Danny Ings - Off Season Training in Portugal

The idea for this project was to follow Southampton professional footballer, Danny Ings to Portugal to capture footage of his off season training sessions. Danny has struggled with a few injuries over the last couple of years and wanted to get a head start before the team got back together on the 1st July following his £20 million move from Liverpool to Southampton.

Alex Parsons Personal Trainer accompanied Danny and put him through his paces at The Campus. We also took this opportunity to photograph still shots for both Danny Ings and Alex Parsons as part of their promotional portfolios.

We produced 4 short films to give flavour of how hard Danny was working under the watchful eye of Alex, whilst getting his personality across, which he then released on instagram in the final week before he was due to start at Southampton. The campaign was a great success in building momentum and excitement for the new season.

We had a great time creating these films and wish him well for the next season at Southampton FC. Which film is your favourite?

Danny Ings Off Season Part 1

Danny Ings Off Season Part 2

Danny Ings Off Season Part 3

Danny Ings Off Season Part 4

Fight scene and sound layering packs a mean punch!

We’re very proud of our latest film for JH Action Fight Choreography, which showcases their skills in a bid to land them an exciting new project in the world of fight scene choreography.

Fight scenes themselves are particularly technical scenes to film: This scene was carefully choreographed and our production team worked closely with JH Action in the initial run throughs ensuring our movements could be integrated. We constructed a low key lighting setup which complemented the narrative of the project, this was key to accentuate the overall mood. From working with many of the actors before we knew they would bring energy and intensity throughout every take, which is why we made the decision to shoot handheld with a higher shutter speed, in turn this choice heightened the fight whilst also bringing the viewer into the scene. Our new camera - the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K - was a particularly nifty device to use on this shoot (despite its less catchy name!) .

Post production is where we took the scene to the next level - specifically in this case, with enhanced sound design. The landing of each punch, the impact of the crossbar, the break of the arm is given multiple layers to enhance the realism throughout; we want the viewer to feel every hit as they watch.

These skills are totally transferable across a multitude of industries - whether it’s filming a sporting event, launching a new power tool, or the hit of a tennis racket. Sound design is not something to be underestimated in post-production, if you want to deliver a message that punches above its weight.

JH Action Fight Choreography Promo Film

Behind the scenes on the Fight

Introducing the Southampton FC Main Club Sponsor

Southampton FC asked Bullet to create a launch video to announce their new Main Club Sponsor, LD Sports. This was a quick turnaround project, with the filming taking place on a Wednesday and Friday and the first edit ready the same evening. We filmed using a drone to capture the stadium shot and combined our footage with archived footage of the Saints games to create the finished film.

It was really enjoyable, as always, to work with the team at Southampton FC and we wish them and their new sponsors, LD Sports a successful partnership.

The Utilita Energy Trilogy Games - Hampshire Cricket vs Southampton FC

Three footballers vs three cricketers playing three rounds - who wins the Utilita Trilogy Cup? You’ll have to watch the film and see!

Sponsors of both Hampshire County Cricket team and Southampton Football Team, Utilita decided to run a friendly head-to-head between the two leading sports clubs to promote their power brand. After a fair few pre-production meetings, we headed on down to the Ageas Bowl to film the competition, presented by local Southampton Football legend, Matt Le Tissier and Hampshire Cricket legend, Kevin James.

The football team consisted of Saints players, James Ward-Prowse, Alex McCarthy, Oriol Romeu vs the Hampshire cricket teammates, Mason Crane, Chris Wood and Sam Northeast who played three rounds of quick games testing their skills from each sporting discipline.

The whole contest was shot in two hours - and with light fading and busy schedules, we needed to be fully prepared to get all the coverage and b-roll within this time. Small details like keeping the floodlights on throughout the shoot were worked out beforehand to ensure consistency throughout the film. Armed with our drone and four cameramen, we worked with the professional sportsmen and celebs to capture the action - and what true professionals they all were. A great shoot to work on and lots of fun too!

Utilita short film - 40 seconds

Main Film - 5 min 40

eToro's Top Transfers campaign with Southampton FC

Global multi-asset investment platform eToro partnered with Saints at the start of the season and Bullet were asked to help them launch a series of films, looking back at the legendary football signings that have made Southampton FC the club it is today.

eToro’s Top Transfer campaign - Instagram 15 secs

The campaign focused on four iconic players: Rickie Lambert, Kelvin Davis, Kevin Keegan and Marians Pahars, who all feature heavily in the history of the club. We filmed interviews with the footballers, ex-manager Laurie McMenemy and key journalists at the time, Adam Blackmore and Graham Hiley to tell the story of their signings and what made them such notable assets to the club. Using old match footage and images, we put together a series of films for Southampton FC to use in a variety of formats: Instagram teasers, longer videos for use on their website and versions with and without subtitles to suit each marketing platform.

eToro’s Top Transfers - Marians Pahars (full film)

eToro’s Top Transfers - Rickie Lambert (full film)

eToro Top Transfers - Kelvin Davis (full film)

eToro’s Top Transfers - Kevin Keegan (full film)

Marians Pahars (60 sec)

Rickie Lambert (60 secs)

Kelvin Davis (60 sec)

Kevin Keegan (60 sec)

Check out the Behind the scenes filming of this series too.

Recreating the Rickie Lambert goal for SportPesa

Kits For Africa is an initiative that encourages football fans to donate their old kit to sports mad communities across Africa. We were asked by Southampton Football Club to create some content for one of their partners, SportPesa as part of the Kits for Africa campaign, using ex-player, Rickie Lambert. They wanted to recreate his favourite goal with Southampton FC - a free kick that curled into the goal, which went down in history as one of the most significant goals for the club.

This film required a fair bit of advance planning, studying the original footage and working to get the camera angles exactly right, including use of a static drone for one of the shots. It was great to have Rickie Lambert back on the pitch and we worked with the team to set up the kick so it was just right. It took 1.5 hours of filming at the Saints training ground, recreating the goal and interviewing the player, which then we put it together with the original footage to create this promotional film.

A different version was produced for each marketing platform: a short version for social media, bearing in mind the different frame requirements for Instagram and Facebook, as well as a longer version for their website via YouTube.

Here is the full campaign of videos produced from this one shoot:

30 second video without subtitles

30 second video - square for Instagram

Full video - 90 second version with subtitles

Insta Story teaser

Saints Training Camps

The Saints Foundation, in conjunction with Southampton Football Club run a series of training camps throughout the year during school holidays for children aged 5-13, giving youngsters of all abilities the opportunity to receive a high quality of coaching, learn new skills and make new friends in the footballing world.

The Saints Foundation asked Bullet to help them promote both the residential and day camps and we produced two sales films as a result, highlighting all the positive experiences the children had enjoyed. We took footage at various locations of the training camps and interviewed coaches and children about the benefits of their experiences. We also produced a couple of social media teasers to give a variety of videos for the charity to use as part of their content marketing strategy.

Saints Training Day Camp - 55-seconds main video

Saints Training Camp - Residential 45-second main film

Saints Training Camps - an overview in 15-seconds

Saints training camp - second teaser - 15 seconds