Rugby World Cup 2011 produces memorable ads

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Proving once again that some things are just better in Afrikaans, the through-the-line agency in the Bester Burke Slinger group produced a tactical Afrikaans advert for kykNet that ran this past weekend on Saturday in Die Burger and Beeld, featuring the memorable cry of Fikile Mbalula, "Moer Hulle Bokke."

Virtual stadium filled with clips

Riverstone Films' 45-second commercial shows a Springbok team lined up in a virtual 3D stadium filled to the brim with ardent fans singing the unofficial Springbok anthem, Shosholoza.

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The brilliance of the execution lies in the virtual supporters being represented by video clips they submitted as part of the Vodacom Shosholoza Bokke campaign, which enabled fans to show their support even though the team is playing more than 11 000 km away. Thousands of user-submitted video clips have been incorporated into the virtual stadium, with the original audio from submissions combined to provide the song soundtrack.

"Executing a project of this nature has never been attempted in South Africa and rarely elsewhere," says Jeremy Holden, Riverstone Films co-owner and director of the commercial. "I was attracted to it for that exact reason and am very proud to be part of such a ground-breaking project, despite the complete lack of control over what video material we would be working with. We had a firm idea upfront of what we wanted to achieve and some expectation of the quality of material we would receive."

The commercial was in production for three months, with user submissions downloaded and scanned daily for quality and suitability. The submission of the content was completely reliant on Vodacom's data network as individual video clips were uploaded via mobile phone and webcam onto the Vodacom website, or captured at specially-erected booths at rugby and other live events.

The company's experience in producing visual campaigns, combined with Holden's 3D animation prowess, enabled the team and its varied suppliers to effectively pull off the complex project.

"This was uncharted territory for everyone involved and we had to draw on the many years of experience in film production to adapt processes and create workflows for this format," states Saffron Doran, executive producer on the project and Riverstone Films co-owner.

One of the biggest challenges

One of the biggest challenges was collating the audio from the thousands of user-submitted clips to produce a unified, harmonious rendition of the song. This required the skill of music director Rob Schroder, formerly of Robroy Music, to ensure that the tempo, tone, pronunciation and syncing of all the clips produced a credible final audio that is true to what a stadium full of fans would sound like.

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The visual credibility of the virtual stadium was equally important and was achieved under Holden's directorship. Specialist 3D animation studio Black Ginger generated the 3D virtual stadium and reformatted each of the clips to fit the final configuration.

"We have never worked on such a technically-demanding and diverse project, but are confident that the end-product can compete with any comparable product anywhere in the world," says Holden. "We also believe that commercial will be a firm favourite with supporters and the team alike because of the authenticity we have managed to create."

The commercial was flighted on 1 September to coincide with the national team's departure for the three-week tournament and is a mainstay of Vodacom's campaign for the duration of the event.