Maverik Lacrosse “spoof” Commercial – Fastec Imaging

I had some fun with the Fastec Imaging HiSpec2 color hi speed camera shooting a “fake” lacrosse commercial. The commercial was a copy of the Paul Rabil 111 MPH spot that my buddy Dave sent me on YouTube. It looked as if the real commercial, shot by Maverik Films New York, was captured using a Phantom camera. You can watch more of their work by clicking here.

Dave’s son, Dylan, plays lacrosse in New Hampshire. We traveled to a local lacrosse field and set up to shoot the commercial. I brought the HiSpec2 color camera, a set of Vinten sticks and the Sony VAIO laptop computer running the hispeed capture software. I had a Nikon 16mm f2.8, 55mm f1.2, and 200mm f3.5 lens.

We shot for just two hours! No lights, just the sun. We had to wait a few minutes for clouds to clear and have consistent sunshine. Dave brought some water so that we could wet down Dylan’s hair and lacrosse strings to get the “hi-speed sweat effect”.

When we finished on the lacrosse field, we shot in the locker room for the first two shots on the spot. I used the Canon 5dmk2 shooting at 30fps with a Canon 85mm f1.2 lens for just these shots. We were in and out of the locker room in about ten minutes! For locker room lighting, we used a clip-on light with a bare 60 watt light bulb (you can see it on the lockers in the background). The key source was a florescent worklight with 1/2 CTO gel gaff taped to the lamp. No KinoFlos on this shoot. This “commercial” had a zero budget thanks to my friends at Fastec for letting me play around with the camera system.

If you are wondering about pricing, this camera can be rented for about $500/day and you can buy one for around $20k. A Phantom may shoot better pictures, but the rental on one is $2,500/day or you could buy one for $150k! Do not quote me no these prices, you can ask Fastec directly by clicking here.

I really wanted to shoot this spot to prove that a very expensive hi-speed Phantom is not necessary for doing this sort of work, as long as 720p HD is enough. When shooting this sort of stuff for the web or even broadcast television, the Fastec Imaging low-budget HiSpec cameras may be the perfect solution.

I will post my version of the Paul Rabil 111 MPH Maverik Lacrosse commercial at the bottom of this page. The following video below is the actual commercial shot (with a big budget for sure) by Maverik using a hi speed camera system. Watch this video first, so you can see what inspired Dave and I to get out and shoot our own version with Dylan.

I am not the only one out shooting spoofs on this great commercial spot. Watch the video below for an attempt to imitate the look and feel of the real commercial. I loved the sweat stains!

At some point, these high speed cameras will become more available for almost anyone who wants to shoot at fast frame rates. The above YouTube video was inspired by the very well shot and attention stirring professional lacrosse advertisement. I am looking forward to see what people do with these cameras when the price drops.

Now, here is my version of the Paul Rabil Maverik commercial. Dave, Dylan and I shot this entire thing in a couple hours and I edited it using Final Cut Pro. I used the Eureka “Vapor Across” transition for the white flashes. I made a few changes to the shots and enhanced the sound a bit to match the white flashes. The last few fast action shots at the end of my version were shot at 718 FPS, but I speed them up in post 2,000 percent to get them back to normal real-time speed!

Be sure to download the video in the links at the bottom of this page to view the commercial spot on your computer screen at full resolution 720p HD. The video will play much smoother off your hard drive. These Fastec Imaging cameras are silky smooth when it comes to slow motion playback.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.