• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

10,000 superballs bounced down street

jwinslow

A MAN OF BETRAYED JUSTICE
Staff member
Tourney Pick'em Champ
Gosh, I really hope this is a national commercial. I guess it will get posted on the web somewhere, but this has to be a sight to see...

Ten thousand superballs rolling down a San Francisco hill-street


These photos document the release of 10,000 small superballs at the San Francisco hilltop corner of Filbert and Leavenworth. Wow. Pic 1, Pic 2 (Thanks, Umgrue!)

spaceball19zl.gif
spaceball19zl.gif

spaceball8mj.gif

spaceball2dv.gif

spaceball21zv.gif
 
Last edited:
It would be fantastic to watch, unless you're at the bottom of the hill. I don't know much about the details hawg, but they blocked off an entire street and the cars are apparently props (I'm guessing that means they aren't the owners cars).

Thing I'd wonder is what would that many bouncy balls at high speed do to a car?
 
Upvote 0
who takes that long to photoshop something? I'm not saying you're not right, but boy would that take a while to make all of those balls at different sizes.
 
Upvote 0
jwinslow said:
who takes that long to photoshop something? I'm not saying you're not right, but boy would that take a while to make all of those balls at different sizes.
Corel's image sprayer would only take a few minutes, plus cleanup. You just plug in the base images and randomize. Don't even need to include different sizes, just make a few passes with different overall size settings.
 
Upvote 0
This image sprayer you speak of sounds mighty appealing. There is probably a comparable plugin for Adobe, since the concept is probably fairly basic. Will have to check on that.
 
Upvote 0
That is depressing, the little kid in me really wanted that to be true. As a 10 yr old I would've thought that would be awesome. We used to get those things out of the dime machine and throw them out of the back of my dads pickup going down the freeway (they would actually keep up for a little while).
 
Upvote 0
Buck Nasty said:
Gee, those balls really are super. So super that they do not even cast a shadow on the ground. That is so fake its not even funny.
It does look fake, but I don't know if the shadows are a good reason. If you look at where the other shadows are, it looks like the sun is pretty low, so the shadow of the balls would be on the wall of that building, which might just be out of the shot.
 
Upvote 0
I know you can photoshop things in, but why go to all of this trouble? Are all of the camera crews and blocked off roads fake too? I mean it's possible, but isn't it also possible that its real?
-----------------
love some of the comments, from someone who just doesn't believe it:
Those balls would have varing lighting from the street, when in fact they are all luminous on their own. There would be alot more dynamic shadowing from those balls as well. It's a fake.​
To those who were there:
Not photoshopped. This was right by my apartment ... Parking was TOTALLY SCREWED for two days ...​
To those with bouncy ball stories of their own:
My senior class in high school did this (though totally indoors). It turned out to be a complete fiasco, and our principal had a heart attack. No lie.​
To a random bit of SF history:
If you pan slightly to the right you'll see the flat where I grew up in the 1950s. Our window seat would have been a great place to watch this. It looks like the balls were dropped from the top of the apartment building. When I was growing up, that penthouse apartment was occupied by the guy who owned Seabiscuit.​
Word is the film crew covered the storm drains, caught most of the balls at the bottom of the hill with big nets, and had unfortunate PAs pick the rest out of the bushes.

No one seems to know what the product being advertised is.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Buckeye Babe said:
It does look fake, but I don't know if the shadows are a good reason. If you look at where the other shadows are, it looks like the sun is pretty low, so the shadow of the balls would be on the wall of that building, which might just be out of the shot.
First... yay, another femme! These guys'll be outnumbered in no time. Welcome. :)

Aside from the casting of shadows... check out the light on the second picture. I would think they would also look different IN shadow. But who knows.
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top