How the NBA Time Travel Commercials are Made [Video]

For the unaware, the NBA marketing team seems to know exactly what they’ve been doing for the past few years, from the “Where Amazing Happens” commercials to the “There Can Be Only One” commercials. The latest marketing blitz on NBA fans’ emotions features impressive commercials that show footage from current NBA stars’ pasts, but interacting with people from the “future,” wherein the “time traveler” not only interacts with the NBA star, but also gives an emotional little speech about said NBA star’s future career. Each of the commercials are rather impressive, such as one featuring Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant receiving a speech about how he’ll play for an as-of-then nonexistent Oklahoma City team, where he “reacts” to names of his future teammates, of who he–as of the then–wasn’t aware.

Though it wasn’t too difficult to figure out that the all-encompassing answer of “computers” made the time travelers able to interact with the old footage of NBA stars, Dime Magazine posted a video revealing the specifics regarding how the time traveler commercials were created, using the commercial featuring two-time MVP Steve Nash as the example. The above video shows the commercial in full, then launches into the explanation, showing and explaining the processes behind creating the commercial. They recreated the scene of the old Nash footage, using a stand-in in place of Nash and filmed it, had the actor walk around in appropriate places corresponding with the Nash footage, color corrected and cloned some scenery, moved Nash backward in order for the time traveler’s eye line to match up with Nash’s, and of course, added a few dialogue gems that tug on those Nash-related heartstrings. Impressive stuff.

(via Gizmodo)