Glenn Kitson on Proving Harry Kane’s Doubters Wrong for Nike

England take on Colombia tonight in the last 16 round of the FIFA World Cup, with feelings towards the country’s young, fresh and vibrant team more positive than during any major tournament in recent memory. 

Leading the England team as captain is Tottenham’s Harry Kane. After two consecutive Premier League seasons scoring more than 30 goals, he now faces the pressure to perform on the world stage - this prompted Nike to address Kane’s potential in a film created by AKQA and directed by Glenn Kitson through Radical Media. Entitled ‘Believe’, the film shows Kane at England’s training ground, St George’s, shooting at goal with the quotes of Kane’s doubters making up the soundtrack. 

“AKQA already had the script locked on this,” director Glenn told LBB’s Addison Capper. “It was such good creative and a joy to work with. From my part as a director it was about making sure we got the best out of the talent.”

England is a football-mad - albeit often-disappointed - country, and for Glenn, having the opportunity to create something for his country around such an important event ‘was a dream’. 

Launching ahead of the World Cup kick off, the film focuses on Kane’s belief in the future. Thankfully for Nike, AKQA and Glenn, Kane has lived up to his expectations (at the time of writing…), bagging five goals after three England games (of which Kane has played a part in only two) and currently topping the scoring charts. “The film is about belief and having faith, so with that we had to go in positively,” Glenn says. “As I mentioned, the squad as a whole play so freely because they don't care about the past. There is no expectation on them for this tournament. It's the most refreshing World Cup vibe I can remember.”

Glenn speaks of a few issues involved in bringing the project together. As is common when working with footballers, time was of the essence. “Plus, it was shot a week before the World Cup started and we had the FA doctors on our case.” An injury on set wouldn’t have been ideal for the doctors nor for the millions of English people around the world. 

The drone shot at the end also proved tricky, thanks to having to shoot it in a lightning storm - though it did apparently lead to some neat footage of lightning striking the ground. 

On set, Glenn is thankful of lessons learned pulling this one together. When pressed on the trickiest component of the job he says they were “as a director and learning how to deliver for the client. I learned a lot of stuff on this one, in particular when to step out the way and not hinder the creative.”

There is one thing he’s particularly sure of though. 

“It’s coming home.”*