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Reebok / Classics 30th Anniversary



Agency: Everyone Associates | Production Company: Armoury | Directed by: Jack Laurance
Realise: VFX Supervision, 2-D

It sounds counter intuitive but it's great when we can help a director solve a problem in camera. When Armoury approached us with this script there were some obvious challenges. The film celebrates the thirty-year anniversary of the Reebok Classic, with white lines transforming a moody cityscape into an urban athletics track. Groups of kids follow the lines, taking them in a race through the streets as they compete to reach a club.

With environmental restrictions and miserable London weather, painting the lines for real was not an option and we initially explored creating them in post. Although simple to execute, we knew this approach would be restrictive for the director, complicating the set-ups and limiting the amount of shots.

In the end Jordi came up with a simple solution. Create the lines from camera tape. It took some experimentation, but we worked out that we could lay the white lines quickly and accurately, saving crucial time.

The technique worked. We got through hundreds of feet of tape but the speed and flexibility of the approach meant that the director and the team were able to shoot twice as many set-ups.

Back in the studio, Jordi and his team enhanced some of the material in 2-D, adding lines and effects to around 20 per cent of the final cut. The result is an energetic film with perfect white lines, made by hand.