Launch films help you tell the story behind the football club’s new identity; they help control the narrative and offer an opportunity to excite and inspire a community.

Launch Film example: Monterey Bay Football Club 

An example of creating a launch film to tell the story of a club’s place within a community can be seen in the Monterey Bay F.C. launch film that we created in 2021.

Monterey Bay F.C. was a new club starting from scratch, a true blank piece of paper, with no prior football history to call upon, but with a mission to represent a ‘football starved’ community.

I designed the club’s crest and brand identity, and now I was responsible for creating a launch film that would inspire the community.

The idea. 

The idea for the launch film actually began in the development stages of creating the Monterey Bay F.C.’s crest.

When researching the location and the community, we held multiple focus groups with the residents of Monterey to find out what the community loved and appreciated about the area they call home.

We discovered that half of the local community loved and appreciated the land and the farming culture that the area is famous for, and the other half of the community resonated with the sea, marine life, and the coast, which the region is also renowned for. It was an interesting and tricky divide.

The club knew that it had a role to play in uniting a disconnected community, so with this in mind, we crafted a club narrative around the idea of the land and sea coming together and meeting on the football pitch: We created a launch film called ‘The Greatest Union of Land and Sea.

Scripting and storyboarding. 

After defining the story’s theme, we devised a compelling script that would feature two main characters – a fisherman representing the part of the community that associated themselves with the sea, and a farmer that would symbolize the community that associated themselves with the land.

The script included many direct quotes from the local community, quotes we heard in the focus groups when designing the brand. 

In the focus groups, people told us they were excited about this new professional football club as they (the Monterey Bay region) hadn’t had “a club to call their own.” The line below was incorporated into the script. :

…”long days and aching muscles won’t stop us as we yearn for a football team to call our own”

Additionally, the community told us that they were proud of the fact that local farmers “worked hard to feed America” – this line was also incorporated into the script.

… “Out here we work hard to feed America.”

The focus groups were invaluable for getting a sense of what the community wanted in the football club brand identity, but they served a secondary purpose, as the community’s voice provided the backbone and tone for the launch video script.

With a script ready to share with the ownership group, I sketched out how I would direct and choreograph each and every scene to tell this story.

Pre- production and production days. 

The preproduction on this project was immense as we wanted to be as authentic as possible with every scene. We contacted local fishermen, local farms, and businesses, asking them if we could feature their locations in this film. 

We devised strict filming schedules which involved going out to sea at 3am in the morning. We mixed with local farmers and fishermen, communicating in English and Spanish, asking them to be involved in our production.

We scouted the area, driving around all parts of the local region, capturing footage that the locals would recognize, and resonate with. 

Our first days of production saw us going out to sea in early mornings to capture footage of the local fisherman working hard, and catching fish to feed the community.

Back on land, we spent afternoons out in the crop fields in and around Salinas, under the baking sun, capturing footage of a farmer (played by an actor) picking and packing crops to make his living. It was a fascinating experience, as good memories and new friends were made.   

We spent hours following the local fisherman and the farmer. We got footage that would show the hard working nature of the community, and the physical nature of the workers in these two local industries. We filmed at land and at sea, and now, our final task was to capture the film’s climactic scene, the pitch up soccer match – where the farmer and the fisherman would meet on the pitch.

Filming a choreographed pick up soccer match

Filming the pickup soccer game was a monumental task. We filmed it at a local agriculture company, Tanimura & Antle, who had a soccer field on their property their farmers use, and play pick up games on when they aren’t working. This location provided a perfect backdrop for the soccer match to take place.

At the location, I wanted the pickup game to have a sense of community coming together – not just the farmer and the fisherman, so we asked members of the local community (many who participated in the focus groups) to come and be a part of this historic launch film. We had upwards of 50 people turn up to participate in the production. Some community members participated as players on the pitch, and others as spectators watching the pickup game.

As this film was about launching the club’s crest and colors, we ordered t-shirts with the ‘never seen before’ club crest. The t-shirts were produced in the club’s two primary colors: dark blue and light blue, hinting at the club’s colors. The idea would be we would show flashes of what the new identity will look like during the pick up game, before revealing the final design at the end of the film.

It was a tiresome scene to shoot with an ambitious vision. Filming football scenes are both exciting and exhausting at the same time.

The pickup game was the film’s climactic scene, so we choreographed cameos from Frank Yallop (former MLS coach of the year, who was recently announced as Monterey Bay F.C. sporting director) and Ramiro Corrales (a former USA national team player and now first-team coach of Monterey Bay F.C.) to tie the story back to the birth of this new football club, and the key names behind it.

Impact

We released the film in English and Spanish to capture, include and excite both communities.

The launch film was a huge success. The film was shown on local news, as well as being applauded nationally and internationally via social media.

By having a well crafted and professionally made launch film, Monterey Bay F.C. controlled the narrative and launch with style and impact. The club was able to tell its unique story and highlight its purpose of bringing communities from the land and sea together through football, while hinting at what influenced the club’s crest design to the national audience.

Further reading

Monterey Bay F.C. launch film

Monterey Bay F.C. brand design case study

Monterey Bay F.C. website

Monterey Bay F.C. launch film announcement

Want to discuss a project? Contact Christopher Payne