Unapologetic: The Black Female Athlete

Candid talks with accomplished female athletes who discuss what it's like to be African-American women in sports and in everyday life.

About the project

The credit sequence was a last-minute ask by The Undefeated to add excitement to the show’s opening.

The Process

Our work on this project was two-fold. First and foremost, on the production end, we contributed to shooting interview segments with the athletes. We shot all over—from Los Angeles, CA to Baton Rouge, LA to right here in our very own studio. The line-up of women we worked with was amazing. It included the show’s host, pro softball player AJ Andrews, as well as 6-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, and not to mention, world-record-holding swimmer Simone Manuel.

In addition, we also created the opening title sequence. As a result, the idea was to showcase vignettes of female athletes in the midst of their sport. The outcome we wanted was a double exposure effect. With this in mind, the first step was to shoot a silhouette of our talent in various actions.

For the purpose of this project, our studio provided ample room to capture a wide range of shots. It was important to realize that the silhouette needed to be near black to be effective. Secondly, we had to find an abstract particle texture lay over the silhouette. In brief, when married together using a blending mode, the result is a unique-looking effect.

The Result

Unapologetic: The Black Female Athlete aired on ESPN2 on February 24, 2019. The entire program is available on the ESPN website. Our work with ESPN is extensive, and we also crafted the opening credits for We The Fans, a documentary series about Chicago Bears fans.

Behind the Scenes

Client

Services

  • Pre-production
  • Production
  • Post-production

Genre

  • Sports
  • Television Broadcast