'Til The End' - Sunderland AFC
I’m always thrilled to hear from the boys up at SAFC, they are a great bunch and they are doing some great things up there. Their industry and talent has never been more apparent in their ‘TIL THE END’ campaign for the EFL playoffs push. I’m buzzing to be involved in a small way by shooting the first team squad roaring their passion as they push for the Premier League.
The marketing team came to me with an idea they wanted to build upon revolving around the black cat animation they had had created as the figurehead to the ‘Tile The End’ campaign. They wanted to shoot the first team roaring passionately and then align these with the drawing so they could create an animation. This would look strong, aggressive and passionate which is everything they wanted to channel into this campaign whilst showing the fans what it meant to the squad to go up to the promised land!
Before I started working with the football clubs and players I hadn’t realised the restrictions and limitation you have to create within. I thought ‘why didnt they do this?’ or ‘I would get them to do that’, the reality of shooting footballers at their clubs is a little more ‘you have 2 minutes with each player in this room….go! Oh and by the way, most of them probably wont be up for it and will need talking round and rallying!
We got set up on an indoor pitch and waited for the players to finish breakfast. Usually tricky, this one was made a little extra so when I promptly approached them and said, ‘Right, get your tops off and ROAR for me!’ A few of the lads were straight in and fid a fantastic job with the more reluctant slowing giving in and giving it their best shot! (sort of!)
Enzo LeFe channeling his inner passion!
Romaine Mundle trying to keep a straight face!
A relaxed atmosphere in the end!
Below you can see the 27 shots of the first team squad, a good effort by all! In the end the club didn’t end up animating them with the cat, I have no idea why as it worked well and pretty close to how first imagined, I did do one myself that can be also seen below. Whatever the results and the final usage, it was all part of a much bigger project that obviously worked!!!! The team came from behind in both the playoff semi’s and final to secure a dramatic and long overdue promotion to the Premier League! Well done all involved!
“A mantra, an attitude, Til’ The End. Dan Neil’s words in the aftermath to winning the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final rang true after living out any young boy’s dream of captaining his team back to the Premier League.”
Below show some wider coverage of the campaign, really impressive and hopefully next time we will make the team bus! Alex from the club text me during the process saying ‘we are wrapping the team bus!’ and I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it may involve one of my shots, which would have been AMAZING! Next time. Nice to see the shots being used for the team line ups for the games, really proud to see the assets used during such a huge and important period for the club! To have also shot the 3rd strip for the launch last summer for the promotion winning season is great and Alex kindly gifted me a signed BENOLIEL 24 shirt to go in the office!
