (Steve Francis, Aaron Davis, Jason Richardson or Kenyon Martin) pulled the move. Director Rawson Thurber of FM Rocks wanted to show one continuous, but transforming, flashback that reveals the faces of all four suspects as the move is performed against the victim. The identities of the suspects change midmove from the first dribble to the climactic slam-dunk.

The challenge was how to shoot four different players doing exactly the same move and make it look like one seamless action. Shooting against greenscreen, each shot was repeated with by each player. Since no move was exact, a generous amount of rotoscoping, motion tracking and fine-tuning by Moneyshots was needed to combine the players onto one plate. All of the shots were broken down and rebuilt. On most shots, clean plates had to be painted. Then all the players were combined onto one plate using Discreet Flame and Combustion. Rob Seheroda of Company 3 handled color correction. POP's Lorin Silber mixed the spot. Dave Hutten of Comma provided the sound design.

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