Give is part of Nike’s ongoing commitment to organizations that are contributing to transformative change in marginalized communities across the United States. We partnered with photographer Hannah Price to showcase a soccer mentorship program in Philadelphia.
We first caught wind of this project when Paul Welch, Executive Director of Instrument, reached out to discuss our production capabilities. We reviewed a few recent projects they had completed for Nike’s Give program, which helps support marginalized communities, primarily through athletics and mentorship opportunities. One of the mentorship programs that they wanted to highlight involved two soccer players in Philadelphia. So, we produced a shoot showing the players in action on the soccer pitch as well as hanging out in the city as though on their way to practice or relaxing afterwards.
We were very fortunate to collaborate with photographer Hannah Price on this project. Her photojournalistic background and her approach to capturing authentic moments ultimately lead to a very successful shoot. However, before she could even pick up her camera, we had to find a location and wrangle a crew to support Hannah and the client’s needs.
We worked with location scout Bill Willets who found us a soccer field and provided supplemental locations nearby so we could cover the players in action and in more casual moments as well. Ultimately, the agency picked the Salvation Army Kroc Center in North Philadelphia. The field offered a perfect mix of high-level athletic amenities set in an urban environment, and the surrounding area helped create the informal, everyday city scenes in which we could capture the two players walking and interacting. Our very photogenic subjects were Temple University students Caelan Isaiah Anderson-Purvy and his mentee Mohamed “Mo” Coulibaly.
Though the two soccer players brought all of their personal gear and clothing, we still wanted to supplement those items with apparel that we knew would work well on camera. Stylist Maria Aponte was a huge help in sourcing plenty of athletic and casual options for us to choose from and ultimately coordinated multiple outfits for each player which they were pleased to take home after the shoot.
The evening before our shoot day, Producer Bryan Sheffield joined Hannah on a preliminary scout of the surrounding neighborhood (in the rain) to dial in a plan for the following afternoon. We woke up the next morning to a very hot Philadelphia summer day but we were well prepared to keep the crew cool and hydrated. Our production RV from Standby Stages was a great asset and served as a staging area as well. Standby also helped us source covid testing to keep everyone safe on set that day.
The day started at the field, where Hannah captured the players running through a handful of drills, as the agency/client tuned in remotely via Zoom (which our talented digital tech Dave Londres helped facilitate). After lunch, we moved our attention to the more casual city scenes. We had a handful of pre-determined locations nearby, but we approached these shots in a very photojournalistic way by exploring the nearby area on foot and stopping at various spots that sparked interest for Hannah and the team. Considering the heat, we made time for a quick water ice break to cool down, before heading back out to grab more content.
In the end, Nike and the Instrument team were thrilled with the results, and it was a great production. It was also a very quick-turn project too, as it went from initial inquiry to final content delivery in less than a week.