The Collector - Summer of Sport

In this seventh instalment we get swept up in football fever and meet two adventurous young heroes, who head out to collect their favourite football content so they can watch it later with their work-weary father. The portal, designed by Framestore’s VFX team, continues to take centre stage as the vehicle used by the heroes to take their favourite content with them.

On their adventure the two heroes run past Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby from the Chelsea Women’s Football team, collect a trophy from the FA Women’s Super league in the smallest portal yet, and watch Everton’s top striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin ride past in an Everton football team branded bus, before it is collected by the ever-morphing portal. 

Working collaboratively with Dan DiFelice and the team at Sky Creative Agency all the shots were filmed in real sporting stadiums. Led by Framestore’s VFX Supervisor Chris Redding, the London-based team provided a host of subtle VFX work for the campaign, creating versatile CG assets such as the Everton bus which can be reskinned and reused across various European versions of the spot.

In the grand finale we catch up with the heroes at the UEFA Champions League where the football stadium itself is dramatically lifted into the biggest portal seen so far in the series. To achieve this scene Framestore created an accurate CG model of the Paris Saint-Germain stadium, and placed it into a beautiful digital matte painting of Paris. 

“The Portal in the final collection vignette is the biggest one we’ve ever made,” explains Chris Redding “Although this time we had an entire football stadium being theatrically whirled towards the portal, we worked to keep it on brand and make it feel powerful, not aggressive or threatening. The backdrop created with detailed DMP city really pulls this spectacular scene together.”

Framestore’s Simon Bourne provided the colour treatment, and glides effortlessly between the bright and crisp glamour of the football drama being played out in the stadium and the epic blue hues of the powerful portal scenes. “It’s been great to work with Dan DiFelice again on this series”, said Simon Bourne “We elevated the drama with some moody night time shots whilst enhancing the brightness of the football scenes to keep them fresh and engaging.”

In the closing scene, the whole family are reunited and settle down in front of their Sky Q device to watch all the content collected.