JamesMac  VFX SUPERVISOR

The fine folk at Dark Horses approached Mill+ to pitch on an extraordinary piece for Nissan Champions League idents. Cars, Footballers and VFX, are you kidding me? As soon as I heard about the project, I leapt at it. It was a little hard to not feel like a kid in a candy shop.

The concept revolves around demonstrating how beautifully advanced the latest Nissan technology is, blending it with the rapid intelligence of elite footballers under pressure in the continent’s ultimate sports competition.

I Co-Directed with Filfury, together we focused on creating a world for Nissan set in the near future where players, design and technology operate in synchronicity. Careful consideration was given to the palate on all fronts, to create a world conceivably possible in the near future. We were very fortunate to have David Procter join us as DOP. He developed and enhanced the aesthetic, bringing a cinematic approach to the lighting and framing of the shots.

We shot world class footballers Philippe Coutinho, Eden Hazard and Lieke Martens on set, playing against real opposition, carefully choreographed by Bohdan at SportsOnScreen to recreate the passion and the complex art of their talents.

Once we had the shots in the can, we headed back to the studio at The Mill and with Raj Davsi, crafted transitions between CGI cars and footballers that are organic and mesmerising. It’s a sweet harmony between live action and VFX, created by The Mill with Sam Driscoll at the helm of the CGI.

The personnel collaborations on this project made it the perfect fusion on all fronts, and something I’d love to do again, as soon as possible.

NISSAN  UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - CLOSE QUARTERS