The game they play in heaven, under the ocean.
The game they play in heaven, under the ocean.
There’s Something in the water, a 60 second promo film for the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific competition, was written and directed by Rich Bullock working directly with Rugby Australia’s head of brand and innovation Matt McGrath.
"The Power of the Pacific idea had been there on the website banner since the competition began - it took a great director like Richard to find it and bring it to life and make this amazing and spectacular film,” said Matt McGrath
“We discussed what we should make for the competition over a sandwich at a cafe - Richard said he had the idea of filming it all underwater - that was it and I bought it before we’d even started our meal."
Strategically the campaign highlights the regional nature of the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Pacific being the binding feature between Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand.
Bullock was thinking about how this part of the world manages to produce these amazing athletes who have permeated the entire world of Rugby.
"This competition is the source of all that talent," he said. "Maybe ‘There was something in the water’ in the Pacific. It was a short step then to players literally competing in the Pacific Ocean.
"Early dreams of traveling to Samoa or Fiji for some fun in the sun was immediately challenged by getting players from 12 regional teams to the same place on the same day.
“We didn’t want to simply create underwater rugby. The real ambition of the idea was to accentuate the forces applied during actual tackles and key rugby moments. So capturing the impact moments on the surface from players was key.
"Other than still photographs of olympic divers and sea birds we couldn’t find any useful reference. So we used mid journey- AI to help visualise the concept. This became a really useful tool to express the idea to the client, DOP, lighting team, production crew and also gave the players an idea of what we wanted from their performance.”
Twenty four players from 12 teams were involved in the shoot across a single day. There are another 44 players present in the final promo because they are the voices of the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika teams singing in unison after an actual fixture.
Footage for the film is a blend of the shoot in Auckland with other Pacific Ocean imagery shot in Byron bay. There’s some VFX work using blue screen for the shots above water. All the action and stunts are performed by the players themselves. Their ability to pass, tackle and even run under water is testament to their talent and ability on land.
"I was particularly impressed with the performance of the players," said Bullock.
"They understood the assignment immediately and I was struck by their willingness to leap head first into some pretty challenging situations. For example Julian Savea and Solomone Funaki from the Moana Pasifika team were able to simultaneously dive from a platform head first and complete a one handed behind the back pass and catch. They were able to connect perfectly underwater three times in a row.”
Director of Photography Stefan Jose used three different cameras to capture the action but a Phantom camera at 600fps was used for all but three shots. The expertise of the New Zealand crew trained on epic underwater feature films like the Meg proved invaluable for the production.
The campaign launches in Australia, new Zealand and the Pacific Islands February 13.
CREDITS
Client: Rugby Australia
Rugby Australia- Head of Brand and Innovation Matt McGrath
Rugby Australia- Head of Marketing SRP, SRCs, Community Dan Wilkins
New Zealand Rugby – Senior Marketing Manager Megan Cameron
New Zealand Rugby – Marketing Co-ordinator Danielle Bason
NZR- Stills and Video Content Interviewer Mac Leesburg
NZRPA – Communications Manager Kylie Devlin-Sousa
Rugby Australia- Content Capture Jack McGrath
Rugby Australia- Content Producer Nick Holland
Production Company Revolver
Director Richard Bullock
Concept Richard Bullock
Managing Director/Co-Owner Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer/Partner Pip Smart
Producer Nicole Crozier
Director of Photography Stefan José
Underwater Operator Murray Milne
Post-Production Heckler
ECD Jamie Watson
Producer Steven Marolho
Head of Production Amy Jarman
Offline Editor Andrew Holmes
Flame Online Julian Ford
Compositors Ran Xie, Troy Darben
Colourist Fergus Rotherham
Sound Heckler Sound
Sound Designer Dave Robertson
Executive Producer Dave Kelly
