Released on World Conservation Day, ‘The End of Football’ is a short film Coffee & TV have helped to create with Brave and Great Guns, in partnership with Xylem and Manchester City. Its purpose is to educate football fans about the serious and growing water challenges facing our planet. The UK Environmental Agency predict that we will face severe drought by 2045. It could mean the closures of stadiums, arenas, and other live venues because there simply isn’t enough water to go around. If that were to happen, it could really see the end of the game we love.
The films imagined scenario was conceived and shot before coronavirus actually did halt football, but what the pandemic has shown us, is how fragile our world really is.
Directed by Roar Uthaug (Tomb Raider, The Wave), the film tells the story of a little girl who supports Manchester City. It follows her journey over the years, from child to parent. As a child, her father turns off the news of climate change and environmental disasters and switches to the sports channel. The timeline then moves to the future, as the girl, now a mother living in a futuristic Manchester, takes her son to see Manchester City play for the last time, as all stadia will be closed due to drought.
The film switches between the present-day and the year 2045. This provided Coffee & TV with an assortment of interesting challenges and over 60 VFX shots. It features several Manchester City players including Raheem Serling as a hologram and a digitally aged Phil Foden leading Manchester City as their manager in the future.
This project also provided Coffee & TV with its first big test of our remote working solutions, as our artists switched from our base in Soho, to their home studios at the outbreak of the pandemic. Coffee & TV’s virtual workflows allowed our artists to access the full range of our technological infrastructure in a safe, secure and speedy manner. Meaning they could continue to seamlessly create and collaborate with each other and our production partners.
The team created a CG realisation of Man City’s Etihad stadium, which in the present-day sections of the film was populated with fans and looks as you would expect. However, when we jump to the year 2045, the stadium’s been given an exterior and interior make-over, with an additional 25,000 seats and fans added. Plus the pitch itself was re-worked to look dry and malnourished from water drought.
New skies were applied across both present-day and futuristic shots, with the noticeable inclusion of flying drones and architectural additions creating a new skyline for Manchester in 2045. Sections of the film needed to feel like they are clearly in the future but in a subtle, positive and not oppressive way. A lot of attention to detail was given to elements such as the tap and the TV. Along with holographic signage and projection screens.
Coffee & TV VFX Artist, Rory Whittle, commented, “It’s an interesting challenge because 2045 isn’t so far into the future that things would be unrecognisable, so it was tricky to find a balance giving an essence of future but not being over the top.”
Coffee & TV Head of Colour, Simona Cristea, created looks to enhance the contrasting feel of the films two time periods, “My aim was to create a cinematic grade that helped separate the present-day from the dystopian near future, where the water is running out. I used subtle blues and cyan tones for the present and orange and red tones to create a dry, warmer environment for the future.”
The film’s concept and message may have extra resonance for viewers post-pandemic. Whereas the “end of football” might have once been hard to imagine, fans have had a temporary taster of that over the past few months due to Coronavirus. So now more than ever, let’s protect our future by taking simple steps to use water more sustainably.