Straight from the field to television

Three years with Kappa

It has been more than three years since we started working with Kappa Czech Republic. We make practically everything that counts as fashion content for them, from product and lifestyle photos through sales reels to brand films.

In recent years Kappa CZ has focused mainly on partnerships with sports teams and on supplying teamwear. That has meant a lot of work on this theme for us as well.

Alongside the regular productions with Kappa in Brno, we travel to all kinds of sports teams across the Czech Republic and make that content with them.

Kappa at the world championship

Last year the collaboration reached a new peak. Together we shot three short TV spots for the softball world championship, where Kappa sponsors the Czech national team.

The brief was clear from the start: shoot with the simplest and smallest crew possible, and plan for very limited time with the players on the field.

The client wanted three fifteen-second TV spots, close in spirit to brand spots we had made together before, for example around basketball. They had to be as punchy as possible and tie the game itself to Kappa clothing, the product.

Softball? Sure. First, the rules.

We put together a simple storyboard and a rough structure for the spots, and above all we learned the rules of softball, which until then we of course knew nothing about.

That is one of the advantages of this craft. During a production you end up around an enormous number of subjects, places and people you often knew nothing about before. One day we shoot in a studio, the next in a factory, and the day after that we are figuring out how softball works.

So we learned the basic principles of the game and decided which kinds of action shots we wanted. We also counted on the players themselves helping us on the day. They were, by the way, incredibly willing. Thank you for that.

Hockey as preparation for softball

A long collaboration with Bauer Hockey Czech helped a lot here too. With them we have shot countless hockey spots.

You might ask what softball and hockey have in common.

At first glance, almost nothing. In terms of how the sport moves, surprisingly a lot. After productions like that you know which lenses work, what looks good in motion, how much the camera operator should or should not be part of the action, and what kind of storyline a short sports film can carry.

So we did not have to start from zero. We just picked up a bat instead of a stick.

We just picked up a bat instead of a stick.

Rigging the players

As always, we wanted a special shot to set the films apart. And because we like to rig things, this time we decided to rig the players themselves.

For anyone new to it: to rig means attaching a camera or other gear to a person, an object or a vehicle so the camera can move with them, safely and steadily.

We used a rig called a Snorricam. The players put on a special vest with a pole about a metre long, running out from the stomach in front of them. On the end of that pole we mounted our camera, turned back toward the player’s face.

We then had them sprint with the rig, and the result was properly active footage that makes you feel you are right there in the action with that person.

The only downside is that a relatively heavy, and above all extremely expensive, camera had to be spotted by the operator during the sprint. So Tomáš got a proper workout.

A logo made of players

Another interesting shot came straight from a marketer at Kappa (hello, Mara). Two players leaned back to back so their bodies formed the Kappa logo. We used the shot at the end of one of the spots, where the logo itself later drew out of it.

In total we delivered three spots, each on a slightly different theme: one lead film for the women’s category, one for the men, and one for the mixed category.

The spots then ran on ČT Sport during the softball world championship broadcast, and as always we also made vertical versions for social networks.

A dream client

In the end we can only add that Kappa Czech Republic is something of a dream client for us. The whole collaboration has run for years in complete ease, without a single snag or needless pressure. (Deadline pressure does not count, of course. That is normal.)

The company’s marketing team is also very open to our ideas, and the nature of their products lets us actually make things on almost every project we do together.

Put simply, when we get to skate with a camera or run after players across a field, we enjoy it enormously.