While the longform film was the primary deliverable, our approach was to treat the Play-Off week as one event, rather than three standalone games.
With teams on site at Wembley across all three match days, as well as the week before, we focused on access, atmosphere and storytelling, capturing, (and trying not to annoy) the people, processes and moments that make the weekend happen, from event staff and broadcast crews to mascots and trophy preparation.
By working closely with the core EFL team, it also allowed us to expand the scope of the work in real time, creating a full package of content that extended far beyond the original brief, maximising value from the same crews, access and shooting time.
A package of work, not a single video
The main deliverable was a 14-minute longform YouTube film, designed as a piece of work that documented the full Play-Off Finals weekend.
Alongside this, we delivered:
- 13 short-form social films to build anticipation and lead audiences to the longform piece
- A suite of reactive, platform-first content, captured and turned around quickly during the event
Capturing moments fans dont usually see
Access across the weekend allowed us to experiment with formats and capture content rarely seen by supporters.
This included:
- POV champagne celebrations where we placed GoPro cameras on champagne bottles inside the winning dressing rooms to capture promotion celebrations from a player’s POV
- 100fps match moments. Filming key moments of goals, saves and celebrations at 100fps to create a distinctive, cinematic style of content
- Daily Wembley time-lapses, documenting the stadium filling and emptying across each day to capture the scale and atmosphere of the weekend
These moments added helped tell more of the overall story, from angles not seen before, showcasing the Sky Bet Play-Off Finals as the spectacle it is.
