SoftCopy

Possession

Initial Video Concepts 20th April 2026 Video Design by Dan Light

Possession

The Concept

Video design needs to quickly and clearly communicate era, location, context and evidence to the audience. How can we connect the world of the data center, to modern football, and to the evidence?

Base World

Thinking about the base world of the Data Center, and how that can connect to a TV Football lens. Is there a way to dynamically blend the two? So we can drift in and out?

Base World · 01

Data Center.

Big and Messy, filled with tech from a mix of eras; as if it has been collected from the entire span of fifas history? Littered with little screens that allow little bits of video to come to life.

  • Two server racks loaded with early 2000s hardware and cabling
  • Art installation — wall of vintage computers showing blue Windows screens
  • Wall of stacked beige CRT monitors glowing green and blue
  • Server racks with dense, chaotic cable management
  • Network rack overwhelmed with blue ethernet cables
  • Green phosphor CRT terminal showing early web content
  • Server racks glowing blue, white cables cascading in darkness
  • Close-up of Dell server rack with blue and yellow cables, LED indicators lit

Data Center.

Base World · 02

TV Studio.

Drifting more into the TV Studio world. I find something really interesting in the modern sport studio, essentially big messy data centers filled with gear that is used to create virtual worlds.

  • Dark broadcast gallery — operators at desks, banks of football match feeds
  • Green screen studio with football on monitors, production crew at desk
  • Champions League broadcast monitor wall showing multiple studio and field feeds
  • BBC Sport green screen studio with robotic camera arm and two presenters
  • Virtual football studio with life-size Liverpool player renders alongside presenter
  • CNN London studio floor — camera jibs and red studio lighting
  • BBC Sport Wimbledon virtual production studio with curved desk and robotic arm
  • BBC Sport virtual football studio with Lineker at desk, virtual pitch behind
  • Virtual Champions League studio with presenter and player cutouts
  • TriCaster production switcher desk with multi-monitor studio feed wall behind
  • BBC Euro 2020 virtual studio — panel of presenters on virtual alpine set

TV Studio.

TV Textures

How do we differentiate the three different eras of football through video? Using texture to quickly indicate where we are.

TV Textures · 01

Stanley Rous — Black and White, Film, Analogue Transmission.

Early broadcast technology, footage is black and white, but with a warm fuzz. Simple and static camera shots. High levels of grain and noise.

  • Film-era TV camera in foreground, aerial stadium shot behind
  • Close-up of commentator speaking into microphone, old broadcast camera behind
  • Black and white match action — two players in a challenge, packed terrace behind
  • BBC presenter at pitchside with camera rig and monitor, crowd behind
  • TV director in overhead booth watching monitor, pitch visible below
  • Black and white TV static noise texture — analogue grain

Stanley Rous — Black and White, Film, Analogue Transmission.

TV Textures · 02

João Havelange — Colour Broadcast, VHS.

Introduction of colour, but with a low level of detail and a high level of noise and grain. Camera shots are a bit more ambitious, instant replay is beginning to become available.

  • 1970 World Cup match action in bright colour — Brazil vs Italy
  • Brazil and Italy lining up before the 1970 World Cup final, early colour broadcast
  • Match action slide tackle in early colour footage
  • Operator working VHS tape machine in a colour broadcast studio
  • Stadium viewed from broadcast booth, grainy VHS-era colour quality

João Havelange — Colour Broadcast, VHS.

TV Textures · 03

Sepp Blatter — Full HD.

Into a clean and clear, yet clinical world. Football is at the cutting edge of broadcast tech to create new ways to watch the game. Shots are ambitious as we now have wireless transmission, drones, cable cams, audience iphone-footage and more.

  • Sony HD broadcast camera rigged at stadium, full modern setup
  • Modern HD match action near goal — clinical colour, sharp image
  • Liverpool players celebrating a goal — vivid HD colour, modern kit
  • Premier League match action in full HD — Man Utd vs Man City
  • Premier League multiview on Peacock — four HD streams simultaneously
  • HD broadcast multi-screen collage showing multiple live games simultaneously

Sepp Blatter — Full HD.

Hard Evidence

How do we show data to the audience that we want to present as truth? Documents, videos, images, or quotes that we want to give weight. Can we mix-media (stealing slightly from a documentary trope) to present things as tangible? Trying to blend the idea of the data center where we have tangible data, with a more digital lens.

  • Stacked 1975 newspaper clippings — "Family Will Sue CIA For Suicide" headlines
  • Redacted FBI-style covert operations dossier with annotations and photograph
  • Out-of-focus typewritten document with redaction bars over the text
  • Grainy document with "TOUGH TRAINING" headline circled in white marker
  • Graphic treatment — "REDACTED" text over heavily marked-up document
  • Typographic poster: "Where there is no order there is chaos"
  • National Geographic title card — distressed halftone portrait, yellow accents

Stacked 1975 newspaper clippings — "Family Will Sue CIA For Suicide" headlines, Redacted FBI-style covert operations dossier with annotations and photograph, Out-of-focus typewritten document with redaction bars over the text, Grainy document with "TOUGH TRAINING" headline circled in white marker, Graphic treatment — "REDACTED" text over heavily marked-up document, Typographic poster: "Where there is no order there is chaos", National Geographic title card — distressed halftone portrait, yellow accents