Award-winning agency and production company C-Squared Productions has just entered its tenth year of operation, and owner Chris Dobson notes that they’ve been lucky to have the support of a brand like pay-TV broadcaster SuperSport behind them since they first started.
Their “prize job’ of the year, and one of their entries into PromaxBDA Africa, is a pitch they won to create on-air promotion for the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament on SuperSport.
“The headspace we were in was that, with this campaign, we really wanted to think big. As it was one of SuperSport’s flagship events of the year, we also had a slightly larger budget to work with,’ notes Dobson.
“Our tagline was “Prepare for Immortality’ – it was a bit of a retrospective of the players who had become legends through the tournament.’
Creative director Greg Viljoen continues: “One of our strong points is that we know what attracts people who love sports, being sports lovers ourselves. This time, our idea was to take viewers on a first-person perspective journey through a hall of legends. This was not something that we could afford to build physically, so we had to create the whole thing digitally.’
Dobson notes that the graphics had to be superb and believable. “We outsourced the animation to Greg Meek and his team from FLiC. The challenge was that we set out to produce a 95% graphic driven promo and we needed to do it pretty quickly. As we didn’t have the luxury of time, we had to make some pretty decisive calls throughout the process. Luckily the client was quite flexible and supportive.’
He explains that the job was initially done in three to four weeks. “It was a very complex process, involving players being sketched up, pulled into the animation studio and remodelled. They also had to build the stadium and the tunnel and light it. It turned out pretty well considering that we actually needed more time.’
According to Viljoen they drew inspiration from the host countries Poland and Ukraine to create propaganda-style posters of the featured players. “It was an amalgamation of film, 2D design work and 3D animation requiring lots and lots of rendering and After Effects.’
The creative directors on the production were Greg Viljoen and Charl Jacobs and the director was Cameron Naidoo. Louis Enslin did the final mix and score.
Dobson explains that sports promos are very different to other kinds of promos. “With movies and programming there’s a storyline already there. In sport we have to dream up our own storyline each time, and it has to be one that appeals to the target market, and is intriguing and engaging enough to someone who is not necessarily a sports fan.’
By Linda Loubser
screen africa magazine – october 2012
