The fiercely competitive, violent, aggressive game of hockey

The isolated, soul-searching, imaginative act of creative writing

The similarities between these hobbies/professions appear tenuous and seem to make for an unlikely metaphor, but that’s just the concept behind a new Bauer spot produced by Jolly Roger through BBDO Toronto, directed by Steve Chase and shot by dop Robert Richardson,

Airing in time for the World Cup of Hockey on Aug. 25, the team at bbdo – chief creative officer Larry Tolpin, writer and group creative director Neil McOstrich, senior art director Bill Newbury and producer Dena Thompson – came up with the unique idea of a blank page before a pen carves out its literary genius as an analogy for the crystal-clear sheet of ice awaiting the next set of skates to cut its surface during the artistry of the game.

Forget the brutish, violent, brawlish images of Hockey Night in Canada. This 60-second spot, executive produced by Peter and James Davis, turns hockey into a dramatic, mysterious, poetic art form.

Open on a slow-moving, wide pan of an empty arena cloaked in dark shadows, giving the space a cold, sacred, pristine effect. The atmosphere is closer to the feeling you get entering a temple of worship than a stadium awaiting a crowd of boisterous, beer-drinking fans.

Against the soft, slow melody of a string orchestra, a lone hockey player glides gracefully over the smooth, clear slate of ice. In slow-motion, black-and-white and muted color shots, sticks soar through the air, shiny skates spray up delicate clouds of snow, and players stretch and leap gracefully to make elegant savesArt in the making.

The puck pirouettes through the air rather than pounding the ice; players spring and soar over the boards, not scrambling ferociously like a pack of animals.

The romantic ideal of the tortured, lonely artist – an exhausted player, steam framing his face, douses himself with water. A dark figure profiled in an empty locker room eases his aches and bruises. Close-up on a long gash down the nose of a player. Then Eric Lindross, who endorses Bauer products, makes a cameo appearance, confidently striding onto the ice, the god of this artistic temple.

Even director Chase describes working on this assignment as a spiritual experience. ‘The spot was very emotional for me,’ he says. ‘I’m from Montreal and hockey is part of my religion, part of my blood and upbringing.’ In fact, Chase was drafted to the junior a and went to training camp, but an injury ended his chances to go professional.

‘Being a hockey player I know that one of the best things in the world is stepping onto a perfectly clean sheet of ice, because every game might be the game you turn into a better player, or the game you get your nose broken. Every clean sheet is an opportunity, just as in writing, where every time you have a clean sheet of paper you may write the world’s greatest novel or just write a shopping list.’

Chase tried to heighten and enhance the romanticized take on hockey provided in bbdo’s storyboards.

‘Hockey is usually tough, aggressive and angry, so I tried to make it graceful and show a peaceful aggression by shooting everything overcranked in slow motion,’ he explains. ‘On television, games are shown in big, wide, group shots, and all the lights in the arena make it look cold and hard.’

Instead, Chase focused on tight shots of faces, skates and sticks. Edited by Richard Unruh and Grant Pye at Third Floor Editing, the action is paced slowly, allowing the eye to linger on each detail for full effect.

In choosing the shots and directing the plays of the junior a players cast for the spot, Chase used his personal hockey experience as a guide.

‘For visual cues I thought about when I play and the things spectators don’t see when there are 12 guys on the ice and bodies are flying everywhere,’ he says. ‘Viewers don’t get a chance to see how graceful and elegant skating can be. I wanted them to say, `Wow look at this guy skate, look how beautiful it is, how the ice flies through the air and takes a beating.’ ‘

An ironic production note, Chase had a cast on his foot during the shoot at Stratford Arena and was hobbling around the ice as he directed the players.

His decision to shoot primarily in black and white, intermixed with several muted color shots, came after watching a few hnic games and realizing hockey under bright lights isn’t glamorous.

‘Looking at the rink lit up is not filmically pretty, it’s ugly, it’s flat, there are no shadows,’ Chase says. ‘Black and white added an elegance and a focus. It’s easy to be distracted by bright uniforms and the yellow stripes on the board. We wanted to add some theater and drama to the spot so we turned the lights off.’

But while consciously sentimentalizing the sport, Chase was also aware from his own experience and injuries how fierce and aggressive hockey can be – a major concussion after being hit in the head was what took Chase out of training camp.

‘This spot shows both the grace and the brutality of the game,’ he says. ‘The shot of the guy with the cut on his face was a bit of a contentious issue. It’s not the glamorous side of the sport but it’s real – every hockey game I ever played in someone got hurt.’

Music at hockey games is typically loud and clamoring, a get-the-crowd-on-their-feet sound. Again, opposites are at work in this spot. The musical score was one of the more difficult decisions made during production.

At Jungle Music, composer Doug Wilde and producer Mark Stafford laid a number of tracks, from acoustic guitar, drums, bagpipes and vocals to Bach symphonies, before the decision was made to go with a string orchestra.

‘We wanted something very stately and elegant against these pictures of a hockey game,’ explains Wilde. ‘Rather than doing a hard-driving hockey or sports track we wanted something traditional, classical, from the poetic world. The string orchestra is very anthemic, graceful, and sets a mood. We chose this music because of the elegance of the pacing. It gives the piece grace.’

The finale of the spot brings the romantic vision to its height. The ice-cleaning machine removes the sweat, pain and tears of the previous game along with the snow.

Al Waxman, who performs the voice-over in the warm, rich, deep tones of a poetic bard, concludes with emotional urgency:

‘If you have something to say, say it now, For soon, always too soon, my sheet will be filled and this chapter will end, as sure as the next will begin with a clean sheet, new authors and a billion possibilities.’

The ice is crystal clear and smooth. New players are handed the torch, take their place in the temple, making their mark on the clean, perfect ice.

The tag: the Bauer insignia and the postscript, ‘Leaving An Impression.’

It sure does. CB