ART Network Elective Blog

When it came time to shoot the promo for USTA, I felt relatively prepared. My concept was simple enough, the shots were clear, I had written a shot list, made note of the props and talent needed, and felt confident it would go off without a hitch once the cameras started rolling. For the most part, things went very smooth. I was able to light, shot and wrap everything within about a half hour or less, as most of the shots were just the tennis ball on the floor of the green screen room. When I put it into editing though, thats where I began to run into some problems. Keying out the tennis ball was the biggest challenge. We had lit the scene with a orange gel to give the ball a bit more definition, and differentiate it from the floor, and on camera things seemed to look fine. But when I put it into After Effects to do my keying and compositing, trouble struck. There were only 1 or 2 angles where I could key everything I didn't need, and maintain everything I did need. For 90% of ...

This was the first exercise of production during the ART Network elective. The goal of the assignment was to create a 30 second spot that encouraged people to join the ART Network club. However, the catch was this: it needed to be a continuous shot (no cutting even in editing), and had to be recorded on a phone or tablet. The class was divided into groups of 2, and each group had to come up with their own idea for the promo. Everyone had a really unique and interesting approach to this exercise, in that no two projects were similar. Some of the teams went in a more serious direction, explaining what the club is during the 30 seconds. Others went down a more humorous path to convey their message. Lastly, when we put it into editing, each group member had to make their own edit using their own footage that they had shot themselves. So there were two versions of the same story, but depending on how the student chose to shoot, how they directed the talent, what soundtrack they chose, t...

For the USTA Promo, each team pitched three different ideas for a 15-30 second promo or ad for the US Tennis Association's Player's National Championship. We presented 1.) An idea that was very narrative based, featuring a player who travels from up north to Florida to partake in the competition. 2.) An idea based in rhythm, in which we would record the different percussive sounds that can be heard on the tennis court, like the squeaking and scuffing of shoes, sharp exhales of the players, the crisp "whack" of a racket, etc. 3.) An idea that was driven by the inner thoughts of a tennis ball that wants to be part of a game. Option 3 was the idea we ended up running with, as it was weird, unique, and funny, and would easily speak to the demographic we were trying to reach (college students). The tagline attached to this idea is "Do what you're meant to do" which signifies the idea that playing tennis isn't just something you like to do, but something...