How Adrien & Roman hit the Big ligue

How did you get involved in the project? What were you looking forward to achieving?

As soon as we read the brief from the Sid Lee agency, we knew there was something interesting to do. The concept of the Englishman being kidnapped and taken on a tour of France allowed us to create a dynamic, multicultural film. It offered the opportunity to explore a wide palette of colours and emotions. 

We quickly realised that we could make a strong film, reflecting our desire for mixed-media. 

We had to immediately establish a clear distinction between the English and the French.

As football fans, we wanted to make a film that was representative of France and our connection to this culture.

Which element did you feel you had to nail from the beginning? What was vital for the piece to work?

Given the variety of clubs to be contrasted with our main British character, Willy, there were so many elements to integrate. 

We had to immediately establish a clear distinction between the English and the French, and in our desire to create a cartoonish film, playing with clichés in the casting was essential to convey this difference.

You shared your detailed animatic with us that pretty much has all of the spot's beats. Do you find it’s important to plan out the shoot to that level? What do you find the animatic helps most with – Ideas? Pace? Structure?

A detailed animatic is crucial in our work. It’s a true crash test for ideas. By making the film once in this way, it quickly reveals what works, what’s necessary for the film, what’s missing in the storytelling, if the structure works, if sequences need to be extended or shortened, etc. 

Besides being fun to create, the animatic helps avoid frustration after the shoot; when in the editing phase, there’s nothing more we can do to save the film.

The film contains a lot of visual references to filmic pop culture – what were your influences when making it and how did you work towards achieving a similar look?

Indeed, we grew up watching cartoons, cult films, and anime, and that definitely shows in our work. With the cultural diversity offered by the script, it was interesting to mix styles and influences so that each sequence had its own unique style. 

A detailed animatic is crucial in our work.

In London, we played with a Snatch-Guy Ritchie vibe, while in Marseille we tried to replicate acrobatic moves like in Shaolin Soccer. The Englishman had to get "bullied," but to avoid any violence we didn’t want, giving a Tex Avery feel to his misadventures was cool. Representing Paris like in GTA, the paper plane throwing had to resemble the birds from Spirited Away. 

For all these influences, using live-action, stunts, Unreal Engine, 3D, and a lot of Flame allowed us to get closer to what we had envisioned.

The spot contains an onslaught of impressive imagery, including sharp edits, in-camera trickery, and VFX. Who are your influences when it comes to your playful style and how important is it for you to keep the action moving?

The English humour in the video is one of our biggest influences. 

Reaction shots are very important to us and help emphasise the intended emotion. Additionally, in advertising, keeping the viewer’s attention is a real challenge in such a short time. So, in this spot, the goal was not to give the viewer time to think or experience a lull—just like what our Englishman goes through, we wanted the viewer to be hit with a lot at once. 

Each sequence required a very specific location and set design, which made for a heavy shooting schedule.

It’s a Tour de France in 2 minutes and 20 seconds; it needs to go fast, and every sequence has to be impactful. 

So yes, there are a lot of strong camera movements, and when the camera is still, the staging itself brings something quick and intense.

How was the shoot itself? How long did it take and were there any issues?

The shoot lasted three days and went really well. In fact, it was largely thanks to our 1st AD, Valentin Peoch, haha. 

The days were very intense, around 12 to 13 hours. Each sequence required a very specific location and set design, which made for a heavy shooting schedule, and for production reasons, we shot everything in Marseille (even the London scenes).

We managed to get all our shots, which is almost a miracle, so overall, there were no real issues.