Outside editorial and visual effects team crafted an idyllic, sunny summer day for ‘Kids,’ a sweet and simple spot for New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. in collaboration with Ryan Partnership in Wilton, Connecticut.

The commercial features four kids wearing New Balance athletic shoes, swinging in and out of frame on a picture-perfect day. After the first young girl swings gently into the foreground and out the other side of the frame, a mom appears in the middle ground carrying one child, while two others frolic in a field. ‘Moms know no two kids are the same,’ the voiceover tells us. ‘That why New Balance makes kids’s shoes that are as individual as they are.’

In the next scene a little boy swings in and out of frame, and then a second girl follows suit as the playful family in the distance walks out of frame. The Kids New Balance logo appears with the tag line: New Balance. We Fit Kids, as the last little girl enjoys her turn on the swing.

‘It a spot designed to tug at the heart of every mom,’ says editor Scott Gibney. He and VFX artist Steve Mottershead were onsite for the shoot with MacGuffin Films’s director Theresa Wingert, in a park in Sleepy Hollow, New York. However, the weather did not cooperate, and overcast skies and sporadic rain made it obvious that Outside talent would have to come up with some creative solutions in postproduction.

Back in his Avid edit suite at the SOHO-base Outside, Gibney selected footage of the four kids on swings from the pool of children lensed in the park. He cut the spot, timing the kids’s swings and wiping them on and off screen from left to right and vice versa.

Then Outside began to work its weather-changing magic. Gibney composited in a clear blue sky from stock footage and added some highlights to the wet grass where there were none.

‘But Steve (Mottershead) really brought the spot to life in Flame,’ Gibney reports. Mottershead added shadows of the kids on the grass, creating the illusion that it was a sunny day. He also warmed up the colors in the scene with the kids and the family in the field and made the children’s white shoes pop in the now-sunny environment.

Gibney suggested ‘a simple feel-good acoustic guitar’ track for the spot, something ‘slow paced that didn’st build too much.’ Amber Music supplied several demos to fill the bill. ‘We picked one and never changed it through the edit,’ Gibney reports.

View the spot here!

About Outside
Outside is a 4,000 square-foot SOHO-based editorial, design and visual effects boutique dedicated to providing advertising agencies with high-end, innovative solutions to their ever-changing needs for creative content for both traditional and emerging media. Their client roster includes Jaguar, Samsung, Volvo, Yahoo, Lugz, New Balance and Intel, to name a few. For additional information contact Executive Producer Sila Soyer at 212.966.3980 or go to www.outsideedit.com .

Credits
CLIENT: New Balance
TITLE: “Kids”

AD AGENCY: Ryan Partnership – Wilton, CT
Director of Broadcast Production: Don Growhoski
Creative Director: Ryan Conover
Art Director: Kate Keparutis
Copywriter: Carolyn Capshaw
Producer: Stacey Suplizio

PRODUCTION COMPANY: MacGuffin Films Limited, NY
Director: Theresa Wingert
Director of Photography: Jordan Levy
Producer: David Feikens

EDITORIAL COMPANY: Outside, NY
Editor: Scott Gibney
Assistant Editor: Sam Barden
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Assistant Producer: Leslie McCartney

ONLINE EDITORIAL COMPANY: Outside, NY
Online Editor: Scott Gibney

VISUAL EFX COMPANY: Outside, NY
FX artist: Steve Mottershead

AUDIO POST COMPANY: Berwyn, NY
Mixer: Eric Thompson
Assistant: Brett Fuchs

MUSIC COMPANY: Amber Music
Composer: John Wood