Year of the Black Quarterback

Setting the tone. Grammy-nominated rapper Wale penned the song "Sue Me" from the his album Wow... That's Crazy and serves as the driving force for this visual.

About the project

It's become commonplace for us to work with ESPN and The Undefeated to deliver a project for Black History Month.

The Process

The work we do with the aforementioned clients is a collaboration that’s often high caliber concepts that require intense work to arrive at a final result. We were tasked with creating a visual that would open the hour-long Year of the Black Quarterback special that explored the changing face of the NFL quarterback position. Our team took the idea of our client and honed it into a project that was possible to capture in one day.

We booked the famed Studios 60 in Los Angeles because it’s large footprint would allow us to maximize our limited time with Wale. It’s inevitable, Murphy’s Law is part of working on productions no matter how well everything is scheduled. With our talent moments away from walking onto the set, one of our primary lighting fixtures for a specific location malfunctioned rendering the set not camera ready.

Because of the studio’s sheer size, we were able to set dress various sets earlier in the day and move directly to the next scene while we source a new fixture. It’s this type of forward-thinking and flexibility that keeps the camera rolling.

The Result

Typically the Black History Month content is already scheduled to air long before showing up on and post-production has a short turnaround. It may be a frantic process delivering this type of project, but well worth it. The special program, along with the video we created, aired on February 9, 2020 EPSN.

Behind the Scenes

Client

Services

  • Pre-production
  • Production
  • Post-production

Genre

  • Television Broadcast
  • Music