To mark Mars’ latest campaign #Believe ahead of Euro 2016, the spot looks to rally the fans and get the nation behind the England football team. Featuring England footballers Danny Welbeck, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy, the three players lead fans across the channel to France ahead of England’s first match on the 11th June.

Creative Director Jonathan Westley explains; "We shot over 6 days on the Western Cape in South Africa on a beach that looked sufficiently similar to the beaches in Northern France. We had a cast of over 150 extras (30 of whom were regular cold water swimmers), as well as horsemen, tea ladies, lions, Queen Elizabeth, and a fully staffed fishing trawler. We had a mini-flotilla of support vessels (including a jet ski with an anti-shark sonar device) and shot using a helicopter, wet deck inflatables, tracking vehicles, and steadicams. We also spent a morning at the FA’s training headquarters in Burton filming the England players, all of which was shot in anamorphic by Director of Photography, Franz Lustig.

Director Sam Brown aimed to capture as much as possible in camera and we were tasked with filling in the gaps in the crowd using a combination of shot plates and 3D massive crowds. In total we populated 18 shots with massive, some in the sea and some running on the beach. All of these shots required interaction with the water and so particle simulations were used to recreate splashes, water turbulence, and swim cycles. In 2D we then tracked in some of the mid-ground figures we had shot and combined them with the crowd. Skies were also added in to get a sense of continuity across the shots.

It was a tight schedule but the team pulled out all the stops to fill the gaps and contribute to the mad visual feast of thousands of England fans swimming to France. As Sam put it, it’s rare that something this bonkers gets so much craft applied to it."