This great new airpods ad was made mostly with practical effects, directed by Oscar Hudson and backed by a new version of “I Learned Some Jazz Today”. Via AdAge:
As an ad for Apple’s wireless AirPod headphones, the spot was fittingly created without the use of wires or a harness. In fact, almost all of the gravity-defying movement in the spot was made using practical effects, not CGI in post.
The team shot outdoor scenes in Kiev, Ukraine, before recreating the entire town on a set inside the country’s largest airplane hangar. The “ground,” however, was built six feet off the floor, to allow space for trampolines built into the sidewalks.
When the actor, a protégé of high-flying choreographer and acrobat Yoann Bourgeois, bounces off a grate in the film, he is actually bouncing off a grate made of trampoline material. Another trampoline is painted to look just like a real manhole cover.