Fluid’s VFX Provide Answer for Reebok Campaign

Fluid provided the visual effects for a :30 Reebok spot, launching the Answer IX shoe and featuring NBA superstar point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers Allen Iverson. Developed through mcgarrybowen (New York, NY), the spot, titled 10 YEARS OF HEART, promotes Reeboks Answer IX shoe with the pump technology that offers the perfect fit by surrounding the foot with an automatic, form fitting air chamber that you can turn on or off as needed. The spot debuted on ESPN nationally on Oct 18.

As the spot opens, we find Iverson, alone, sitting on the trainers table, deep in concentration, psyching himself up for a game. The agency needed a quick, elegant way to name and locate Iversons numerous injuries. They did not want a medical rundown, but rather a graphic representation that would hint at science. The first challenge was to create an abstraction that would show the site of each injury but not look like a demo for a pharmaceutical spot, explained Fluid design director/partner Alex Frowein, who created the vfx.

I looked for a way to put some texture into Iversons arms and hands and tried a number of approaches but his numerous tattoos create a palate of their own and many of the ideas I experimented with conflicted with his body art. Eventually, I decided on a grid that I superimposed over parts of his body to indicate the location of his injuries. The camera dollies in circles around Iverson capturing him from above, from the side, from below. The type and the grid element I created enhance the motion inherent in the film and the grid is effective in tying all the elements and the final tag, A Decade Later, Stronger than Ever, together, continued Frowein.

The title design and graphics were provided by a Fluid team that also included graphic producer Virginia Galvan and exec producer Marc Schwartz.

Fluid (www.fluidny.com), the New York-based, award-winning music and editorial studio, is headquartered at 532 Broadway, 5th floor, New York, NY 10012