Case Study: England Netball's New Head Coach (Jess Thirlby)
Jess Thirlby, the new Vitality Roses Head Coach
Following the huge success of the Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool, England Netball were keen to capitalise on the momentum following the tournament and announce their new Head Coach straight after the event.
We really enjoy our ongoing relationship with England Netball and produce a wide variety of content for them, however this was one project we were particularly excited about!
We recommended the beautiful Clifton College sports ground in Bristol for the location. It’s a venue we know well, offers a great deal of indoor and outdoor location variety but is also incredibly secluded, meaning that we could capture content away from public view as secrecy of the coach’s identity was top priority until the content was published.
With only two hours available to capture content with the new coach, as well as needing all content edited and delivered as soon as possible to avoid any leaks, we new it was going to be a busy 24 hours! (With production set to take place on the hottest summer day on record too!).
Arriving early on a Thursday morning we set up a photography station in the outdoor netball centre. Jess Thirlby arrived, full of excitement about her new role and well aware she had big shoes to fill following Tracey Neville’s tenure in the Head Coach role. Her passion and enthusiasm shone through immediately and within half an hour we’d built up a strong image bank for future use, a mix of indoor shots with a variety of colours and backgrounds as well as imagery in the beautiful outdoor surroundings for press use.
Next came the video content, England Netball wanted a long piece to capture the story of Jess’ career so far as well as illustrate her coaching experience and philosophy. We set up a 3-camera Multicam interview setup to capture the interview, knowing that due to time constraints meant B-Roll wasn’t an option, we wanted to give variety to help keep the interview as visually engaging for the audience as possible with varied camera angles.
GET TO KNOW: Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby
Interview complete, we used the final half hour available to create a ‘reveal’ video to be the first piece of content announcing Jess’ appointment. We aimed for a more cinematic Question of Sport ‘mystery guest’ style introduction, with each shot revealing a little bit more information about who the next Head Coach would be, before the big reveal at the end.
Vitality Roses Head Coach Reveal Video
After a busy Thursday morning in Bristol we raced back to the studio to get an edited photo selection out to the press ready to use the next day. With the reveal video going live just after midday and the full interview following on later that afternoon.
We were thrilled to see so much press coverage for Jess and the Roses about her appointment, with BBC Sport, Sky Sports and The Guardian also running stories using the content produced.
We wish you continued success in your new role Jess and can’t wait to see what's in store for you and the Roses as you build towards the next World Cup.
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