With the Summer Games in the world’s rearview mirror, another compelling Olympian event, though carrying a considerably lower profile, is coming to London–the Paralympics for physically-challenged athletes. However, descriptions like “physically challenged,” “disabled” or the politically and otherwise incorrect “handicapped” are hardly applicable upon looking at this U.K. Channel 4 promo for its coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Athletes bound in wheelchairs, others missing a limb, still others with varying forms of paralysis are seen hitting the track and field, the basketball court, the soccer field, the gym, the swimming pool and the weight lifting room, among other competitive and practice venues. They are determined, powerful and ready to go for the Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Paralympics.
Several athletes are juxtaposed with images of what made them physically challenged. In one stark shot, a male athlete is seen next to the automobile wreckage of 20 years ago which had injured him. Another scenario depicts an ultrasound reading reflecting an apparent birth defect. Yet another scene captures a military action gone wrong as an explosion rocks the world of a soldier who nonetheless perseveres to become a world class Paralympics competitor. Snippets of these stirring stories are meshed within the context of this minute-and-a-half promo spot to convey just how far these athletes have come in order to make the grade for the 2012 Paralympics.
As we see stirring images of these athletes training and performing at a high level, supered messages appear on screen which read, “Forget everything you thought you knew about strength”/”Forget everything you thought you knew about humans.” Indeed, “it’s time to do battle.”/”Meet the Superhumans.”
And the place to meet them is Channel 4, host broadcaster of the Paralympics, with coverage beginning on Aug. 29. The Games run through Sept. 9.
Major marketing push Titled “Meet the Superhumans,” this :90 promo was directed by Tom Tagholm who was also the lead creative for 4creative, London, with visual effects from MPC.
The spot marks Channel 4’s largest ever marketing campaign and is being broadcast at 9 p.m. concurrently across 72 different U.K. television channels, including all of Channel 4’s networks, ITV1, Five, Sky One, Eurosport, and all of UKTV’s channels.
MPC worked with Tagholm to bring together the individual stories and varying footage into one unified powerful film. The shoot took place over 14 days, deploying five different cameras in locations across the country from the Sheffield Aquatics centre to Lee Valley Athletics Centre to the Olympic stadium, and the home of the Paralympics: Stoke Mandeville. Cinematographer was Luke Scott.
Crowd control With the Paralympics and its crowds still to come, MPC’s innovative in-house crowd replication software–developed especially for the promo commercial–meant that the director had as much freedom as possible during filming.
“From the initial meeting with Tom we knew it was going to be an epic spot” said visual effects supervisor Michael Gregory of MPC. “With a high number of shoot days it was always going to be a challenge to try and manage the visual effects shots and Tom wanted to shoot with multiple cameras in empty stadiums. In order to have flexibility in the final edit, we needed a flexible method for adding crowds.”
The team turned to MPC Film’s pipeline and customized an existing proprietary crowd tool to match their specific needs. By shooting 150 individuals against green-screen with the correct lighting and perspective, the crowds could be quickly replicated. “It enabled us to add five thousand people in days rather than weeks” continued Michael. “So much so, that we could tell Tom, ‘Shoot what you want and we can make it work”.
Other visual effects work included adding CG banners to the Olympic Stadium, extending sets and general clean up.
MPC’s director of color grading Jean-Clement Soret made the grade thruogh the deployment of Baselight.
Editor was Tim Hardy of Stitch.
“Meet the Superhumans” began airing last month.
