I’ve long been a fan of that Tiger Woods Nike commercial where he bounces a golf ball around and then hits it off straight down the course. Both because the simple way it’s filmed is cool and the fact that Tiger Woods is awesome with golf stuff.

Recently an article quoting director Doug Liman appeared online at CNET where he talks about filming it. He says

To illustrate his point, he recalled a commercial he was shooting for Nike in the late 1990s starring golfer Tiger Woods. Liman noticed Woods bouncing a ball on the edge of a club during breaks from shooting. Liman grabbed a shoulder-held camera and, away from the crew, asked Woods to bounce the balls while being filmed. Liman began to lose his patience when Woods blew the shot several times. “I told him, ‘I can’t believe that of all people you are choking under pressure,’” Liman told the audience. Woods glared and then bounced the ball while transferring the club through his legs behind his back and finished by smacking the ball in mid air. The shot, which became a classic, was natural, unrehearsed, and driven by imagination rather than millions of studio dollars, Liman said.

Nice.

Via Ricky Van Veen.