Coffee & TV and Warner Bros.' Journey from Uruguay to Paris for the 2024 Olympics
The Olympic Games in Paris this year was one to remember, at large due to the brilliant coverage that came with the event, allowing us all to cheer on our favourites and keep in tune with literally every minute of the epic development.
In collaboration with MJZ director Henry Hobson, Coffee & TV crafted the narrative of a man’s journey from his morning jog to the intensity of an Olympic odyssey, setting the stage for immersive coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics on MAX in its ‘Break Free’ campaign.
Coffee & TV ingeniously transformed the streets of Uruguay, where the majority of the production took place, into the charming back alleys of Paris, swapped a Uruguayan lake for the iconic Seine, and meticulously recreated the Stade De France, complete with 2024 Olympic branding.
The B Unit team from Coffee & TV ventured to Paris to capture footage around the city’s streets and suburbs, contributing to the dynamic transition from countryside to stadium. During their time there, the team also gathered reference images, water plates, and a variety of other essential elements for the project.
Luke Todd, creative director at Coffee & TV, and Fouad Hammoud, associate creative director at AKQA, tell all about how the teams brought the 2024 Olympic stadium to life, how they showcased nine sports in three seconds, and balanced “legibility and timing” in such a fast-paced film.
LBB> What did the beginning of this project look like and why did you want to be part of it? What was the brief?
Luke> Well, Henry Hobson’s treatment was brilliant for starters, so we were in from pretty much the word ‘go’. Once we’d sat down and talked it through with him in more detail, we realised it would take craft from every department to make it work – and that’s the perfect brief for us.
LBB> From concept to final delivery, how did you make sure that the craft stayed true to and brought to life the vision in the script?
Fouad> The entire process was incredibly collaborative and stayed true to the vision from the start. Henry Hobson had unwavering belief in the script from day one, and despite the complexity and ambition of some scenes, the work was executed as we imagined. Every review pushed the concept further and further until we had a fully-realised piece of film.
LBB> Tell me about the location scouting process and how that went. Why did you choose Uruguay and did you film everything there?
Luke> Putting a summer campaign together in January is something both ourselves and Henry had done before, so heading south for the sun was an obvious choice. After some research, we discovered that Uruguay shares the same architectural style that Paris does, thanks to the many French architects who were commissioned to build there during the Belle Epoque. It’s like they’d seen the treatment! And it gave us a great starting point for the street sequences. We shot all of the performances down there, including the athletes for the stadium sequence – the rest came from our VFX Unit shoot in Paris, and the work of our CG team.
LBB> What was it like working with Henry, and what kind of creative vision did he bring to the project?
Luke> Henry was incredibly articulate when it came to his intention, including a technical vocabulary that cut through a lot of potential for miscommunication (we think he’s a designer at heart). Add in the right amount of sarcastic wit and you’ve got a great collaborative relationship. We’re already looking forward to the next one!
LBB> Tell me about transforming Uruguay into Paris, what did it take for it to look believable, and how long was the process? You also carried through the spirit of the Olympics, was this difficult, and what were the details that brought the magic together?
Luke> We knew from day one that we would need more ‘Paris’ to really sell the street sequences from Uruguay. It served as a great base, but we wanted to bring some finer, contemporary details to each shot. We also still had the small challenge of recreating the Seine and the Stade de France – so, we put together a VFX Unit shoot.
We spent a few days in Paris gathering stills, live action plates and car-mounted footage around all the famous landmarks. Needed a bit of weather planning, not least when we returned to the river to find the banks flooded and that our location for the day was 3 feet underwater! But in the end, these elements all served a crucial role in populating the street scenes with the right road markings and furniture, giving us the live action we needed to recreate the Seine and allowing us to build the hyperlapse sequence into the Stade De France.
LBB> And tell me more about recreating the Stade De France, how did that work?
Luke> We’re pretty adept at stadium and crowd building these days – but in this instance it needed to be the Olympic stadium, in full dress, three months before it was built in real life! We had one style frame from the IOC, and its brand guidelines.
From these two things, the team painstakingly brought it all to life. Everything you see, aside from the athletes themselves, came from us. We did visit the stadium during our VFX shoot, but the diggers were still clearing the concrete flooring! Watching the live broadcasts months later, I was amazed at how faithfully we rendered it.
LBB> Were there any creative approaches to the post process that surprised you or you felt were innovative?
Fouad> The stadium build was mind-blowing. The amount of detail that was poured into that scene was the kind of detail that makes the final work appear effortless.
LBB> The film is quite fast-paced, especially when you see the 'collage' scenes. How did you put these together, and what rhythm were you looking to create?
Luke> Henry was keen to convey not just the wide range of sports, but the full range of emotions that the Olympics brings, to both competitors and spectators. The choice is so wide-ranging, so our film needed to be so too. Highs and lows, passion and acceptance – and not just from the marquee sports we all know, but the more obscure (and fascinating) ones. Editor Bill Smedley at Work Editorial did a wonderful job of conveying this in the cut, and we built on it with our work. The collage sequences were a great opportunity to showcase the excitement and range of the sports in one fell swoop and feeding off the key visuals being developed by AKQA, our design studio developed a style that felt right in the context – not easy to showcase nine sports in three seconds, but they did.
LBB> The Seine also made an appearance – how did you create it?
Luke> We captured a host of material during our VFX shoot in Paris – including elements along the Seine. Our diver’s performance was filmed at a lake in Uruguay and this master shot gave us the lensing and framing as a base. From there, we built a 3D scene in Nuke and built the shot from the ground (sorry, water) up.
LBB> The film looks like it's been shot in one long camera movement - how did you achieve this?
Luke> Yes, that was Henry’s intention from day one – this wasn’t just about the streets, the Seine, the hyperlapse or the Stade. It was about a seamless journey between them all. In both pre and post production we planned on stringing these moments together. Match cuts, whip pans and animation all working towards the eye being taken on a single journey.
LBB> What was the most difficult part of the film to create and execute and why? What was the most fun part?
Luke> If you had asked me at the start, I would have said recreating the Olympic stadium, hands down. But as it turned out, that came together (and was approved) easily – down entirely to the CG team and their eye for detail. It was wonderful to see that come to life. We spent some time finessing the synchronised swimmers in the end – with their transition everything was moving, so getting the right balance of legibility and timing in that moment took some dialling in.
LBB> What was it like working with the team at Coffee & TV and how did they support your creative concept?
Fouad> It never felt like we were working with a production partner, it was an extension of our creative team, pushing just as hard to bring the concept to life. The end result is a piece of work that sets a benchmark for collaboration and achieving together.
