UEFA Cup Final 07-09 'Idents'.

Production Company Ingredient successfully won a highly competitive pitch to produce the on-air identity for the final phase of the UEFA Cup (quarter-final, semi-final & final). From the 2006/07 season, the competition will be centrally marketed and will boast a permanent set of broadcaster partners who will use the on-air identity extensively. The job was shot using hi-speed HD (up to 2,000 frames per second) and involved up to 25 HD layers across 105 versions which were all finished at HD using Prime Focus' new powerful Smoke and Flame Linux systems.

The key task for this package was to build brand recognition and to enhance the prestige of the final phase of the competition in the 2007 – 2009 period. The package, which included opening and closing sequences, break bumpers, promotional trailer kit, replay wipes, studio loops and animated logo’s, was post-produced in HD and PAL at Prime Focus. A major part of the package was the production of an extensive toolkit using high quality derivatives of the master sequences. This ‘kit of parts’ was used by the broadcasters to make promotional trailers and for the inclusion in programming. This supported UEFA’s brand strategy of providing as much on-air support as possible via a comprehensive kit of devices.

Ingredient’s concept for the package took the three colours of the UEFA Cup logo and used them as the basis of the three main scenes in the titles: The Game, The Fans and The Trophy. Throughout the sequence, there is a constant upwards movement, reflecting the progress through the UEFA Cup competition. In order to achieve this movement, the football players were shot from a low angle, performing various moves – scissor kicks, volleys and headers – on a trampoline. Together with DP Karl Watkins, Ingredient selected the ‘Pirate Photron Ultima APX’ camera. This camera enabled HD filming at up to 2,000 frames per second, with fast on set download so the material could be reviewed by the director and clients whilst on set.

Throughout pre-production, Ingredient worked closely with Prime Focus London to ensure their vision would be achievable in post production. Prime Focus London created 3D environments to mimic the style of the coloured panels of the logo. Secondary 3D glass-like trajectories were animated to interact with the movements of the footballers and crowd scenes. These 3D passes were then composited together with live-action footage in Flame and Smoke. Despite working at hi-res, the 3D team managed to respond to all requested changes immediately. This speedy response, coupled with Prime Focus' new powerful Linux systems, meant that the 2D and 3D teams managed to complete this multi-versioned HD project very efficiently.

Ingredient’s Director, Andy Godden, said: “We needed a very versatile but immediate way of working in post where changes could be made quickly after compositing the elements together and seeing how well they reacted. When working in HD in the past, this would have been impossible given our schedule.”

Prime Focus Smoke artist, Jon Trussler, said: “Our new boxes really proved their worth on this job. They’re so quick it was like working at Standard Def even though we often had up to 25 layers of HD to contend with. We found the new systems worked 10 times quicker than the old boxes – they’re an amazing development.”