Project Case Study | Commercial & Opening Title Sequence
Lions Series | South Africa
1.
BRIEF
“I want it to be epic, bold and befitting such a wonderful world sporting event as a British Lions Tour"
Ceri Sampson | Group Executive Creative Director Sky TV
Sky Creative Agency invited me to pitch concepts for the Lions Series: South Africa 2021. Historically, Sky Sports have always gone big for this tour of the Southern Hemisphere, the highlight of their rugby calendar every four years. Any concept needed to consider assets beyond the primary film brief, for on-screen graphics, outside broadcast and studio sets, print and social.
The brief was wide open. "Anything goes." Of the three creative routes I proposed, the most epic was selected. It was also the most ambitious, both creatively and technically, making it a fantastic opportunity to take the project from initial concept through to completion, writing, directing and creatively leading the entire production.
2.
DIRECTOR'S CREATIVE CONCEPT & TREATMENT
"This needed to be more than two animals charging towards victory. We had under a minute to tell a story, from the captains acting as the catalyst, through the beauty and mystery of the glass shards forming into animals, their journey across contrasting landscapes and the tension of their impending collision, to the final resolution as they merged to form the Lions Tour emblem."
Once Sky had selected the concept, I went to town on the director’s treatment. I wanted to give the idea as much depth, detail and rich visual imagery as possible, exploring everything from the design of the animals and their geometric construction to the landscapes, camera-work and pace of the edit.
This wasn’t just about bringing the idea to life on the page and getting Sky excited about what we could achieve. It was also about engaging the right VFX partner, communicating the ambition of the project and giving them a clear understanding of the creative challenge ahead. I always write and build my own treatments, developing the creative and visual research myself to communicate the idea as clearly and fully as possible.
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3.
PRE-PRODUCTION
“The Lions project was a genuinely collaborative journey, built on trust and a shared ambition to create something special. Working closely with Adam, we pushed boundaries, experimented and refined every detail. It was an opportunity to combine striking graphic design with incredible character animation and storytelling. The whole team loved working on it, and we’re incredibly proud of the result.”
Steve Waugh | Creative Director | Coffee & TV
Pre-production took a hands-on, traditional approach, starting with image research and moodboards to explore the look and feel of the film. It was about finding the right visual references and building a clear creative direction from the ground up, without relying on AI-generated imagery.
I decided to cut a sizzle reel myself, pulling together existing footage, TV commercials and sports films to demonstrate the pace, energy and dynamic camera-work I had in mind. It gave us a shared visual reference for the film’s tone and rhythm, and proved to be a really valuable asset throughout pre-production, helping to communicate the ambition of the idea and keep everyone aligned on the direction.
Coffee & TV were much more than the company brought in to realise the idea. They pitched brilliantly alongside me to Sky, helping secure the project in the first place. Once on board, they became an integral creative partner, and we worked closely together on every aspect of the film. We bounced ideas around, challenged each other’s thinking and experimented with different approaches to find the best way to bring the concept to life. It was a genuinely collaborative process, with the creative evolving through that partnership rather than simply being handed over to a VFX team to execute.
Director's Sizzle Cut
4.
MY PHOTOSHOP BOARD
My Photoshop board took the idea beyond the treatment, developing it into a narrative storyboard that showed how the film would unfold from beginning to end. It wasn’t intended to be a complete shot-by-shot breakdown, but to establish the central principle of the film and how the different elements would come together.
Once this approach was approved, it gave me the foundation to develop the existing shot list, create a rough ‘scribble board’ and brief storyboard artist Ash Kumar. Each stage added another layer of detail, moving the idea from an overall creative concept towards a practical plan for production.
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5.
STORYBOARD
Using my shot list template, I produced a hand-drawn ‘scribble board’ for each shot, roughly blocking out framings, angles and camera movement. I then sat down online with storyboard artist Ash Kumar and talked him through each frame as he drew the finished storyboard live on a shared screen.
From there, I created a board-o-matic, bringing the sequence together to establish the weighting of each section, the pace and energy of the edit. It also gave us a working template for the next stages, allowing the VFX company to start planning the visual effects and the composer to begin developing the music.
6.
OUR TWO WORLDS
The sequence follows the Lion as he left the green pastures of Britain and Ireland behind, travelling towards the vast, arid landscapes of South Africa. I wanted to play on the colours and visual stereotypes associated with each nation, creating two contrasting worlds that would give the sequence its own sense of place.
For the Red Lion, that meant lush greens, rolling hills and dramatic mountain ranges, drawing inspiration from Yorkshire’s moors, the Scottish Highlands, Ireland’s countryside and Wales’ Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia. South Africa and the Springbok offered a completely different palette, with expansive, rugged terrain and the warmth of its sun-baked landscape.
The first challenge was to establish this visual direction and gather the right references. I then researched artists and imagery online to explore how we could take these real-world landscapes and transform them into our own stylised environments, giving Coffee & TV a clear starting point for developing the worlds in CG.
LANDSCAPE RESEARCH
ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE RESEARCH
7.
CHARACTER DESIGN
“To get the look for the glass particles, we shared lots of imagery around, which Coffee & TV evolved to shape and make the animals. The creative director at Coffee & TV – Steve Waugh – is as fussy about everything as me. We shared imagery and discussed which elements would be best and why. We managed to agree a visual look quite early and then it was a case of finessing that.
Director / Creative | Adam J Wells | Broadcast Article
This was about more than simply creating a lion and a springbok. The challenge was to give each animal a distinct personality that reflected the qualities of the rugby teams they represented. A brutal, aggressive springbok wasn’t going to work, so I leant on my knowledge of the game to find the right balance. The Lion was powerful, raw and thundering, while the Springbok was lithe, rapid, cunning and nimble.
The tournament branding provided the starting point for the design, with its geometric shapes and triangular forms. I wanted to take that idea further, creating animals constructed from beautiful, intricate geometry, with a material quality of their own. Glass, gold, fine frameworks, semi-translucent forms and incomplete structures all became part of the visual language. These weren’t meant to be conventional CG animals. They needed to feel striking, elegant and beautiful, while retaining the power and physicality of the creatures themselves.
I began by researching existing artwork, sculptures and traditional statues, alongside abstract geometric CG work by artists I found across various online platforms. The aim was to build a library of visual references that could help shape the designs and give our VFX team a clear direction to explore.
ANIMAL RESEARCH | R&D
LION / SPRINGBOK ONLINE REFERENCES
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GEOMETRIC / FRACTAL ONLINE REFERENCES
COFFEE & TV | R&D / TEST TEXTURES / MODEL DEV
8.
THE PRE-VIZ
"We spoke to several first-rate VFX companies to discuss the desired scale, energy and aspiration for the concept and received excellent responses. Coffee & TV’s pitch was outstanding, they put in a great deal of thought and visual R&D - even at that stage - and we felt they had grasped our collective ambition for the sequence.”
Nick Mason | Senior Producer - Sky Creative Agency
Working closely with Coffee & TV, we began building a CG version of the world, using the timings established in my sizzle reel, alongside the shoot board and animatic, as our starting point. This was where we could really start to refine the sequence, experimenting with camera angles, lens choices, movement and shot pacing to get everything working together.
When you’re trying to tell a story in 60 seconds, every frame counts. The pre-vis allowed us to fine-tune the flow, work out how each shot connected to the next and make sure every moment earned its place. It became our production bible, locking down the key shots and camera moves before moving into the online stage, where the final CG environments, animation and visual effects would be realised.
PRE-VIZ | COFFEE & TV
9.
THE SHOOT
We set up in a modest meeting room at the Lensbury Hotel in Teddington Lock, where the British & Irish Lions were carrying out their media duties before flying to South Africa the following day. Given the physical demands of rugby and the warm-up matches ahead of the Tests, I wanted a back-up player in the can, so we planned to shoot both captain Alun Wyn Jones and Maro Itoje.
With South African captain Siya Kolisi already in South Africa, we had to find a body double who could convincingly stand in for him. Finding someone with the right physical presence was no small task, so huge credit to casting director Tree Petts, who tracked down exactly the right guy for the job.
With Coffee & TV on set, we worked through each shot against our agreed pre-vis, making adjustments where needed. Huge credit to DP Chris Clarke and the entire crew, who pulled a rabbit out of the hat, delivering everything we needed in a small location with very limited time with the players.
10.
MUSIC AND SOUND
Sound is such an important part of how I approach a project. You can have the most incredible visuals in the world, but without the right music and sound design, they can fall flat. The sound can make or break the picture.
I love working with Arge and Neil because they both understand how to push things beyond the obvious. It’s a collaborative process, sharing references, throwing ideas around and experimenting until everything comes together. For the Lions, that meant building a rich, layered soundscape alongside a score full of attitude, aggression and momentum, giving the visuals the weight, energy and impact they deserved.
SOUND DESIGN
"The beauty of this project was the freedom to create something sonically as ambitious as the visuals. Adam was keen to explore the unexpected, pushing beyond conventional sound design to build a rich, layered soundscape. Working alongside Neil’s music, we experimented with abstract textures and sounds inspired by glass, weight, impact, destruction and reconstruction. The challenge was to make these extraordinary, geometric creatures feel tangible and physical, while creating a sonic world that was as distinctive and epic as the film itself. 458 tracks of sounds later, I believe we ended up with a fantastic sounding mix that did justice to the amazing visuals."
Ian "Arge" Hargest | Sound Design | Strings & Tins
MUSIC COMPOSITION
"Adam and I have worked together on countless projects, and our process is always a two-way conversation. He brings musical references and talks me through the emotions he wants to evoke, often highlighting particular moments in a track. I’ll then bring my own references, often from feature film scores, and we develop the direction together.
For the Lions, the music needed attitude, aggression and relentless momentum, building towards an epic crescendo. I put forward three demos, and together we settled on the right direction. The final composition grew into dozens of layers of instrumentation, drawing inspiration from the authentic sounds of South Africa to match the scale and intensity of the film."
Neil Myers | Composer
THE FINISHED SPOT
11.
THE RECOGNITION
The campaign ran both as a promotional film and as the opening title sequence for the Lions Series, receiving a great response across the industry press and online. It was shortlisted at the Broadcast Sports Awards, earned a BAFTA nomination and went on to win at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards.
A fantastic response to a project that brought together so much creative ambition, collaboration and craft.
Adam Wells, Director/Creative
Sky Creative Agency | Ceri Sampson, Executive Creative Director | Nick Mason, Senior Producer | Justin Bates, Creative Director | Sophie Brooks, Head of Production | Sofie Leale, Executive Producer | Danny Yeomans, Design Director
Steve Waugh, C&TV Creative Director | Richard Coley, CG Supervisor | Jonny Grew, Lead Animator | Luke Todd, 2D Lead | Artur Margiv | Nick D’Aguiar | Ozgur Taparli | Pedram Razi, 2D | Rimelle Khayat | Josh George | Jon Foskett | Aaron Smith | Adam Lindsey | Amy Heyes | Ben Cantor | Ivan Xavier | James White | John-Paul Harney, 3D | Gus Quirk, C&TV Producer | Prduction Director, Chris Chard
Chris Clarke, DOP | Neil Myers, Music | Ian 'Arge' Hargest, Sound, ENVY | Tree Petts, Casting
Here's me, holding the invisible BAFTA I didn't win.