Has Nike Just Won the Ad World Cup with Animated Attack of the Clones?

Nike has swung in late with a final World Cup spot, releasing 'The Last Game' as part of the brand's 2014 Risk Everything football campaign. 

The animated short film, created by Wieden+Kennedy and shot by Passion's Jon Saunders, tells the tale of a world where football has become bereft of risk and beauty, and only the world’s greatest players can save the game from extinction.

"The Last Game is a completely animated five-minute film featuring stylised computer-generated versions of our athletes. Hopefully everyone will be surprised by the direction that we've taken and they will enjoy the story as much as we do. It really was a dream project to work on," said Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte, Global Creative Directors for Nike, W+K Portland.

Introducing Nike’s top athletes to the world of animation was an incredibly exciting opportunity. I can’t understate the magnitude of the production. Passion, and the entire Nike and W+K team, really poured every ounce of themselves into the project. At the peak we had over 300 people pulling together to make the film. But even with so many different moving parts, we never allowed ourselves to lose focus on the craftsmanship and attention to all the tiny details each character required to be brought to life in a fun way. Each time we had a new design or animation render to review it was like Christmas morning — it’s one of those jobs where the excitement is contagious and the agency really fired on all cylinders to make it happen," added Matt Hunnicutt, Global Executive Producer, W+K Portland.

Passion Director, Jon Saunders, mused: "There is no experience I have had that can compare to making a Nike film. This film challenged all of Passion in the level of expectations that we set for ourselves as well as what Nike set for us. From day one, to the final minute before delivery, we were pushing the creative and constantly asking how we could make the film better. I couldn't ask for better team. They took hold of my initial ideas and brought them to places beyond my expectations. Everyone challenged me and always thought about the story first and foremost. That is a very special team and a dream for any director to work with."

"The Last Game" represents a true collaboration between Nike, the fantastic team at W+K and Passion. We were fortunate that in the earliest stages of production, we hit upon a style and an aesthetic that we all fell in love with. It was a 'you had me at hello' moment if ever there was one, where Jon Saunders’ characters just leapt off the page. Very quickly the creative team at W+K were able to feel confident that we could realise their vision and we will be forever grateful to them for the trust they showed Jon and his team at Passion. These are the jobs you dream of and they come around very rarely, if ever, and Nike and W+K gave us a fantastic opportunity to bring all of our skills in short-form and feature films to the table in one film," said Alex Webster, MD and Executive Producer, Passion.

Credits

CLIENT: NIKE

Agency: W+K PORTLAND

Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O’Rourke

Digital Director: Dan Viens

Copywriter: Alberto Ponte

Art Director: Ryan O’Rourke

Global Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt 

Agency Senior Producer: Erika Madison

Production Assistant: Julie Gursha

Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey, Molly Rugg, Karrelle Dixon

Business Affairs Manager: Karen Crossley

Project Manager: Jordan Schroeder

Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Susan Hoffman

PRODUCTION

Production Company: Passion 

Director: Jon Saunders

Writers: Jon Saunders, James Russell, Kevin Cecil, Steven Hall, Lucy Guy

Story Development Team: Andrew Ruhemann, Pete Candeland, Alex Webster, Brendan Houghton, Ryan Goodwin-Smith

Additional Story Assistance: Daniel Emmerson, Simon Griffin, Lee Hempstock, Rob Sprackling, John Smith

Development Creative Director: Pete Candeland

Executive Producers: Andrew Ruhemann, Alex Webster

Head of Production: Anna Lord

Producer: Ryan Goodwin-Smith

Line Producer: Adriana Piasek-Wanski

Production Coordinators: Anna Cunnington, Kate Goodwin

Production Assistant: Becky Perryman

VO Casting Directors: Claudia Hesse, Hannah Simons

Voice Actors: 

Scientist – Jonathan Oliver

Neymar – Bruno Garcez

Iniesta – Andres Williams

Zlatan – Adam Shaw

Rooney – Neil Fitzmaurice

David Luiz– Mauricio Brandes

Tim Howard – Tom Clarke Hill (also plays LeBron TVC VO and Football Commentator)

Cristiano Ronaldo – Hugo Nicolau

TV News Anchor – Victoria Lesiw (also plays TV Interviewer)

Fenomeno – Rhasaan Orange

Commentator 1 – Jonathan Clays

Commentator 2 – Tony Lockwood

Commentator 3 – John Roder

Commentator 4 – Bill Leslie

Hindi Newscaster VO – Sanghamitra Mandal

Mandarin Newscaster VO – Sun Ye

Spanish Newscaster VO – Alberto de Matteis

Animation Director: Mark Waring

Football Choreography Consultant: Andy Ansah

Head of CG: Jason Nicholas

VFX Supervisor: Neil Riley

CG Supervisor: Cesar Nunes

CG Coordination: Suzanne Forward, Derek Walsh, Amelie Zilliox, Mark Harper, Dave Powell

Additional Coordination: Carine Buncsi

Art Direction: Painting Practice, Cesar Nunes

Character Design: Jon Saunders, Alex Huguet, Gillian Reid, Leeroy Vanilla, Dan Lambert

Production Designer: Dan May (via Painting Practice)

Concept Art: Painting Practice, Daniel Cacouault, John Park, Thomas Scholes

CG Design Development: Jake Slutsky

Storyboards: Brendan Houghton, Yohann Auroux (clean-up)

Previz Lead: Xavier Zahra, Richard Perry 

Previz: Mark Brown, Paul Cousins, Emiliano Nanfaro, Stephen Harrison, Daniel Adams

Editing For Whitehouse Post London/New York:

Paul La Calandra – Editor

Joe Petruccio – Assistant Editor

Lisa Kenrick – Executive Producer

Lauren Hertzberg – EP NY

Nick Crane - Producer

For Passion: Victoria Lesiw

Additional Editing for Passion:

Anne Monnehay

Tim King

Layout: Daniel Adams, Remi Cauquil, Anthony Martin

Character Modelling Supervisor: Alex Huguet

Character Modelling: Mattias Bjurstrom, Tom Bryant, Dan Fine, Julia Friedl, Craig Maden, Abner Marin, Angel Navarro, Alex Stratulat

Environments Modelling Supervisor: Ian Brown

Environment Modelling: Zahra Al-Naib, Florence Ciuccoli, Guillaume Fuentes, Jacob Gonzalez, Juan Carlos Gracia, Francois Mancone, Paco Rocha, Florent Rousseau, Vladimir Venkov, Sarah Zaher

Texturing: Ellie Bond, Amanda Bone, Katreena Bowell, Claudia Carvalho, Eva De Prado, David Domingo Jimenez, Lesley Rooney, Grace Stephens

Rigging: Andrew Butler, Chris Dawson, Morgan Evans, Maarten Heinstra, Maickel Pasta, Georg Schneider

Animation Lead: Conor Ryan

Animation: Magali Barbe, Antoine Bourruel, Cath Brooks, Wesley Coman, Catherine Elvidge, Rhiannon Evans, Aldo Gagliardi, Alex Grigg, Annie Habermehl, Rimelle Khayat, Boris Kossmehl, Karin Mattsson, Daniel Meitin, Florian Mounie, Nora OSullivan, Garrick Rawlingson, Alvaro Martin Saez de Parayuelo, David Sigrist, Milian Topsy, Rodrigo Torres, Marie Vorhoeven, Chris Welsby, Steven White, (Darren Walsh – Magpie)

FX Supervisor: Jamie Franks

FX: Sam Swift-Glasman, Junaid Syed, Dan Warder

CLOTH: Ariele Podrieder Lenzi – Senior Cloth TD, Antonios Defteraios, Will Fife, Jayson King, Colin Perret, Michael Sofoluke

HAIR: Chema Del Fresno, Kwai Ip (also cloth)

CROWD: Jonny Grew

L&R Lead: Christian Mills, Arnoud Machtou

Lighting & Rendering: Howard Bell, Yohan Cohen, Jacob Gonzalez, Patrick Krafft, Sebastian Mayer, Richard Moss, Camille Perrin, Francois Pons, Paco Rocha

Compositing: Svilen Aynadzhiev, Pavan Balagam, Andre Bittencourt, David Lea, Manuel Perez, Julien Record, Valeria Romano, Johnny Still, Alex Swann

Graphics: Stephane Coedel, Giles Dill

3D End Tag: Original 2D Design by ILOVEDUST

Sam Mason, Jon Saunders – CG Designers

Eve Strickman – Producer at Passion NY

Animation: Wieden+Kennedy Motion

Painting Practice

Production Designer: Dan May

Lead Concept Artist/Matte Painter: Rafael Martin Coronel

3D Matte Artist/Lead: Graeme McDougal

Matte Painters/Concept Artists: Antoine Birot, Nicolas Loudot, Tristan Menard, Carlos Nieto

Junior Matte Painter: Noemie Cauvin

Concept Artists: Justin C Hutchinson-Chatburn, Mike Shorten, Alex Fort, Xavier Ren

3D Artist: Matt Hotchkiss

Co-ordinator: Dora Sarkozi

Graphic Design: Gemma Kingsley, Erica McEwan

Junior Artist: Rodolphe Parfait

Football Reference Shoot

Andy Ansah – Choreographer

Tyson White – Choreographer

Tyler Blake – Project Manager

Gerri McCarthy – Live Producer for Passion

Marek Wesolowski - DOP/Steadicam Op

Ronaldas Buozis – SOP/Sony F55

Ralph Messer – Focus Puller

Josh Feder – Runner/GoPro

Jonah Sugden – Runner/5D Op

Nuria Perez – DIT

FOOTBALL PERFORMERS (c/o SPORTS ON SCREEN): Mat Mitchel-King, Louie Theophanous, Anthony Cock, Chris Piper, Joseph Holland, Aaron Clarke, Isa Hussain, Joel Ledgister

Mocap Shoot

Lottie Hope – Passion Producer

Phil Stilgoe – Mocap Producer

Stuart Haskayne – Mocap Supervisor

Joe Ells – Mocap Post Supervisor

Iain Silvester – Mocap Production Coordinator

Matt Parker – Sr Mocap Technician

Mocap Technicians: Ross Richards, David Bushen

Mimi Dulake – Mocap Production Asst

Goran Dimitrijević – Mocap Tracking Manager

Igor Kovačević – Mocap Sr Tracker

Mocap Trackers: Jelena Mitrović, Zoran Muncan, Miloš Knežević, Nenad Milosavljević 

Sound Design: 750mph

Sam Ashwell - Sound Designer & Mix Engineer

Sam Robinson – Audio Producer

Phil Bolland – Additional Engineering

TX: Mike Bovill, Gerda Aleksandraviciute, Jeff Smith – TX

Passion Pipeline TD: Sajjad Amjad, Julian Hodgson

IT Support / Engineering Team 

Daffer Al-Faiadh – IT Manager

Mani Singh – IT Engineer

Ilkan Ozturk – IT Engineer

Alex Pittas – IT Assistant

Finance & Accounting 

Dennis Hobbs – Head of Finance

Kendrah Matthew, Grant Harris, Ben Davies

Runners: Kingsley Bailey, Fern Buckenham, Edward Bulmer, Linus Carlson, Fionn Guilfoyle, Raymond Hemson, Rishi Hindocha, Isabella Miroux, Shane Noonan, Alex Pittas, Phoebe Platman, Sophia Simenski, Paige Sullivan, Zachary Towlen, Phoebe Young

EDITORIAL / :30 TRAILERS and ATHLETE TEASERS

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial

Editor: Peter Wiedensmith

Post Producer: Ryan Shanholtzer / Alex Thiesen

Music Editor: Nicholas Davis

Lead Assistant Editor: Eric Hill

Assistant Editor: Alyssa Coates

Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

ONLINE

Finishing: Glassworks

Colourist: Duncan Russell

Smoke Artist: Aleks Ugarow

Executive Producer: Misha Stanford-Harris

Titles/Graphics: WK Motion / WK Studio

MUSIC 

Music Company: Walker

Composer: Judson Crane

Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo

Music Coordinator: Abbey Hickman

Licensed Track: Miss Alissa, Eagles of Death Metal

SOUND

Sound + Mix Company: 750mph

Sound Designer / Mixer: Sam Ashwell

Executive Producer: Sam Robinson