Mill completes post on latest Nike commercial

The Mill has completed extensive post on ‘Hot Dog’, the latest commercial for Nike’s ‘Shox 2:45’ trainers.
The commercial is unusual in that instead of starring a top athlete or footballer, a slightly portly ‘Mr Average’ takes centre stage. He leans against a fast food cart while ordering a hotdog, sending the cart trundling down a hill. Mr Average pursues, beginning an unlikely and chaotic journey through the heart of a rustic Mediterranean port town which sees Mr Average battling with brooms, dogs and cars until he eventually catches up with the cart at the water’s edge.
The cart topples into the sea, but not before giving Mr Average just enough time to grab a dollop of ketchup - the real motive behind the sprint.
Although superbly shot by Ringan Ledwidge, the spot required considerable postproduction work due to health and safety restrictions while on location. For example, in one shot it looks like a car is about to smash into the central character; clearly it was too risky to shoot this shot for real, so it was executed in post by compositing two different plates. The hotdog cart contained a driver and several point-of-view cameras which all had to be painted out, frame-by-frame, in Flame.
Phil Crowe also used Flame to seamlessy marry separate locations into one longer shot, to create a smashing car wing mirror, and to remove all evidence of the speed boat used to drag the cart into the sea.
(GB)