Berlin, Cameron & Partners (BC&P), New York worked with Satellite Films' director Brian Beletic and a bevy of second-unit directors to capture a multitude of un-advertising-ish footage for Reebok's "Defy Convention." Some of the threads that are introduced and followed throughout the spot are: anti--cell phone terrorists dressed as mobile phones snatching and destroying portables; NBA player Steve Francis jumping a moving car from a standstill; a 400 lb+ sumo wrestler vaulting groin first onto a pommel horse; Thai kick volleyball shot from every angle; a foxy office worker Xeroxing her booty; and, of course, the explosive closing product shots. All of it is paced by the William Tell Overture as remixed by Quannum Projects' own DJ Shadow.

Ewen Cameron, creative director of BC&P describes the history of Reebok's advertising as being most successful when it veers away from the Nike-centric idea of winning at all costs, instead emphasizing individuality and self-expression.

"We put together this collage of the way we feel the brand and our target audience defy convention," says Cameron. "I think a lot of that big superhero stuff doesn't cut it with kids anymore. The whole democratization of video and camcorders has meant ordinary people have a fascination with real-time action. From Survivor to America's Funniest Home Videos, it's all fair game for culture or sport."

While many of the up-tempo story angles in the "Defy" spot are related in some way to sports, communicating active defiance to an 18- to 24-year-old demographic was the focus; Cameron says Beletic was the man to mastermind the production.

"The decision to work with Brian was based on a generational reference point. We wanted a guy who was of the new skate culture and the new film, about digital cameras as much as beautiful, 35mm film," says Cameron.

As lead director on this project, which was filmed in Thailand, the US, the UK and France, Beletic says he was in the midst of a scaled-up version of his optimal working conditions.

"One of my favorite things is shooting in places the camera usually doesn't go; being hands on and going to locations over studio is a dream scenario to me," says Beletic. "The goal was to make it feel authentic because authenticity creates impact. Everything here really happened and was captured on camera."

Creatives, director, unit directors Josh Taft, Enda Hughes, Christophe Navarre, Aaron Saidman and Ben Mor and many others came up with hundreds of potential vignettes, before the total was narrowed down to about 50 concepts. Working with DP Joaquin Baca-Asay, Beletic shot the majority of the footage, while the rest of the "Kommando" squad fanned out to shoot particular sequences.

"I shot about 90 percent of it, but there were massively specific things that needed to be shot in different places by different people," says Beletic. "It needed to feel like it came from all over the world, so it was important to spread this out to more than one director."