New Balance (NB) has launched their first global lifestyle creative platform: ‘Numbers speak louder than words.’ Fashioning a fully integrated creative space for NB Lifestyle by fusing together the digital and physical worlds with a shared passion for ingenuity. The first of four SA commercials features the fresh photographer, Dean Petersen from Cape Town.
Samantha Wentzel, producer at King James agency, says the campaign pays tribute to New Balance’s unique model numbers of their shoes, and building on that the role numbers play in one’s life, from birth dates, anniversaries and milestones to the date your business went public. “The new campaign reflects the aspiring creative community that New Balance lifestyle appeals to, a group of people who are constantly improving, creating and thinking about the next thing.”
Built around the principal that numbers speak louder than words, Wentzel says that while their task was to follow the global template, they wanted to create content videos that were uniquely South African, showcasing the New Balance lifestyle range in an SA context.
“We wanted the video to be an authentic representation of who Dean is and what he does. Dean’s life is all about movement and the video had to reflect his adventurous spirit,” explains Wentzel.
The video was shot in and around Cape Town, starting at Disa Park and moving to Salt River station, then the urban skate park and ending at Llandudno beach. This was all done in one day.
First Pencil producer Brenda Wilson says that the difficulty in a documentary is portraying the subject as precisely as possible. The video was shot on two Sony a7s’ – one for following Petersen around and one for the time-lapse shots. Justine Calverley, the director, made use of jump cuts, ramps and reverses, and pillar boxing in the final edit. The video features many of Petersen’s pictures.
“The only fun thing we managed to chuck in was a shot through a lens to illustrate how an aperture works,” describes Wilson. She says moving between that many locations in one day was a real challenge, but through planning and scouting ahead of time it was made possible. “We moved around with a skeleton crew and just shot and shot and shot,” she says. Adding: “Our models were all such good sports and so was Dean, what a champ. Right at the end of the day we even had Dean’s mom and her dog on set; it was probably the cutest thing ever and we’re pretty sad it never made it into the cut.”
Shooting both the sunrise and sunset from two completely different parts of Cape Town in a day, starting in the city and moving to the beach was an experience for the filmmakers involved. The music was sourced by the editor Xander Van Der Westhuizen, using a track from his colleague Joni Blud. Nic Apostoli of Comfort and Fame did the grade and colour correction.
The campaign serves to celebrate this year’s anniversaries of the brand: sneaker models 580, 999 and 995 will turn 20 and 30, respectively. The brand will also celebrate its 110th year in 2016.
Key crew and companies involved:
- Editor: Xander Van Der Westhuizen
- Director: Justine Puren Calverley
- Producer: Brenda Wilson
- Grade: Nic Apostoli
- DOP: Pierre De Villiers
- Art Director: Moe Kakana
- Copy Writer: Marcelle du Plessis
- Creative Directors: Mike Wilson and Cameron Watson
- Production Company: First Pencil
- Agency: King James
- Post production company: Upstairs Post
