For adidas and Foot Locker, which gathered some of the best graffiti artists in the world to create a signature collection of shoes, Director Thor Raxlen and Guerilla FX (New York, NY), through time-lapse photography, shot the creative efforts of renowned graffiti artist Rime (AKA Jersey Joe).

His mural for the ‘End-to-End’ collection takes the artist work literally from the street to your feet. The one minute web spot, which launched April 6th, has been attached to a mix of urban culture, community and sneaker-head sites including XXLmag.com, Artistdirect.com, allhiphop.com, vibe.com, defjam.com, rocafella.com, islandrecords.com, spin.com, blackplanet.com, sneakerfreaker.com, hypebeast.com and sneakerplay.com. In addition, the 1:00 spot is being projected from vans onto building facades throughout both New York and Los Angeles to garner further attention for the new line of sneakers.

Thor Raxlen, Director/Creative Director, of Guerilla FX, an independent design, effects and post finishing company, explained, ‘We filmed Rime painting a 20X30 blue wall, which we removed via chroma-key, so what we have, in essence, is a floating video on a transparency that can easily be placed over a website or projected onto the side of a building. Painting the mural took about an hour and a half, however, using time-lapse photography, we compressed the footage into a one-minute spot. It is a wonderful concept and I understand that this digital graffiti is gathering crowds whenever it is projected on the streets of LA or NY.’

Of her agency collaboration with Guerilla FX, AKA Advertising Producer Carly Chappell added, ‘We’sve worked with Thor in the past and knew he was directing spots as well as editing and creating visual effects for commercials. He is tremendously talented, did a great job with this shoot, and we hope to work with his team again in the very near future.’

The Guerilla FX creative team, led by Director/Creative Director Thor Raxlen, included Director of Photography Joplin Wu; Executive Producer Doug Robbins; Senior Producer Alex Aab; Production Manager Jeff Weatherby; Still Operator Cima Bue; Editor/Compositor Jeff Um and Post Supervisor Jody Peters.

Shot on Broadway Stages (Brooklyn, NY), Guerilla FX utilized still photography shot with a Canon 5D, video photography shot with a Panasonic HD P2, and composited the project in Adobe After Effects.

Representing AKA Advertising (New York, NY) were Creative Director Doug Spitzer, Associate Creative Director Jesse Scaturro, Executive Producer Chris Thielo and Producer Carly Chappell. Eye Wonder (Atlanta, GA) developed the rich media banners in conjunction with AKA. Marc Herstein composed the musical underscore.

About Guerilla FX:
Guerilla FX, an independent design, effects and post finishing company, is the natural out growth of the relationship created when 0:2:60 Executive Producer Doug Robbins first signed Visual Effects Designer/Editor/Director Thor Raxlen for commercial direction. Together they launched Guerilla FX in January 2006 and this uniquely creative, vertically integrated company now takes projects from preliminary discussions through the shoot, editing and effects. They have recently completed high profile projects for clients including Citibank, FedEx, Foot Locker, General Mills, Kyocera, Montefiore Hospital, MTV, Nexxus, Nike, Subway, TRESemm?©, and Verizon, among many others.

www.guerillafx.com
www.0260.com

Credit Sheet

Airdate: Launched April 6 on the Internet and screened on sides of buildings in NY and LA
Client: Foot Locker and adidas
Title: ‘End-to-End’
Length of web Spot: one minute
Description of Spot: Guerilla FX Director Thor Raxlen shot time lapse photography of renowned graffiti artist Jersey Joe A.K.A. Rime painting an ‘End-to-End’ mural against a white cyc. Once completed, two painters roll on a neutral background to cover the art and create a surface onto which End-To-End sneakers are displayed and taqgged with ‘Adidas Originals?‚àö√묨‚àÇEnd-To-End only at Foot Locker?‚àö√묨‚àÇ.Love Thy Sneakers.’
Production/Post Production: Guerilla FX
City/State: New York, NY
Director: Thor Raxlen
Director of Photography: Joplin Wu
Executive Producer: Doug Robbins
Senior Producer: Alex Aab
Production Manager: Jeff Weatherby
Still Operator: Cima Bue
Editor/Compositor: Jeff Um
Post Supervisor: Jody Peters

Equipment Used: Still Photography, Canon 5D; Video Photography, Panasonic HD P2; Composited in Adobe After Effects

Location of Shoot: Broadway Stages
City/State: Brooklyn, NY
Agency: AKA Advertising
City/State: New York, NY
Creative Director: Doug Spitzer
Associate Creative Director: Jesse Scaturro
Senior Producer: Chris Thielo
Producer: Carly Chappell
Web Development: Eye Wonder
City/State: Atlanta, GA
Senior Campaign Manager: Rocio Briceno
Music: Composer Marc Herstein