‍The Brief
Social Bull Media were approached by 90min to help them pull off a prank video for Chelsea F.C’s commercial partner Yokohama. They already had the initial concept and creative but were looking for someone to make it come to life and develop the creative further. We jumped at the chance to work on this and we swiftly began putting our heads together for how we could prank Timo Werner.

The Pre-production

‍Due to the nature of the concept this project involved extremely detailed pre-production with meticulous attention to detail. There’s so many uncontrollable elements to a prank, it’s vital that you do everything you can to control the controllable. This meant multiple recces at the training ground to work out exactly what equipment we’d need to set everything up to the correct specifications. Distances between the Covid safe tents needed to be measured for wireless communications, dimensions taken for the set to be created and camera positions mapped out for safe distances between crew were all figured out beforehand.

Covid restrictions meant we were down to a skeleton crew for the shoot day so knowing every aspect of the script was essential. Alongside 90min we added to, tweaked and developed the script so we knew exactly what needed to be captured in our short window of time, but also allowing for flexibility on the day to see what the pranksters Mason and Jorginho came up with on the day. Our extensive kit list was put together, several props were ordered, set build was organised, Covid tests were done and we were ready for the shoot day.

‍

The Shoot

We arrived at Cobham the day before the shoot for a big day of rigging and creating our fake set - cameras, lights, monitors, props and the rest all had to be in place as the main shoot day was a busy one with a tight schedule. We partnered with JEM Live to build the set and backdrop for the tent at Chelsea, they did a terrific job transforming the marquee and this allowed us to focus on the technical and creative aspects of the video. Wireless monitors, 100m SDI cables, huge ARRI lights, go-kart building were just some of the tasks our small crew were undertaking. After a late night testing our equipment and getting our lights and cameras in rough positions, we left Cobham to go home knowing we’d be back in less than 10 hours to finalise the prank.

‍

The morning arrived and we were back at Cobham, we spent a few hours tweaking our set up and doing finals tests. A detailed production meeting was in order so we could run through the script beats with our actor and crew and chat about scenarios that could arise. There’s only so much planning you can do with a prank as you don’t know how they’ll react! The players eventually arrived one at a time and we quickly separated them to brief them with what was going on (Timo being the one to receive the fake brief). Mason went to our comms tent away from the action to give his direction and Jorginho and Timo went to the fake set to begin the chaos. 

‍

The hour flew by and the crew did a fantastic job capturing the action (and keeping a straight face to not give the prank away). You can see the end result in the video but it was truly a rewarding experience to see so many of the Chelsea staff and players having smiles on their faces at the end of the shoot. The shoot was a massive success and we knew we had some gold. A long derig was ahead but we were so excited to get into the edit and review the footage.

‍

The Post-production

Editing when you have amazing material really is a simple process. Our team spent plenty of time crafting the story and finding the best reactions from the multiple cameras for the first version. Once the feedback arrived we actioned this quickly and added the graphics which were provided by 90min. Reception was extremely positive from all parties and final approval meant we could begin the large versioning process.

Due to the huge global fanbase of Chelsea this video was needed in 13 different languages for all the club’s platforms across the world. The video was sent off for translation and once completed we began to export the 70+ versions that were required in different languages and aspect ratios. A good work out for the computer but the process was an organised and relatively simple one. 
‍

‍
The Reaction

Since going live the response has been incredible. It’s performed excellently on Chelsea’s channels and has been inundated with lovely comments and interactions. We’ve spent a good amount of time scrolling through the amazingly positive comments from Chelsea fans and non Chelsea fans alike. We knew we had created a strong piece of content alongside 90min and the reaction has only reaffirmed to us how proud we are of this content and how brilliant 90min, the players and club were to work with throughout. We feel strongly that branded content can have a positive impact on fans when executed correctly, this is a perfect example of that.