CAN YOU KICK IT?

Sony Music digital creative managers Steve Milbourne and Phil Clandillon have unleashed a follow up (of sorts) to their Cannes Lion-taming AC/DC viral, and this time round indie rockers Kasabian receive a conceptual makeover.

Having wowed office workers the western world over with their security breaching Excel ASCII art promo for AC/DC's Black Ice album, Milbourne and Clandillion have turned their attention to promoting British band Kasabian by creating an homage to the twin joys of video games and football. Teaming up with PTE exec producer Simon Poon Tip and directing duo Dan and Julian, the guys have taken Guitar Hero beyond the fourth wall and into a warehouse at London's Shepperton Studios.

Using the open source Frets on Fire software, a series of pressure sensitive pads, a projector, and some willing amateur footballers, the crew set about creating a real life interactive Guitar Hero experience scored to Kasabian's new track, Underdog. The action was caught on camera by Dan and Julian and has so far netted over half a million hits on YouTube.

"I'd worked with Steve and Phil on another AC/DC project with one of my other directors and they asked me to come in to discuss this idea," reveals Poon Tip. "It was never meant to be a music video, but a viral marketing tool to run alongside the conventional music video and marketing strategy. They were already set on the idea so they just wanted to know if I thought it was possible to do on a big scale and make it an interesting film. As soon as they pitched it I was into it."

To turn the fantasy into a reality, art director Fred Allsop called on the skills of tech gurus Louis Mustill and Arron Smith to bring that side of the project to life. A series of pressure sensitive pads were wired through an Arduino board to a Mac Book Pro, running the Frets on Fire software. The projection element of the shoot was handled by lighting gaffer Nathan Matthews and AV technician Matthew Button, whose previous projects include live events and concerts for artists ranging from Chemical Brothers to Madonna.

"We always felt that the film should be quite natural and realistic," say directing team Dan and Julian. "Phil and Steve wanted to give it a documentary style that would get across the point that this was actually being done for real, so for us that was the most important thing. At the same time we wanted to introduce a little bit of style without going too far and detracting from that realism. We knew that the game would work technically, we just didn't know if the footballers were going to struggle with it because it relied so much on accuracy and timing from them. So the biggest challenge from a directing perspective was the unknown element of the footballers' skill level. We knew they could pull off moves, tricks, and hit the targets but could they do it with the rhythm required to belt out the Kasabian tune? After hours of practice they managed to get the hang of it. Pretty impressive to watch!"