Some gigs take what seems like an eternity to come to fruition, while others take hours. The series of commercials that I shot for Stadium Nissan Orange County is kind of a hybrid of the two.
In April of 2012, Darren Elwood started working for the commercial production company, Hu-man Element Productions, and he has been trying to get me in the mix with them for quite some time. For our first collaboration, things came together very quickly. I got a phone call on May 15, 2013, checking my availability and we lensed all four commercials 6 days later for DB & M Media.
The docu-style ads are in the style and spirit of the wonderful ESPN “This is Sportscenter” campaign that began in 1995. If you’ve managed to live this long without seeing one, or you are like me and are head over in heels in love with them, then watch this top 10 slideshow that Adweek recently compiled. I doubt that you to have the willpower to resist watching all 10 right now…
Our crop of advertisements humorously ask the question, ‘What would happen if a car dealership adopted the ideals of a baseball team?’ Stadium Nissan of Orange County is located in the shadows of Anaheim Stadium so it was fun to see what it would be like if it echoed the spirit of Southern California’s sole American League representative. Angels slugger, Mark Trumbo, stars in all of the spots and plays himself as the inspirational baseball player who injects his sports-centric ideals onto the showroom floor.
Our condensed timeline meant that we didn’t have time for a location scout and I only met the directing team of Rob and Benjamin Clyde once before the shoot. This also marked my first time working with my gaffer, Team Bashet and his crew, to whom Production introduced me. Despite those obstacles, the group gelled quickly and worked efficiently as demonstrated by our shooting 4 full spots in less than 11 hours.
The Clyde Brothers work quite well together for a variety of reasons. In my experience, directing duos often perform best when one focuses more on the actors while the other focuses on the technical/visual aspects. In their dynamic, Rob (aka Older Brother), is usually talking to talent, while Ben (aka Younger Brother) hashes out the shot design and lighting with me. Their vision is always in sync so they can swiftly divide and conquer, which keeps production moving at a fast clip.
Team Bashet brought along his van loaded to the brim with a variety of grip and electric gear. I’d say our most utilized unit was the KinoFlo Image80, while the extremely small (3″ x 12″ x .37″) Roscoe LightPad HOs were invaluable for lighting our actors inside of the vehicle for my favorite of the spots, “The Announcer.” In keeping with the naturalistic feel of “This is Sportscenter,” we avoided making things look too polished I don’t think we ever used 3-point lighting in a set-up. While it’s often hard to resist the temptation to give your actors a nice back-light and giant eye-light, it would’ve felt artificial here.
Lens wise, we almost exclusively stayed on my normal zoom (Canon 24-70mm/2.8L) and lived handheld. I employed the CineStyle color profile on the Canon 5D Mark III. For the commercial’s TV run and initial web release, Rob applied some basic color correction within Final Cut Pro 7 to get the spots viewable for a wide audience. Given the quick turn around, I wasn’t available to supervise any of it. After several scheduling attempts over the last few months, we were all finally able to sit down with Diego Petrusky to color correct. Aside from adding contrast and dialing in skin tones, the CineStyle profile requires a major boost of saturation in post.
I’m proud to finally share the definitive versions with everyone. Please note that these edits represent the director’s cut and differ slightly from what you may have seen while watching Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball games on TV in the second half of the season.
At the conclusion of our day, production cut us checks. Convinced that it was a conspiracy on the part of the dealership to tempt us with purchasing a new car, I posted the picture on the left to Facebook/Instagram. Sadly, only part of that story is true. Instead of peeling off in a $100K GTR, I packed my camera into my VW, grabbed some $10 Thai food down the street, and returned to LA, content.
In the comments section below, please tell me which is your favorite “This is Sportscenter” commercial.
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