One Giant Dunk For Mankind: Mutt Industries And Carboard Castle Create A Basketball Court On The Moon For Their Award-Winning Spot For Nike Hyperdunk Shoes

Before NASA sent the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon, they had them prepare by suiting up and walking around on a giant sand-filled soundstage. (Some say they never left the soundstage.)

In the same way creative agency Mutt Industries and production company Cardboard Castle used our soundstage to create a realistic simulation of dunking a basketball on the moon.

One day, when lunar streetball is as common as a pickup game in the the park, people will look back and say, "This is where the dream started."

Their TV spot, which they produced for Nike Hyperdunk basketball shoes, won them a gold ADDY for Digital Advertising, and silver and bronze Telly Awards for Online Commercial and Visual Effects.

The concept was to show a basketball player fast breaking across the dusty lunar surface and dunking on an impossibly high hoop. To pull off this effect they painted our cyc blue and then marked it with hundreds of pieces of painter's tape so they could accurately move the digital background.

Then they shot their talent against the blue screen with a Red Epic camera, having him jump off mini trampolines to achieve sufficient height. 

The whole process was pretty complex and they had to shoot the thing in one long day. Read the whole story of how they did it on Cardboard Castle's blog.

Then scroll all the way down to see the finished spot below.