Google Doodle Gets Fit In Japan
Today is actually the 86th anniversary of the first radio broadcast of Calisthenics in Japan. Calisthenics largely consists of bending, jumping, swinging and twisting. It is kind of like stretching, but as the point of the exercise and not the prelude to exercising. Anyway, Calisthenics has become so popular over the years in Japan that virtually everyone who lives in Japan is aware of it.
At first we considered representing this in animation form, but it became clear that we had to shoot it as a video with real people. The question was, how do we incorporate the Google logo? We thought about having the actors hold the letters, but that became too clumsy. We eventually hit on the idea of having the actors wear the letters of the Google logo.
According to Google, the video is very much in line with the traditional Calisthenics routine. In fact to further add authenticity to the video, Google even filmed in the NHK studio where the daily Calisthenics routine is broadcast from. As Google is rather new to the routine they did have a little help from some seasoned pros who led the routine and also provided the vocal announcing. To be honest though after watching the video, Google still looks to be looking a little out of shape.