How Carl Addy Brought Us Into Wimbledon’s Most Epic Moments

What makes sport so enthralling? It’s the human element, watching people we’ve seen go beyond their limits in search of greatness. It’s the communal element, too, gathering to follow a live event and experience it in the company of friends and family. And it’s also the moments - the individual instances of brilliance, disaster, and triumph alike that stick with you for years, even for generations, to come. 

It’s those moments which formed the central foundation of this year’s trailer promoting Wimbledon 2024. The minute-long film takes archival footage and reimagines it as you’ve never seen before - unforgettable moments zoom past in a haze of sporting nostalgia, simultaneously capturing the physicality and the sheer epic-ness of Wimbledon at its best. 

Carl Addy of the Mayda Creative Co. was behind the lens as the director of the ad. To find out how it all came together using cutting-edge filmmaking techniques and technology, LBB caught up with Carl… 

LBB> Carl, congrats on a great piece of film! What kind of a vision did you have at the outset of the project, and to what extent does it align with the finished film?

Carl> Hey, thanks - it’s been so gratifying seeing how well the spot has been received. 

The initial vision is close to where we ended up, but maybe had some tonal shifts and some edgier effects. It was always about finding surprising ways to connect all these pivotal moments within the geography of one place, the centre court. 

Aside from a few scenes that didn't survive the process, one of the main differences was an idea around timelessness. Our original treatment had a heavy sense of time-trickery - frozen moments but with time-lapse sky and shadows moving around. So one would always see shifting shadows. and this tumultuous sky churning in timelapse around it.

LBB> Yeah, the ad does a great job of capturing the nostalgia of timeless Wimbledon moments in a way that makes them feel present. Can you tell us more about how you achieved that?

Carl> Yes, that idea was fundamental to the brief. It’s a lovely idea - connecting all the moments in a seamless way. 

In order to achieve it, we firstly had a huge research job aided by the fantastic FFFOUND.

I think the biggest difference was made in how we used the latest tech to relight the images. This detail often is the tell-tale difference between archival imagery feeling collagey vs realistically in the scene. 

LBB> You also get this epic, sweeping feeling watching the film, connected to the way sport at its best can feel like it’s a part of human history. Is there anything that you can do as a director to evoke that, or do you think it comes along naturally with the subject matter?

Carl> That's all in the craft of storytelling - finding ways to reveal connections and moments in surprising ways. The intentional fluidity helps the film build connected momentum, which adds to the sense of scale. It builds in an epic way. 

LBB> You’ve previously mentioned wanting to make the film feel ‘intimate’, closer to the event than being a spectator. Do you think you achieved that and, if so, how did you do it?

Carl> Yes, I think overall this works. At the treatment phase we knew the battle was to separate all these famous moments from the context they were captured in. Our number one task was to give the viewer a new way to see those moments, to depict them in a way that feels like we have closer access.

Then, our lens choices were a conscious decision to depict it more like the audience was part of the moments.

 

LBB> How difficult was it to pick out the classic moments that you wanted to include?

Carl> The only tough part was finding archival footage of good enough quality, and then some back and forth to find moments that fit. But honestly, this was a fairly gratifying puzzle to solve.

LBB> Can you tell us any more about the production techniques used here? 

Carl> Yeah, it is a mix. We used a combination of big CG 3D environments like stadiums and crowds. Archival images are then treated (relit and cleaned up), and comped in place. When necessary, we would animate subtle movement in.  

We added shot elements (using studio bluescreen) as well as 3D tennis balls and people to scenes to add dimensionality. For example, passing by a player in the foreground as we frame up an archival player in the background. 

LBB> How did filmmaking tech help you to capture these ‘moment-in-time’-style shots which amp up the feeling of history and nostalgia?

Carl> When it came to setting a look for different eras, we used subtle comp and camera cues to signal some of the artefacts like grain and video degradation. All really subtle, but it helps sell a moment that happened in the past. Anything too heavy would then break the sense of interconnectivity between scenes. 

LBB> What was the biggest challenge you encountered on this job, and how did you overcome it?

Carl> VFX-heavy work like this only really looks gorgeous right at the end. Our biggest challenge was keeping everyone focused on what the vision was. It's really tough to ask partners to trust you when brave elements like crazy transitions look clumsy and attract scrutiny. These kinds of elements should be tonal and fairly invisible. 

It requires immense belief in the craft. Thankfully our edit and post partners could iterate and impressively pivot when needed. And ultimately the agency - McCann - believed in us.

LBB> And finally, is there anything that you’d do differently if you had your time again?

Carl> There are a few scenes that I wish were still in there, but in retrospect, I am not sure what we could have done differently. Check out the BTS clip [above] for some easter eggs!