Please enter your email and website or LinkedIn to receive more information about our free and paid accounts.
Please enter your email address below and we’ll send you instructions on how to change your password.
ESPN asked us to coordinate a production featuring Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts for their Black-led media platform Andscape. Wonderful Machine’s producers helped them bring all of the pieces together.
ESPN and Andscape wanted to tell the story of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ experience coming off of a Super Bowl appearance and record-breaking financial contract extension, followed by the struggles of the next season. They also wanted to tell the story of how he embraced Philadelphia as his home, and how he has shaped his image on and off the field. The creative concept called for a few different scenarios and outfit changes, ranging from retro fashion and vinyl records, to weight training, an interview scene, modern fashion moments and a crawfish boil as well.
The project was a mix of stills and video, which were both of equal importance for the client. We were tasked with bringing all of the cooks into the same kitchen, creating the production schedule, supplementing the teams with local helping hands, location management, equipment rentals and coordinating the run-of-show for the shoot day. First and foremost, we brought on Brooklyn-based Christian Cody as the photographer, and teamed him up with Charlotte-based Loyd Visuals to lead the video conception and execution.
Our next order of business was to lock down the location. Based on the creative brief we received, we immediately recommended that the production take place at Standby Studios. While we are accustomed to shooting in their large studio space, this project actually took us outside of the white box and into the green room, lounge, garage and kitchen, where we were able to create multiple unique environments and setups.
With our location secured, we then needed to bring on a few key crew members. These included digital tech Richie Myers, first assistant Elijah Ellis and second assistant Archer Mesner-Hogan, grip and gaffers Jon Barden and Ed DiJoseph, along with our executive producers Bryan Sheffield and Craig Oppenheimer, production coordinator Andrew Souders, and production assistant Stephanie Malantonio. Finally, to coordinate prop styling we brought on Christie Proud and her two assistants. Christie made a phenomenal contribution by managing a ton of very last minute requests to track down all the items. She sourced some great weightlifting equipment and vinyl LPs, and created custom props and coordinated a wide variety of props to bring the creative vision to life.
On the shoot day, multiple teams descended upon Philadelphia, working together to create some fantastic content to help tell Jalen’s story. In total, there were about 40 people on set. The creative goal was to create different scenes for photo and video content that demonstrated important aspects of Jalen’s athletic personality.
We planned to capture imagery with five different outfits. The different looks would be spread across a home vinyl listening session, an interview scene, an athletic weight training scene, and a fashion-forward portrait of Jalen in a suit against a seamless backdrop. Finally, a last minute request for a crawfish boil turned into a key theme for Andscape’s social media needs. We pulled together a scene to show Jalen’s Southern roots with a home-cooked crawfish meal, as he enlightened everyone on the ins and outs of the perfect dish. Despite the tight production schedule, we had a solid plan that allowed us to move across each set, while combining themes of fashion, athleticism, listening to vinyl records, and an interview.
From setup at the beginning of the day through a late wrap, we knocked out the shot list with an amazing team of content creators and talented support crew to bring the vision to life. This was a dynamic multimedia production about our home team’s quarterback, and we were thrilled to help guide the project into the end zone! We couldn’t be happier with the results. GO BIRDS!
See more case studies on our Shoot Production page.
If you need help producing your project, reach out!