Nike – Evolution
Title: Evolution
Client: Nike
Agency: WEIDEN + KENNEDY USA
Time: 30 (director;s cut)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Production/animation/VFX: The Embassy Visual Effects Inc.
Blomkamp has likely directed many more ads, but the few he’s actually put a credit to are head and shoulders above his videos. His Nike shoe video has just the level of creativity that was missing in the music videos, with a simple design perfectly executed by giving a shoe almost-alien evolutions to show off the company’s different styles. Blomkamp’s CGI is typically impressive, but the signature part of the commercial isn’t the CGI but the placement of the shoe under a bridge. Blomkamp connects the strangeness of the events with reality here, featuring subtle non-diegetic sound to help situate things. It’s important because of how it differentiates the scene from more typical commercials, which are frequently shot in an all-white soundstage, and the touch gives the video an odd note of poignancy.