I got an email from Nike’s ad agency back in November. After many more emails, quite a few calls, a demo video, film scouting and then a day of shooting, I became the star of my own Nike+ conversional ad. There are currently 5 conversionals up and they briefly take you into the life of a real Nike+ user that converted to using Nike+. As a web guy always on the computer I was lured into using Nike+ almost purely by a curiosity for the technology behind it.
If you’re not familiar with the whole Nike+ system, I’ve written about it a few times before. Without further ado, here’s the ad:
Click to view the conversional.
Update: The video is now on my about page. I’m not sure how much longer Nike will keep the video up on their site.
And no, I don’t think I talk that fast.. well maybe I do when I’m hopped up on Starbucks. Also, everything was completely unscripted. That’s all me talking.
Behind the Scenes
Before filming took place, I went out with a few people to do scouting and find good locations to film for the next day. This took several hours but I got free coffee so I was exuberant. Mario, the director of photography, took various pictures with his Nikon D200 to show the director potential shots to film.
Filming the next day was quite an experience. I think I counted ~16 people at my house at 7am on the Saturday before my final exams. Some had flown to Atlanta from Colorado, many from Los Angeles and some were local. The first few hours were spent setting up and filming an interview in my room. Unfortunately, only a few sound bytes here and there made the cut but I remember talking about AJAX, MySQL and Ruby on Rails so it’s probably better that it was edited the way it was.
A ton of footage didn’t make the cut. After having talked with many of the video guys and producers, they said it was typically a 100:1 ratio of what’s shot to what makes the final cut. Raw footage is generally around 60-70GB for these conversionals and everything was shot in high definition with some Panasonic cameras that capture to 2 P2 cards. A P2 card is a very expensive flash memory module utilizing a PCMCIA connection and is essentially 4 RAID’d SD memory cards – quite fast. 8GB on a P2 card equated to roughly 20 minutes of footage so there was naturally a lot of dumping video to a portable firewire drive. Post-production was all done in Final Cut Pro. Oh and I thought it was pretty cool that they were able to sync two cameras together via a firewire cable so that they had the same timing and audio.
All the logos in my room were hidden or covered. For example, check out that strategically-placed post-it note over my monitor’s logo. Some posters in my room had to be rearranged and I think the graphic on my t-shirt was pixelated in the video. For those interested, I was wearing the magic eraser (CMD+Z) shirt from Insanely Great Tees.
There were scenes where I was running behind an SUV with the camera pointed out of the back. Other times I was running across a bridge with a camera stuck out the window of an SUV driving alongside me. Overall, I think there were 6 or so locations that we shot at. I was quite worn out by the end of the day. For most of the takes I was listening to The Killers – Shadowplay and the other times the iPod’s battery was dead.
The most annoying thing about it all was using the standard Apple iPod headphones. As I’ve mentioned before, the damned earbuds fall out all the time.
It was quite an experience and I learned a lot from talking to everyone involved. It was definitely a peek into a different kind of lifestyle. One week these freelancers are filming a music video, another they’re shooting something with exotic cars and so on. Quite a bit of traveling is involved though. One of the camera guys was telling me how he always gets stopped in airport security with all of his hard drives, memory cards and various gadgets.
Disclosure: I was compensated by Nike for the conversional and signed lots of legal documents that probably made me their property. Fortunately, I truly enjoy using Nike+ and I don’t think that will ever change… unless they release Nike++, in which case I will die of laughter.
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Whoah! Very cool! Great ad, I finally figured out what was wrong – it’s not on the Canadian Nike+Run site. My bad. Excellent ad! Does the Nike+Run work with the iPod video? *hopes so*
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Nice Paul; congrats!
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Ditto with Chad. The ad is available only when the United States locale is selected.
Nice work Paul. Not only was it a good ad, but it adds a friendly face to one of my favourite technology blogs.
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Impressive – sounds like a real blast!
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Well done Paul- not just an internet celebrity, but a Branded internet celebrity!
I was always taught that 1 hour of filming = 1 minuet of footage, but that’s on TV dramas and programs, and based on the days of analogue film. With Noel- its actually rather nice to be able to put a face, and a voice to the blog at last.
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Nice one Paul!
In the given link, you need to choose USA as the country, otherwise the video won’t show!
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Damn, you really speak fast :-D
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wooo Paul. That’s is really cool! Congrats!
How does it make you feel??!
It must be great!
Greets.
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dude, you talked SO fast. I just could hear some works, but I din’t understand anything of what you said.
Imagine: it’s like a friend of mine talks to you in spanish that fast. ouch.
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That’s pretty awesome. It must have been fun seeing how much work went into a short clip. I think you did talk fast or maybe they sped up your voice…
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Very cool, Paul! Great video! You did seem a little caffeinated ;)
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Awesome Paul. Congrats! That’s absolutely amazing. You make waves wherever you go!
When I first read your post about Nike+ I intrigued and thought it was just the right thing to get me to run, which I hate doing, but if I had a computer to track my stats I would definitely keep up with it. Unfortunately my iPod nano didn’t work with the Nike+ system so I have the shoes and the system sitting in the closet until I can get a new/used nano. You’ve inspired me again to try and find one so I can challenge ya!
…and you definitely talk at hyper-speed.
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Great stuff Paul! Congrats and we will be tracking your progress.
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I thought that was very nicely done, congrats.
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That’s pretty much just Awesome.
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Very cool Paul.
Did you already have a squatty nano, or did they give you one for the shoot? I wonder if the Nike++ will be designed to hug the bottom of the short nano…
Also, you’re totally screwed now! Just think of all the people you have looking at that big number, X miles so far… So much pressure!
Heh, checking mine I have 27 miles and I’ve had the nike+ for over a year. Haven’t logged a run since June, I guess I’d better start challenging you.
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A Nike++ would be where they improve the shoe and then give you the old version.
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Congrats on the gig Paul, looks like a good ad, even though you do talk really really fast :)
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Congrats Paul! Keep on going, and going, and going
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If only the system worked on an iPhone, I’d have an incentive to pick up both as holiday gifts for myself…
As it stands now, I have a great phone (Sony Ericcson T637) and a great MP3 player (iRiver iHP-140), but they’re both old and can’t monitor my exercise ;-).
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Very cool Paul! I must admit that your blogging about the product got me to buy it for my wife and very soon for me.
Don’t sweat the talking, it’s awesome they found you and you were selected for the site!
Cheers!
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Damn what were you smoking that day. Sllloooww down :p
Really cool though! Looking sexxay
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yeah, I’m pretty sure they sped it up. some actually sounds normal speed, “like, you know, run” and to me it just sounds like a sped up (slightly) voice- it’s slightly unnatural, I think. Why don’t you email them and ask?
What kind of cameras did they use?
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Nice ad, I am happy ur quality blogging is paying off
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Very cool Paul, as you said though you do talk a bit fast. For some reason you can’t buy the full Nike+ kit here in New Zealand, much like you can’t buy iPhones.
Rather annoying.
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Nice job. Congrats man!
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Great job Paul! Looks great, not only can you do great tech stuff, you are a good actor :)
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Very Cool Paul!
You do talk fast, but I didn’t have any troubles understanding you, if anything it felt “genuine”.
Nice Work.
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That IS cool, if possible I’d like to know what cameras and/or other equipment is needed to do that.
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Good job there paul
I must admit that I had been an avid football player all through grade 5 to my Senior year in High School. I loved to run. Even with those “30 ponds of equipment” but as soon as you remove the factor of having a coach breathe down your neck it’s tough to keep yourself motivated and I’ve probablly ran as much in the past 3 years after graduation as I did in one football practice.
I was impressed with the Nike+ after first hearing about it in stores. Unfortunately time passed and only after stumbling upon your reviews I’ve found my new coach. Myself.
Keep up the good work, and continue on with the awesome reviews.
definitely needed subtitles! haha, congrats dude.
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@titanium_geek
I agree with titanium_geek. I think that they speeded up some of your audio. I’m assuming that only a certain amount of time was alloted for the commercial and they had to fit in everything.
@Paul
This is awesome. I know how it can be a pain to synchronize multiple cameras in Final Cut Pro. This would make life much easier.
Congratulations!
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This came out fantastic — great that it’s not scripted. Congrats!
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Loved it. Great to finally meet you at sw by the way.
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Good job, Paul. That must be incredible watching that back. As someone else mentioned, the ad felt really genuine because it wasn’t scripted. Being Scottish it was a bit difficult trying to make out what you were saying all the time, but I caught most of it :p
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Holy cow, that was some fast talking! Nice to see our fair city splashed over the interwebs. After a long running hiatus due to ITBS, I’m going to recommit to running in 2008. Looks like I’ll have to check out the Nike + setup.
Though I don’t run in Nike’s, they do make several pouches for the sensor so you can use the Nike + system with any shoes.
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hey paul! that is amazing! you do speak a little fast, i have to agree with the others but it’s great that your blog has drawn the attention even from large brands such as nike. I’m sure the whole experience was fulfilling.
keep up the great work!
happy holidays everyone!
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Nice ad Paul! Great to see your blog opening up all sorts of opportunities for you.
Looks good, you talk really fast though :-)
PS. The ad only loads up if you choose United States, I chose Canada to start off with and it just took me to the default Nike+ page.
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Maybe it’s just that I’m from NJ, but I don’t think you were speaking all that quickly! It was a really cool ad though. I’ve been contemplating the whole Nike+ thing, but then I’d need to get a Nano and I’m already attached to my iPod Touch.
Did you have that Nano already? Or was it a prop for the shoot?
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@Jenn – just a prop. I have a 2nd Gen green Nano.
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@Paul – too bad they didn’t let you keep the new one!
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i am not able to watch this any link for outside US peoples
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Cameron on that Nike+ site has only ran 3 miles since she joined, haha.
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Blogged about you!
http://www.shapingthoughts.com/2008/01/07/being-more-like-paul
Regards,
Marcel
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Very impressive ad, well done.
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Thanks to your blog on Nike+ and Nano, I’m now hooked on both. I already had a video iPod 30 GB and had no interest in walking, much less running, or in buying another iPod. That’s all changed. I set a very small, reasonable goal, and actually made it to Nike’s “Hall of Fame” for reaching it. (I’m the beagle in there, of course.)
By the way, here’s a neat little trick I stumbled on with Leopard’s Dashboard, and I love it. Go to any web site, click on File in Safari’s menu, scroll down to select Open in Dashboard, draw the box the size you want over the area you want, and you have your own custom widget. Some will update themselves, like weather reports –and your Nike+ running progress. It’s so simple, but so practical!
Holy crap, you talk fast. ^_^
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Hey man, nice ad. i just started this whole Nike+ thing. i was wonder ing that song they played, i’ve been looking for it, know ing it’s been in many commercials. Help?
P.S. Great speaking. you defiantly were caffeinated