UEFA and Disney Inspire Young Female Football Players in Sweet ‘Playmakers’ Campaign

Scottish creative production studio Eyebolls has produced the launch film for UEFA and Disney’s new initiative, Playmakers. Working closely with creative agency Frame, the studio produced both the live action and animation aspects of the film, which promotes the radical European-wide grassroots programme and is inspired by Disney films and characters.

The initiative – which targets girls aged five to eight to increase participation in women’s and girl’s football – launches with a film that sees a group of young girls taking part in a Playmakers session. Featuring voiceovers of why they choose to play football, the children’s actions are enhanced with added animations such as stars, lightning bolts, and trails of smoke as they learn football through play and storytelling.

The spot is accompanied by a dramatic launch ‘trailer’ in the style of a Hollywood blockbuster, incorporating elements of The Incredibles 2 to celebrate a group of girls who can change football together. 

Eyebolls were initially approached by Frame to source the perfect director for the launch film. The team pulled in Newcastle-based director Richard Oliver whose hybrid animation, graphic design and sports experience presented an ideal mix for the demands of the campaign.

Rhona Drummond at Eyebolls, comments: “It was really great to work with Richard, he’s a really experienced director with the perfect mix of work on his reel and his background in animation and graphic design meant he really understood the technicalities of mixing the two mediums. Not only is he a great performance director, but his work is very visual – and he has directed a few football films and worked a lot with kids. He was great with the agency and client and knew exactly what we wanted to achieve with the spot.”

Eyebolls tackled technical and budget demands by ensuring that everything that possibly needed to be captured was caught on film. The team prepped for the shoot before Christmas and, despite the challenging holiday period closures, shot the campaign completely over two days. With time restrictions affecting the availability of the children – who needed to provide stills and voice overs in addition to the video footage – Eyebolls worked efficiently, dividing the teams to overcome any time restraints.