TNT/NBA 'Finals 2021'
One of the very few times a meaningful message is the driving force for a commercial.
May 25, 2021
2 min read
Director: Jak Banon
Prod. Company: KayFab3
Client: TNT
A film with real weight behind it — directed by the exceptionally talented Jak Bannon, whose analogue aesthetic and choice of collaborators gave the whole project a distinctive, considered texture.
Pipeline
The volume of material coming in from the TNT researchers was substantial, so we built a pipeline to handle it without slowing the edit down. Using AWS Lambda functions in combination with S3, we automated the analysis, conversion, and delivery of every clip — uploading directly into organised FrameIO project folders, ready for the editors to work with. No babysitting required. At peak, we were processing a terabyte of footage every single day, completely unattended, landing cleanly where it needed to be.
VFX
On the effects side, we worked across a range of shots and extended several sequences — most notably the ball-to-earth transition, and the subsequent dive through clouds to a plane window and city below. That sequence required advanced volumetric rendering of large-scale cloudscapes in Arnold, built in 3D to allow a seamless, high-speed crash zoom that would have been impossible to achieve any other way.
This was a meaningful project in every sense. Made against the backdrop of the NBA bubble and the death of George Floyd, it carried a gravity that went well beyond basketball — and working on it felt like the right thing to be part of.