Q: How do you create a sequel to one of the most loved, imitated and widely circulated ads of the last five years? A: If you're smart, you don't even try.

That's the thinking behind Fallon, London's much-hyped rejoinder to last year's Sony Bravia spot, "Balls". Rather than attempt to repeat the original's formula, the Jonathan Glazer-directed "Paint" aims for a completely different mood altogether. And while the jury's still out on whether it'll go down as a worthy followup, one has to admire the agency for not taking the easy way out.

And indeed, from the painstaking pre-pro sessions through to the high-stakes shoot conditions, nothing about "Paint" came easily. In fact, the unique set of challenges involved became apparent from the very first meeting, when Glazer drastically altered the shape of the creative by proposing the spot play out like a fireworks display. "It was his concern to make it a live event as much as possible," recalls production designer Chris Oddy. "He said he wanted to try and keep it all in camera and restrict us to a choreography."

According to Academy Films producer Simon Cooper, the creative took on new resonance in light of the change. "The building aspect was already in the script, so when we started thinking about it being fireworks, we thought about displays you see against buildings," he says. "We liked the idea of fireworks emanating from a building the way they do the London Eye or the Eiffel Tower."

With almost no trace of humanity in the script, location would play an important role. So as to avoid any cleanup nightmares, the crew decided to use a building that was due for demolition. Beyond that, Fallon creative director Juan Cabral knew he wanted to find something that felt both lived-in and "a little bit punk". After finally settling on Glasgow's Toryglen Estate, the team set about the painstaking process of planning the display. "We went to a French fireworks choreographer, gave him a picture of the estate, gave him a piece of music and said 'Design us a fireworks display'," says Oddy. "He did it with no concern for the physical realities of using paint, but it meant that it had the soul of a real fireworks show."

With a rough idea of how the display was going to play out and Rossini's "Thieving Magpie" locked in as the soundtrack, Oddy set about the numbing task of figuring out how to make the 'paint' (which was non-toxic, biodegradeable food thickener) behave like regular pyrotechnics. Since there was no precedent for such a task, the process came down to trial and error. "It became immediately apparent that one can explode a container but that doesn't necessarily propel that liquid in any kind of photogenic form," he says. "We had a lot of false starts." After testing various combinations of "different types of explosives, strengths, thicknesses, containers and kinds of liquid," Oddy and his team were eventually able to produce the spot's three basic types of fireworks: bombs (simple explosions), stalks (which came out of the ground) and pools (paddling pools filled with paint).

But the real stress wouldn't come until the shoot dates. That's because the prohibitive rigging, arming and cleanup times dictated there was only enough daylight to do one take of each of the spot's 10 sequences. Worse still, in order to maintain splash mark continuity, the scenes had to be filmed chronologically. That meant no rehearsals, no room for error, and a lot of praying for sunshine. "We'd have a six-hour setup for a shot and then wait and wait for a patch of sunlight, knowing that if we didn't get it, we'd have a six-hour de-rig to de-arm all the explosives," says Cooper.

After 10 days of shooting, and exactly one take per shot, the 3D department at London's Moving Picture Company took over. While creative head of 3D Jim Radford describes MPC's role as that of a "virtual pickup", he acknowledges his team put an incredible amount of work into the spot; first by digitally cleaning up all the guide ropes, cranes, trusses, pipes, barrels and crew members, and then by bolstering - and in a few cases creating - the explosions. "We augmented what was already there because they didn't reach the height or the timing," he says. "All the bombs in the helicopter shot were CG. We also helped out with the pool bombs."

Taking its cue from the spot's final 10 seconds, in which the only sounds are that of paint droplets falling like rain, Fallon is currently running a scoreless and sound effect-heavy version in cinemas. It's a move that underscores the fact that "Paint" is no sequel to the Jose Gonzalez-soundtracked "Balls". "We weren't looking for the soft warm feeling that the first one created," says Cooper. "We wanted a sense of anarchy in there." And while Cabral acknowledges that they're both part of a larger series, he hopes people will come to appreciate each on their own terms. "They have similarities, of course, but at the same time enough difference so both can exist one next to the other," he says. "We didn't want to make the same film twice."

Fallon http://www.fallon.co.uk
Academy Films
http://www.academyfilms.com
Moving Picture Company
http://www.moving-picture.com