EA Fifa17 The Chant

Pulling-off a single take stadium build from the locker rooms out onto the pitch is daunting enough. Throw in 4 head-replacements with no repeatable, constantly changing camera move and you add a whole new level to everything.

We were constantly going back and forth with the director and the agency on-set to help find the balance between what they wanted and what we knew is possible considering the lack of being able to measure any camera position nor having a motion control rig. While we always knew the client would cut it up for the TVC, we went into it with the agency of creating a true one-take. As we’ve never seen this done, or at least on this expanse of time, we all threw everything we had at it to pull it off. It was a great experience with many, many long days, weekends and nights but we’re incredibly proud of it and pleased that we could help the director and agency achieved their vision as they originally saw it without having to water-down the idea just to make it work.

In order to make the the one-take work, we ensured that there were enough extras to fill the immediate foreground as well as any players, photographers, etc on the pitch. We worked closely with the director, DP and football choreographer to ensure that the movements of all head replacements weren’t something too extreme. The on-set supervisors took amble measurements and photography to aid the camera track.

The 3D team used the first tier of the existing stadium as a base and took existing models we had and modified them to create the upper tier and roof. We used our in-house crowd system that is constantly being improved upon to drive and populate the rest of the stadium. In order to populate more photographers and stewards, plates were taken after principle photography and placed using our camera track.

For each star player, we referenced our chosen master take and shot them against green screen, each on different days and locations. Along with the DP, we matched the lighting and camera move as much as possible as the principle plate was shot on a Steadicam and varied every take and couldn’t be repeated or measured.

We were approached to help tell the story of the latest addition to the FIFA line-up. The agency and director wanted a true one-take, no hiding behind any invisible cuts or typical tricks. We had to always be behind the player walking from the locker room out onto the pitch in one continuous move. That stadium selected would have to change as well as populating it with crowd. In addition to a full stadium build, we would have 4 head replacements for star players which resulted in 3 head replacements and full body insert. In order to help deliver the shared vision we sent two of our VFX supervisors out to Madrid for the shoot to ensure what was shot would be workable.