Press Release

Working with world-renowned director Spike Lee and agency Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky, postproduction house Nice Shoes (www.niceshoes.com) recently provided its color correction services for a series of five :30 HD spots for the New York Knicks. The spots began airing this month.
Aiming to reintroduce and promote the "new" Knicks, the commercials acquaint fans and viewers alike with the fresh faces and expectations that are riding on this talented group of talent.
Shot as if Spike Lee had taken a 16mm camera to the basketball courts, the documentary-style spots have a grainy texture that adds character and realness. The most difficult aspect of the campaign was maintaining that consistency. The lighting issues were most problematic because the spots were shot outside.
The Specter 2K DataCine, however, made consistency a non-issue. Nice Shoes artists color-corrected the spots in a digital intermediate suite using this machine. “Due to budget constraints, the agency wanted to maximize time spent in the room,” says Chris Ryan, a colorist at Nice Shoes. “The Specter was chosen on the spot. It not only put everything in cut order, but it allowed the agency to see everything in context without having to stop and roll film up in the old way.”
In addition to the life-size cardboard cutouts of the players in all the spots, the consistency of the campaign is maintained through the ever-present humor, and the famous and semi-famous narrators. Jerry Ferrara of HBO‚s Entourage and Bobbito Garcia, a godfather of hiphop culture, talk about the almost superhuman qualities of the diminutive rookie Nate Robinson in "Dunkman." In "Mac & Q," the outspoken tennis superstar John McEnroe pelts Quentin Robinson in his usual manner with verbal instigations and tennis balls. Long-time Knicks fanatic Spike Lee demands that hall-of-fame coach Larry Brown up the defense at a local Brooklyn eatery in "Spike and Larry: Defense."
Tech tools: Specter 2K Datacine, Spirit, DaVinci