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metacafe.com — Sending 250,000 multi-coloured 'superballs' bouncing down the streets of San Francisco may seem the strangest way to do this, but that's exactly what Danish director Nicolai Fuglsig did for the Sony BRAVIA commercial in July this year. San Franciscans have seen some unusual things in their time, but even this gave them something to talk about. And

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  • wendela, on 10/12/2007, -44/+4This is a the best moving, of Sony, having do it..
    Because the aminal's..

    • Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2If only the PS3 commercials where as good as this.

      I mean a Crying/Crazy baby doll and a hovering PS3 don't make me want to buy a PS3, they kinda freak me out!
    • spencewah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35Was that English?
    • fiftyeggs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I think you mean July of last year. Happy New Year everyone!
    • mentor972, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5old
    • Greyhaven7, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4Man, if my car had been parked on that street I would have murdered that guy. I wonder if they blocked off the street and put their own cars there or if they just thought it would be ok if they dented the ***** out of other peoples' cars.
    • Historian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14@Greyhaven7

      Is your car made of tin foil?
    • Greyhaven7, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8Alluminum actually (Audi). Denting is a concern, not because of a bouncy-ball, but because it's 250,000 balls (instead of a bee-bee-gun shot, it's a shotgun effect). On top of that, they're bouncing down a street, picking up bits of dirt and grit and then slamming, spinning, twisting into your paint. Anyone who likes their car would flip their ***** if someone did that to their car, trust me.
    • halfway, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I agree with spencewah

      "Was that English?"
    • pseudojd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@Greyhaven This isn't a military Time On Target operation where ever single ball hits some part of your car at the same instant. within any second only a few balls would make contact. I'm guessing it would do nothing. Unless you had a tin foil car.
    • trunkster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Check out the making of the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAJcj89qIts

      The noise of all the bouncing balls is just awesome.
    • fubes2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In case digg owns Sony Europe's Servers .... HD Version Torrented:
      http://fubes2000.savagenoodle.com/torrent/Bravia-LikeNoOther.torrent

      Tried putting it on piratebay but it's being buggy and breaking as usual.

      Sony Bravia - Like No Other advert [700x394, 44.1kHz, 2:31]
      Song: 'Heartbeats' performed by José González
      Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
    • cooldudevamsee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So what microsoft is going to throw ?
    • fubes2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Microsoft will throw what they always throw at things when they want it their way.

      Money.
  • masterofNone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10beautiful. great tune. loved the frog.
  • rawM3TAL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anyone know the song?
    • systemghost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16ಠ_ಠ Google Responds:
      "'Heartbeats', performed by José González from his critically-acclaimed debut Album, 'Veneer'."
    • seanherman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6a little more information about the song:

      While Jose Gonzales is definitely performing the song, it's actually his cover of Heartbeats, written by the Swedish indie-electronic group The Knife for their album Deep Cuts. The Knife's latest album, Silent Shout, has attracted plenty of critical acclaim, and landed on several publication's top 10 albums of 2006 lists. The Knife sounds something like Kraftwerk blended into Architecture in Helsinki.

      http://www.theknife.net/
  • Foliot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Loved it!

    That video really bounced.
  • kenadak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14High res version:

    http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/braviaextcommhigh.html

    also checkout the paint version (not as good in my opinion)

    http://www.bravia-advert.com/
  • Hermitwise, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The Paint one is also cool

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GURvHJNmGrc
  • JED9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20i feel bad for the dude who has to pick all those up.
    • dgh1973, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That's all I could think while watching it... that and even HOW are they going to pick all of them up. You know there were probably about a thousand strays.
    • shaggyb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I was thinking about the clean up but also thinking about how much damage those things cause. Check out the clip at about 1:38 when they show the side of the house. You can see a piece of the house fly off.
  • ROFLance, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1imagine being the dude who has to clean all that ***** up.
    • rmjb, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Imagine being the company that gets the contract to clean this up! cha-ching!$$!

      - rmjb
  • frankcow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4That song is Jose Gonzalez, covering Heartbeats (originally by electronic group The Knife)
  • eMadman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4That's a fine example of what a good commercial should be.

    There's a behind the scenes and higher quality version available through Sony's site
    http://www.bravia-advert.com/balls/
  • mindsnare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5wow I never realised it was real, I always assumed it was CGI, I'm very impressed now.
    • DenTPuzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I saw this ad last year while I was in the UK. I thought it was CGI as well! I wouldn't like to have been crossing the street with that lot coming towards me!
  • dptechie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21They must've had a lot of balls to pull that off.
  • plasticated, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Welcome to last year!
  • mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20The Director of Photography for this ad does guest lectures at my school for the Cinematography class. He was talking about using high-speed film cameras, and mentioned working on a Sony ad recently where they used a super high-speed camera. Having seen this ad on the internet, I asked if that was the one he was talking about. He was surprised I had seen it, since this is a UK ad. I got him to talk about it for a while.

    Typical slow motion is shot at anywhere from 48 to 72 frames per second. The camera they used for this film was shooting closer to 700 frames per second. The motor to drive the thing took three men to carry and mount onto the camera. They would take a large commercial trash bin like the ones that sit out behind stores, and they would fill it with 2000 of those super bouncy balls. Then they would just tip the thing over using a Caterpillar type thing. Over and over again, fill it up, dump it out.

    Problem was, they didn't get permission from everyone that lived on the streets they filmed on. The producers, being from the UK, weren't too worried about angry citizens; they had permission from the city, and that was all that mattered. People would come up to the DP irate and screaming, and he would just point to the producer and say "I'm just the photographer, go yell at that guy." The producers would give the people a couple hundred bucks in cash, and that would be that. Except, windows were smashed, cars were dented up, havoc was wreaked. At the end of the day, the guys from the UK would be flying back home, so they couldn't have cared less. That's Sony for you.
    • fiftyeggs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"That's Sony for you."

      That's about right.
  • thirdman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Tango* did a viral parody of it

    http://www.swansea-res.org.uk/tv_advert.html

    (* Fruit flavoured soft drink for those who don't know it)
    • crackintosh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6nice. I just joined the "Swansea North Residents Association" protest, and you should too! Help stop the fruit flingers!
      from the petition:
      "On the 17th of February 2006 it rained fruit in Swansea North, causing much damage to property (for which we have received no compensation). Here's the reason why:

      http://www.swansea-res.org.uk/tv_advert.html

      The filming of this TV advert traumatized many small, domestic animals and a number of our older residents are now too afraid to leave their homes."
    • Jofaba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hah, wow. That was almost as good. Nice find!
    • lagonis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is this site a satire? Spend some time and read about the protest and watch the interviews. I think it is real, but it feels so fake.
  • Depthfunction, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"San Franciscans have seen some unusual things in their time, but even this gave them something to talk about"

    It looked to me like almost no San Franciscans at all got to see it.
  • cpbrown, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4is this altered in some way to make it worthwile bringing back to digg almost a year after it was originally dugg when first released?

    i think not. buried as a duplicate.
    • tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5thats like going to a movie twice, and the 2nd time, you complain to everyone in the theater that you already saw this once already.
  • turquoisefish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'll digg this but don't bother with the link at the top use the hi-res one posted in a reply.
  • foobarra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5FS: Big box of about 10,000 super balls that I found on the street. Good condition. Free shipping from San Francisco.
  • bightchee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Battlefield 2 spoof of that commercial

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0FLSr4S9rQ
  • yonnermark, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2people say I sound like jose. here's an mp3 of mine
    http://www.yonner.co.uk/tunes/yonner-i-love-you-but-its-purely-platonic-v3.mp3

    is this spam? I dunno. I'm not making up the fact that people do say it, so it's kind of a legitimate posting I'd say.
  • CSSCHNEIDER, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is one of the most beautiful ads ever made. Yes, that's pretty obvious, but damn is that amazingly shot, edited, and scored. Love it.
  • berfmurret, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2mesmerising! so beautiful. and so wonderfully done. slow motion. catching the reactions of the environment. the people. the animals. truly a work of art.
  • orabox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I can tell you all first hand that this is real, it was filmed close to my house and they posted notices that they were filming that day, they film lots of stuff in SF. They had huge nets at the end of the hill on Kearney right before Broadway to catch the balls. As for the car, it was most likely placed by the film company, no one parks on that hill and they did have tow away notices everywhere. It was fun seeing all the balls bounce down the hill live but the video is better.

    Its a dupe, but fun
  • lorenhatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wouldn't want to be the one to clean up all those balls.
    • crackintosh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2nor read the comments before posting the most obvious thing you could say? Now you should ask what the song is.
    • DaceDiath, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Yeah I was wondering that. Does anyone know what song it is? its really cool!

  • noonzie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Amber : Ms. Stoeger, my plastic surgeon doesn't want me doing any activity where balls fly at my nose.
    Dionne : Well, there goes your social life.
  • cornerback42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That's one hell of a littering ticket

    250,000 x $500

    $125,000,000 that's an expensive commercial

    /sarcasm
  • burnzy3210, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0i used to work in a Sony store and that song would play over and over all day... funny enough i never got bored of it and the album is awesome
  • Spooky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would rather see this using bowling balls.
  • cornerback42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How about 250,000 of these things:

    "The world's largest rubber band ball was created by Steve Milton, and has a diameter of over six feet. The 4,600+ lb ball is estimated to contain over 175,000 rubber bands. It obtained the world record on November 21, 2006 in Chicago, IL."

    Now THAT would be a sight!

    *No people were harmed in the making of this post*

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_band_ball
  • desmondregan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0very old ... jose gonzalez was one of my favourite artists for a long while.. crosses is a better song
  • yonnermark, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1that song is probably the worst on the album... for the simple reason that he didn't write it.
    the original version of that song is awesome
  • Adenosine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1YouTube murders this commercial. HD FTW
  • daonlyfreez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The original song:

    The Knife - Heartbeats -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZatCZ1YWQeI

    Check this one out too:

    The Knife - Pass this on -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y33pYz8Pxo
  • raz98, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The video is excellent , although when I first seen it a long time ago I had the impression it was compositing (3D balls over film), probably the same result without the nasty stuff of cleaning the balls at the end :)
    Also you have no idea how much damage a lot of bouncing balls can do to a car's paint, especially the new cars with clear coatings and environmental friendly paint. If you don't believe me... when you buy your next car, take a look at the paint in the sun before and after you take the car to it's first automatic car wash (that "suppose" to do no damage to the paint)
  • lingua203, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It was beautiful! I just find it hard to believe that environmentaly friendly San Francisco would allow all those balls to be released like that. And what arms did they have to twist to get traffic diverted? It was beautiful, but I certainly can't justify the expense.
  • 4th3157, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why not just use CGI? Would have saved loads of money. It's no wonder Sony charges and arm and a leg for their stuff, all the money is squandered creating adverts like this. I mean, did they really need to pay someone to tell them that bouncy balls were best?
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