hangingcleats.com is a non profit organization dedicated to providing access to sports, specifically soccer, to youth who live in high risk areas around the world. Their founder contacted me after viewing some of my documentary work, and asked if I would be willing to shoot a short commercial that would air during the World Cup.

I thought a lot about what the commercial should be, and in the end came up with three strong ideas. Logistics, budget, and timing forced us to pick the third idea, but looking back, I’m of the opinion it was the better idea all along. It’s simple, direct, and invites the viewer to interpret the work.

I collaborated with Jerry Thompson on this shoot, and we decided to use his Canon 5D and his arsenal of L-series Canon lenses. We used the 50mm f1.2, 70-200mm f2.8, and the 16-35mm f2.8.

The music (to which I’m still trying to get the rights) is placeholder for now, but is the song Zeyphr by the excellent Scott Morgan (AKA Loscil) who scores for documentaries and games, as well as has several terrific albums out. Hopefully I can secure the rights.

It was great to have him there to guide me through the post production process, and a short commercial like this was a great test to get a feel for the Canon workflow. I’m really happy with the outcome, and I hope you like what we came up with. Enjoy.