CASE STUDY

Rugby World Cup France 2023

This sequence was designed to charm the audience. Blending music, animation, graphics and specially shot material into a sequence which takes the viewer to Paris without the bombast of so many sport sequences. 

We were inspired by the design of cinema posters from the French New Wave. Taking inspiration from their strong graphical shapes and bold colours. Alongside this we introduced our Rugby players, stylised giants which interact with the city.  We chose the iconic Non, je ne regrette rien by Edith Piaf as our music, which in the context of our Rugby Players pushing over buildings, smashing windows, and bending the Eiffel Tower is intentionally ironic.

Client

ITV Sport

Producers

Tony Pastor / Jon Gill

Sound

Esion Sound / George Colwey

Executive Producer

ITV Sport - Paul McNamara

Director

Kim Teddy

Production Company

Goalhanger Design

Lead Designer & Animator

Duncan Wyatt

Editor

Vasco Andrade

Creative Process

Our creative process for the Rugby World Cup 2023 started 10 months before the tournament, brainstorming music and creative ideas to find an idea that was charming and met the clients brief. We liked the imagery of the French New Wave and some of the modernist design of the period. We also wanted to make Paris the star of the sequence, the location of the final and somewhere that British audiences would immediately recognise. The music was key to this too, leaning into the evocative voice of Edith Piath to guide the viewer on our journey through Paris.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding was the cornerstone of our Rugby World Cup 2023 project. This phase transformed abstract ideas into visual narratives, foundational to all the following steps in the process. We combined the storyboards with our location research, so we knew we could each shot in the sequence. Prior to shooting a frame we animate the drawn frames to music, which the client approves.

TECHNICAL

Our main tools for this project were After Effects, Cinema 4d, X Particles, Redshift, Mocha Pro and Syntheyes.

The project was mastered in UHD50p and delivered HD50p.