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Scene 1 from Nike Golf "Kid Tiger"
Image courtesy of a52.
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Scene 2 from Nike Golf "Kid Tiger"
Image courtesy of a52.
Click on thumbnail for 72dpi image. 
300 dpi version here.


Scene 3 from Nike Golf "Kid Tiger"
Image courtesy of a52.
Click on thumbnail for 72dpi image. 
300 dpi version here.

Contacts:
Roger Darnell
DWA for a52
1.828.264.8898

For Immediate Release

HOLLYWOOD — Award-winning Los Angeles visual effects company a52 today detailed their visual effects work for the new Nike Golf “Kid Tiger” broadcast spot from Wieden+Kennedy.  The spot debuted during Fox’s broadcast of the Major League Baseball All Star Game on Jul. 12, and is set to continue airing nationwide over the weeks ahead.

In home-movie quality, the :60 spot shows a 5-year-old Tiger Woods playing the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, during the British Open.  He hits one remarkable shot after another in front of the jubilant crowd, and celebrates his performance with joyous demonstrations as his mother and father look on.  At the end, we see the full-grown Tiger enjoying his win.

“The agency’s main concerns were about maintaining the emotion and the story’s plausibility,” said a52’s Tim Bird, who served as the project’s co-VFX supervisor along with Pat Murphy.   “In the end, the technical constraints we faced actually helped us convey those emotions and package the story in a powerful way.”

“As soon as we heard about the idea, everyone was interested in trying to make it work,” Murphy added.  The team’s enthusiasm proved to be a good omen; the project was officially awarded to them on Jul. 5, only one week before the spot was set to debut.  Presented with two sets of stock footage – twenty-year-old VHS home movies of young Tiger, plus recent NTSC broadcast footage from the British Open – a52’s executive producer Mark Tobin, producer April Killingsworth, Bird and Murphy orchestrated a round-the-clock operation to meet the deadline. 

a52 VFX artists began their work in the company’s Discreet Flame and Inferno suites by isolating young Tiger in the home-movie footage.  “Part of the challenge here was that, in that footage, other people were often in the foreground, partially blocking Tiger,” Pat Murphy explained.  To heighten the challenge, in several of the shots used from the home movies, young Tiger was wearing different clothes.  Having the youth intact and in the proper attire involved a great deal of artistic cleanup and compositing.

Next, although a52’s team was provided with some British Open footage that matched the visual perspective of young Tiger in the home movies, they also had to incorporate other stills, the St. Andrews Clubhouse, stands of crowds and other plates to make the scenes work properly.  In the British Open footage that was used, the several players also had to be removed before young Tiger could be tracked-in.

As the finished project was conformed in Inferno, Murphy described several steps which were taken to make the overall project match the visual quality of the home-movies.  “After adding some grain in Inferno, we actually laid the whole project off to VHS,” he said.  “This helped to soften the grain and even out the overall look.”

For Wieden+Kennedy, project credits include creative director/art director Hal Curtis, creative director Mike Byrne, copywriter Dylan Lee, executive producer Ben Grylewicz and producer Andrew Loevenguth.  The editorial team from Portland’s Joint Editorial included editors Corky Devault and Peter Wiedensmith, executive producer Patty Brebner and assistant editor Matt Hilber.  a52’s team also included VFX artists Alicia Aguilera, Eric Algren, Justin Blaustein, Craig “Xray” Halperin, Scott Johnson, Ben Looram and Ryan Yoshimoto.

The spot features the song “Ooh La La,” performed by musical artist Faces.  Final audio was mixed by Jeff Payne at Santa Monica’s Eleven Sound.

About a52
Established in 1997 as a home for the very latest high-end photo-real visual effects technologies and the industry’s most innovative and talented graphic design artists, visual effects company a52 creates award-winning imagery for the world’s most visually ambitious commercial and television projects.  Having relocated to Santa Monica in 2007, the company’s work has earned AICP Show recognition for 11 consecutive years along with recent “Outstanding Commercial” Emmy, Andy, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction, International Monitor, International Automotive Advertising, London International Advertising, One Show and PROMAX awards.  For more information, please call 1.310.586.0650 or visit www.a52.com.

Nike Golf "Kid Tiger" :60 QT

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Scene 4 from Nike Golf "Kid Tiger"
Image courtesy of a52.
Click on thumbnail for 72dpi image. 
300 dpi version here.


Scene 5 from Nike Golf "Kid Tiger"
Image courtesy of a52.
Click on thumbnail for 72dpi image. 
300 dpi version here.