Epica d'Or 2003 (film)

The 2003 film Epica d’Or was won by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam for the Nike "Musical Chairs" commercial.

"Musical Chairs" takes us inside an American sports arena where the players and the audience of a professional basketball game find themselves competing against one another in a spontaneous round of musical chairs.  In the ensuing race to find the last remaining seats within the stadium we witness a series of inventive and refreshing ways to capture a chair.

Every available seat is in demand; a baby’s pushchair, benches in the locker rooms, a fork-lift truck, even the toilets.  The race for a seat eventually becomes a two-way competition between the number 43 player, who had the ball when the music stopped, and a young man who was caught-out carrying drinks and popcorn back to his seat in the audience.  When the last available seat is shown on the overhead screens, both men rush to get it while the crowd chants encouragement.  The young man beats the basketball player by inches.  Then the music starts again and the game goes on.

Spanish basketball player Pau Gasol, now a major star in the US and playing for the Memphis Grizzlies has a cameo role in the commercial.

The 90" commercial signs off with the word PLAY, alongside the Nike logo.  Like the award-winning 2002 "Tag" commercial, developed by Wieden + Kennedy Portland, "Musical Chairs" focuses on the spirit of competitiveness within people.  Both commercials capture spontaneous games which draw out people’s competitive nature in unexpected environments.

The film was shot in Dallas, Texas by the acclaimed director Ulf Johansson from the production company Traktor.

"Musical Chairs" is a truly European production despite depicting a typically American sport.  The director is Swedish and the Dutch agency’s creative team is from Britain, Argentina, Italy and Portugal.

All the 2003 film winners were candidates for this top award.  The final shortlist included the Hungarian McDonald’s commercial "Hi", the John Smith’s bitter campaign from the UK and the Honda "Cog" film by Wieden + Kennedy London.  After a process of progressive elimination, "Musical Chairs" eventually prevailed over "Hi" with a majority of votes.

This is the second time that Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam has won an Epica d’Or for its Nike client (having taken this top award in 1994 for "The Wall")

 

Play to Win

by Lewis Blackwell

 

There was no escape from competition for the winners of the 2003 Epica d'Or film award. Not only did they have to compete with a history of memorable commercials made for their client, Nike, they also had to create a spot based on the idea of competitiveness in everyday life. But there is nothing cut-throat about their film, Musical Chairs, which focuses on the playful aspects of a game that unites a crowd of people rather than setting them against each other.

Copywriter Carlo Cavallone and art director Alvaro Sotomayor of Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, were asked to connect their spot to Tag, the previous commercial in the campaign. Fortunately, "It felt natural to be close to Tag," Cavallone explains, "because we liked the idea of people playing games rather than focusing on big professional sporting events." Early ideas included making a sport out of activities like babysitting or hide and seek. But the final combination of musical chairs at a basketball game had the advantage of universal familiarity and a backdrop which was grand in scale but controllable - they hoped.

Authenticity was essential for their idea to work, they believed, so they headed for Texas where basketball, like so much else, is huge. They originally planned to cast professional players from NBA teams but as they were shooting in the period just before the crucial play-offs, the professionals were too wary of sustaining injuries to risk taking part. They did, however, negotiate a location that represents the real, all-American setting they were after: Reunion arena, former home of the Dallas Mavericks, with a capacity of around 18,000 spectators. They also cast the Mavericks' real-life mascot and musician to play their own roles in the commercial and the referees are genuine Dallas professionals. Only the players' shirts were specially fabricated, as the game's governing body, the NBA (arguably the world's most commercially astute sports body), would not permit the use of an existing team's shirts or numbers associated with particular players.

The players were cast from a pool of semi- and fully professional college team members, including the Spaniard Pau Gasol, now a major US star playing for the Memphis Grizzlies. His rival for the last seat in the game of musical chairs is played by 23-year old Douglas Cavellero, who turned up on the last day of a week-long recall casting session. But the creatives and director saw immediately that he had the kind of looks - attractive and cool, but typically young American sports fan - and, equally important, the stamina they were looking for.

Although the vast Reunion stadium possessed the giant scale Cavallone and Sotomayer had visualised, it also posed a huge filming challenge: the spot was based on a sold-out game, but there was obviously no question of employing so many thousands of extras. Consequently, the director Ulf Johansson (who was then at Traktor but now has his own production company, Smith and Jones), had to figure out how to maintain the illusion of an 18,000 capacity crowd while working with just 200 extras. "It was a bit of a nightmare," confesses Johansson's producer Philippa Smith. "Throughout an intense two-day shoot, we had three units working constantly as the crowd kept shifting around, changing their clothes as they went: each extra had been asked to bring about ten layers." They were filmed standing up , sitting down and each take was shot from every possible camera angle.

London's Moving Picture Company, who did the seamless post production, had plates made of every shot before compositing them together. The result is a spontaneous, mini- action movie with no visible hint of manipulation. It opens on a scene of fast and furious action on the court, with the stadium musicians playing the kind of music used to rouse the crowd during an attacking phase of the game. As time out is called, the music comes to an abrupt stop, the number 43 player drops the ball and dashes after his team-mates into the stands where the entire audience has erupted in a spontaneous game of musical chairs.

In each corner of the stadium, people dash for every available seat, including a baby stroller, locker room benches and the driver's perch in a fork-lift truck. Eventually, the game narrows to a two-man race between player 43 and a young fan on his way back to his seat with drinks and popcorn. Simultaneously, both men glance at the overhead screen showing the position of the very last free seat and hurtle towards it. The fan vaults into the seat, Nike Air-Max shod feet first, beating his rival by a hair's breadth as his friends' cheer him on. An instant later, the music strikes up and the game recommences.

As a sign-off, the word "play" appears on screen alongside a Nike swoosh. The low-key brand projection reflected the creative team's emphasis on the overall feeling rather than the product. Johansson also believed that the best way to get a convincing scenario was just to let people play and this was his major directorial command. The only casualties of the cast's enthusiasm to take him at his word were a few sprained ankles. In general, however, the enjoyment and stamina of the whole team made the shoot, "the most inspiring and exhilirating we have worked on," says Smith.

The reaction of their client at Nike Europe, Paulo Tubito, was equally enthusiastic. "We had great feedback with this spot,'' he explains; "I even had old friends calling up about it. But it was also doubly successful in terms of brand-building and new product awareness. That's probably because it was simple and straightforward but had an interesting, clever message that fitted really well with the particular product."

Given its success on so many levels, an alternative title for Musical Chairs might have been 'Play to Win' - or maybe that was just a useful betting tip for the Epica d'Or.

Lewis Blackwell is the creative director of Getty Images, having previously been editor-in-chief and publisher of Creative Review for many years.