Black Madre's Animated Short Celebrates Brazilian Athletes Marking the History of Pacaembu Stadium

The visual arts producer Black Madre develops the film for the latest campaign created by the DPZ agency. The campaign presents the auction of Original Pacaembu Chairs for Tok&Stok, signed by nine Brazilian football stars. The event takes place on August 31st, at 5:30 pm, here. 

A stage for millions of unforgettable plays, there is no shortage of remarkable stories of idols who were able to perform at the famous stadium in São Paulo. The animation - with audio and soundtrack by Vox Haus - summarises in one minute, the script of an imaginary match, which brings together a sequence of exciting moves carried out by the team of players participating in the action.

With 100% of the profit reverted to the benefit of the NGO Gol de Letra, the project to re-signify the numbered chairs of Pacaembu is a partnership between Tok&Stok and the DPZ agency, which developed the advertising action ‘Sit here, you have history’ for the campaign of retail networks. Due to the works on the stadium, which is now managed by the private sector, the chairs would be discarded.

Tina Castro, associate director of Black Madre, believes that this work was special because it involves football and the history of the iconic São Paulo stadium. “I think this film was more than a job, because we talk about football, which is a national passion, to mention and value one of the most famous stadiums in Brazil. That's what motivated us and made this delivery here at Black Madre happen from the inside out. We really liked the result.”

The film project started from the aesthetics of tickets and posters created by Black Madre for the entire printed part of the campaign. Thanks to the animation resources, in the game created by the producer, the athletes come to life and it is possible to interact with the plays between athletes that shaped the history of Pacaembu.

Former São Paulo player, Caio Ribeiro, opens the animation, followed by stars Rivellino, Casagrande and Zetti. Elano arrives and rolls the ball to Pepe, who kicks it to goalkeeper Marcos, who defends it. Following the teaser, it's Raí's turn to kill in the chest and make a perfect pass to Emerson Sheik. At this moment, the player Formiga appears to head the ball and send it straight to the goal. The film ends with the classic racing scene of King Pele, who throws his iconic punch in the air, with all the players going to meet him.

For Andre Maciel, director at Black Madre, the project's challenge was to visually translate into animation the aesthetic language created for the printed part of the campaign. “However, with the illustrations of the ticket scenes, we realised that we already had a very good concept for telling a story and, automatically, we thought of the language of animation to be able to create a narrative that could connect different stories of football celebrities”, explains, adding that it took a lot of research because some athletes like Pelé, Rivellino and Pepe are from another era and, therefore, certain images have become rarer to be found.

Matheus Gugelmim, project director at Vox Haus, highlights that the animation track seeks to capture all the emotion and adrenaline of a historic football game. Therefore, the protagonist of the narration leads the film. The soundtrack is all percussive, and almost like a fan club, it comes with a lot of energy to complete the feeling of adrenaline and give rhythm to the scenes.

“The big challenge was to produce a super-realistic sports narration, with power and emotion. In this context, the sound effects are extremely important. That’s why we brought in the player’s perspective to increase the immersion of those who watch the film. We have the sounds of footsteps on the grass, of carts, of breathing, of kicks, the sound of the ball travelling through the air, a (real) cannon and the full weight of the fans pushing the players inside Pacaembu”, says Matheus.

Benjamin Yung, co-CEO of DPZ, points out that the agency was extremely excited with the idea of looking at all the history and emotion experienced by an object that would be discarded in the trash and turning it into an invaluable asset to help the education of thousands of young people. “And Black Madre, in turn, managed to translate the action into wonderful arts that added even more value to the chairs auctioned by Tok&Stok. A project that everyone involved entered with their Hearts and that fills us with pride.”