Zahlen, bitte! 250,000 rubber balls in the streets of San Francisco
In 2005, 250,000 balls flew down the streets of San Francisco for a Sony commercial. To remain CGI-free, the creators went to enormous lengths.
The British TV viewers who tuned into Sky Sport on November 5, 2005, to watch the football match between Manchester United and FC Chelsea experienced a premiere of a very special kind. For over two minutes, 250,000 colorful bouncy balls danced through the hilly streets of San Francisco, entirely without CGI. Only at the end did it become clear what the balls, filmed in slow motion, were meant to say: "Colour like no other" was advertising Sony's new TV brand, Bravia.
Although the commercial, produced for one million US dollars, was only broadcast in Great Britain, it gained wide international distribution and won several awards.
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Hardly had the advertisers from the British agency Fallon, led by Creative Director Juan Cabal, and Sony devised the slogan "Colour like no other," the question arose of how best to visualize it. Among the directors who applied for the lucrative assignment were stars such as Spike Jonze, who directed many award-winning music videos, like the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" or Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice."
However, the idea of the relatively unknown Dane Nicolai Fuglsig, sending colorful balls through the streets of San Francisco, prevailed. Fuglsig had previously worked as a photojournalist in the Kosovo War and . Only after his award-winning advertising for Sony did he become known to the US public with "Operation: 12 Strong," a war drama about the deployment of a US special forces unit in Afghanistan.
(Image:Â Screenshot/Sony)
Bouncy balls on hilly streets
The spectacle that finally emerged was colorful and cheerful, accompanied by the song "Heartbeat" by Swedish singer-songwriter José Gonzalez, who promptly incorporated this advertisement into his concerts. Fuglsig had actually wanted to send a large number of colorful basketballs, tennis balls, and soccer balls into the hilly streets of San Francisco, but then opted for the much more colorful bouncy balls from the US brand Wham-O, which simply bounced more dynamically.
The balls have a coefficient of restitution of 0.92: when dropped from a height of one meter, they reach 0.92 cm. Snow cannons were supposed to provide sufficient height. During the initial tests, they simply shredded the small balls. With reduced power, it quickly became clear what kind of impact could be generated. The video makers then experimented with containers that were lifted and tipped by forklifts. Thus, pure chaos broke out.
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Many preparations had to be made. Residents had to move their parked cars (the film crew and the many hired staff to collect the balls from the forming ball pits parked their own, which were heavily dented), cameras had to be protected from the balls with barriers, and catch fences were erected. Chris Willigham, who served as Business Director at the time, described in a LinkedIn post that for each shot, they scouted the street for possible drains and other escape routes for the balls.
Jumping balls broke some windows
After each take, countless students scoured the streets for balls and collected them. Willingham estimates that, if any, only a handful of balls were lost. However, the shoots were not entirely without damage: on the two shooting days in July 2005, the team ordered glass repairs for a total of $74,000 worth of broken glass. After filming, the balls were given to schools, kindergartens, or child welfare organizations, or returned to the retailers.
In total, the production of the video cost nearly a million dollars. It served its purpose: Sony was able to shake off competitor Sharp with the Bravia TVs and subsequently approved many other advertisements. With two million dollars, the advertising video Paint, filmed in Scotland in 2006, created an even bigger spectacle, but did not match the enchanting balls of San Francisco. The grand finale of the Color Orgies was a film with clay rabbits in New York. Today, the three films play a role in science: they are used by neurologists who study how our brain reacts to color stimuli.
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It is questionable whether such a ball orgy would be feasible today. Computerized effects have long since taken over directing. In 2005, the advertising agency Fallon also hired a whole team of AV specialists to spruce up the shots, but Fuglsig promptly sent them away. CGI was not involved in the shots until the final image. The magic of the balls prevailed.
Regarding today's objections to the spread of microplastics in our lives, one can refer to the successful and very British parody of Fuglsig, which also found its fans. In both cases, by the way, the frog jumping out of a gutter is a real specimen, for which conservationists were specifically present.
(mho)
