In 2020, the Renault car brand became the major partner of the French Rugby Federation and the French rugby XV team. With the arrival of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Renault is reaffirming its status as a French manufacturer and its commitment to national sports teams. The French rugby team, a symbol of strength, vigour and perseverance, allows the manufacturer to assert its belonging, its French values and its desire to always go further.
In this patriotic spot directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet (Partizan), Renault takes us on a journey with Raphaël Ibañez, general manager of the French team, and players Cameron Woki, Charles Ollivon, Damian Penaud and Dylan Cretin in a historical fresco retracing French sporting inventions. It is humorously recalled that motor racing, tennis (formerly “jeu de paume”) and boxing were all born in France. But although rugby was born in England, there is no doubt that it has been widely adopted by the French public. The beginnings of rugby in England can be seen in pictures of knights in armour enjoying a moment of play. Centuries later, rugby has changed, and the sport has been reinvented as Renault’s slogan states, “France didn’t invent rugby, but it reinvented it. ”
The film is accompanied by the music of “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem revisited by the Start-Rec agency, reinforcing Renault’s French identity.
The filming took place in Barcelona with the entire French national team, which had just won the Grand Slam. The car race was filmed against a green background for safety reasons, requiring the artists from The Mill Paris to do head replacement. Using a mix of AI and faceswap techniques, our artists replaced the faces of the stuntmen with those of the rugby players. They also integrated the scenery and recreated the dirt on roads, the dust simulation and the flying map. During the boxing match, our artists used an image multiplication technique to obtain a dense and realistic crowd. Finally, for the final scene, the entire set was reworked with matte painting, adding mountains and depth for an epic effect.
Want to join The Mill ? Discover all our job opportunities here.