W+K Gets Animated in ‘Short Film’ for Nike

By Erik Oster 

Back in April, we covered “Winner Stays,” part of W+K’s “Risk Everything” campaign for Nike, which feature some of the world’s best soccer talent and clocked in at over four minutes long. Now, with only three days to go until the 2014 World Cup kicks off, W+K is back with an even lengthier effort for Nike.

Like “Winner Stays,” the new spot, entitled “The Last Game,” features some of the best players in the world — only this time they’re animated and voiced by voice actors. The over five-minute long “short film” tells the story of a scientist who creates clones of the great players which remove risk-taking in favor of efficiency and decision-making abilities. The results on the game are disastrous, turning it into a complete bore. Brazilian legend Ronaldo decides to do something about it, and gets together a team of superstars, all now leading “normal” lives, to take on the clones in a sudden death match.

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Somehow the lengthy “The Last Game” doesn’t feel as long as its predecessor. While the trend of calling long ads “short films” is a touch ridiculous, W+K comes closer to earning that title than most do with “The Last Game,” which, in addition to some fine animation, has a plot that convincingly tells a story that viewers (especially children) may actually feel compelled to follow to its conclusion. While “Winner Stays” felt like an idea drawn out past the point of effectiveness, “The Last Game” actually uses all of its extended run time in service of a story. Whether or not it’s the most effective way to market Nike, the results are certainly entertaining. In addition to the full-length online spot, the campaign also includes 30-second trailers and athlete-specific teasers, and will run for six weeks. We’ve got a full list of credits after the jump.

Credits:

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

 

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