The newest viral sports video floating around (and the latest great example of Nike marketing) is Kobe Bryant appearing to jump over an Aston Martin racing right at him.
Well, the Lakers star-turned-stuntman comes clean and explains how he did it. John Ireland of KCAL-TV catches up with the Kobester for the scoop:
Ireland: “They ran your Nike commercial tonight. How’d they film that, man? How’d you jump over that car?”
Kobe: “Hollywood, baby!”
Ireland: “So, you’re not putting yourself in unnecessary danger, I hope.”
Kobe: “It’s Hollywood. What’chu expect out here?”
(The two share a hearty laugh.)
Ireland: “That’s all your giving me?”
Kobe: “Hey, if Rambo can take on a whole army - ‘Rambo Part 20′ can take on a whole army, I can jump over an Aston Martin.”
He’s got us there.
We kind of figured Bryant wouldn’t brave such a dangerous stunt for real. But looking at the crowd behind him during the interview clip with Ireland, we can pick out a couple of potential daredevils willing to try it, for YouTube glory - and intensive care treatment.
4:46 am on April 12th, 2008
This stunt was possibly filmed in real time, with no digital editing involved. None was needed, because Kobe did not actually jump over the Aston Martin. It is tough to see on the YouTube video because the frame rate is about half the rate of TV. I Tivo’d it from the evening news, and if you examine the shadows on the ground, it looks like Kobe is standing closer to the camera than the car is by perhaps a few feet. By clever use of camera angle and probably a long lens, as well as the antics before and after the stunt, it is made to seem like Kobe was directly in front of the car. That said, had Kobe actually been in front of the car, the jump would have been successful. The only real question is, how many times did they have to try the stunt to get the timing right?
By doing some simple timing of the stunt and a little math, it is easy to calculate that the car was traveling about 20 mph, which is about 29.3 feet per second. The car is 14 ft. 4.5 in. long according to the Aston Martin web site. About 13 ft. of it can be seen in the frame of view. Kobe is in the air for about 0.9 seconds in the version I Tivo’d, which translates into about 26.3 feet of travel for the car. The car is just entering frame when Kobe leaves the ground, and is just leaving frame when he touches the ground again. With a 13 ft. frame of view and a 14 foot car, that makes 27 ft. so the numbers check. But the timing has to be perfect, so if he got it right the first time, he is incredible.
Alternatively, the Aston Martin could have been Photoshopped in later. That is so easy to do these days. But I don’t think they did. A little clever camera work, along with Kobe and his buddy doing a pretty good sell job is much more elegant.
2:29 pm on April 12th, 2008
I can’t imagine it wasn’t ’shopped. Having Kobe 10 feet away from a car going that speed - that would seem to be pretty dangerous. Who knows what could happen.
7:44 pm on April 13th, 2008
Since this is the viral marketing topic I though I would virally market my good buddy JT the Brick. The sports medial journal.com just ran ran a March Madness tournament for sports broadcasters and JT won the whole thing. Proving once again that he is the best late night sports talk show host in America today.