Once upon a time, the world’s most important events were recorded in tapestry. Xander Hart and Edward Usher at BBC Creative, the broadcaster’s in-house agency, have revived that ancient tradition to promote the BBC’s coverage of the 2018 football World Cup – with a modern twist. The BBC World Cup tapestry is also an animated film. Every second of the film contains twelve-and-half embroidered frames.
The film, directed by Nicos Livesey through Blinkink, launched during the FA Cup Final on May 19 and is an animation of the tapestry. In it, iconic moments from previous World Cups are illustrated and the football stars competing in Russia this year are introduced. Fans will be able to choose their favourite moments from this season’s matches to add to the artwork, which will be seven metres long and will be displayed in a museum (to be chosen) in the UK.
Every frame of the BBC’s World Cup ad was individually embroidered, while a real tapestry will live on after the tournament as a historical record of famous football moments. The brief given to BBC Creative was to emphasise the World Cup’s historical importance and the fact that it is “the cultural impact of World Cup moments, not just who wins it” that matters. The goal became to create a real, and enduring, historical – and global – record of the World Cup and to produce something more interesting than a montage of historical clips.
The campaign line became History Will Be Made. And the tapestry became a collection of the moments that have become part of football’s cultural folklore – Diego Maradona’s skill, Zinedine Zidane’s flair, Paul Gascoigne’s emotions – as well as a preview of this year’s most exciting talents – Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Harry Kane.
The tapestry was inspired by Russia’s art and embroidery, the film by the 2017 film, Loving Vincent, in which the life of Vincent Van Gogh is depicted through animated oil paintings in the artist’s distinctive style. Livesey was chosen in part because of his 2014 music video, Tharsis Sleeps, for heavy metal band, Throne, in which he animated over 3,000 hand-sewn denim frames.
The embroidered frames were created by London Embroidery Studio. Designer, Rune Fisker, helped to develop a unique graphic style that would be inspired by Russian art without becoming a series of clichéd images. The music is a new version of the traditional Russian folk song, Ochi Cheryne (Dark Eyes). It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, arranged by Alex Baranowski, and sung by bass-baritone, Sir John Tomlinson, with a 40-piece orchestra.
More than 227,000 metres of thread were used to make over 600 unique frames of tapestry. If laid end-to-end they would measure more than 1,200 metres in length.
Credits:
Creative agency: BBC Sport & BBC Creative
Executive Creative Directors: Aidan McClure & Laurent Simon
Creative Directors: Tim Jones & James Cross
Creatives: Edward Usher & Xander Hart
Producer: Liz Dolan
Production company: Blinkink
Director: Nicos Livesey
Producer: Alex Halley
Executive Producer: Bart Yates
