New York- and San Francisco-based content creation/production studio Bodega teamed up with editorial agency Northern Lights, design shop King and Country, creative production studio Mr. Wonderful and NBC Sports Group to produce an epic stadium entrance in the 2016 open for NBC’s Thursday Night Football.
Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of NBC’s Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, and NBC Sports Group VP Creative Director/Director Tripp Dixon wanted something new and fresh for the open and knew Grammy-willing a cappella group Pentatonix embodied the right type of energy and talent.
In the above spot, Pentatonix performs its new TNF theme song, “Weekend Go,” inspired by their hit track, “Sing,” from their gold-selling album “Can’t Sleep Love.”
The show open, which launched on November 3, also features a number of top NFL stars as well as archival NFL Films game footage.
To maintain a high energy level and keep the piece fresh for viewers week after week, Creative Director/Editor David Gioiella focused on pacing.
“It was fun to dial in both the performers’ and players’ performances to the track,” Gioiella said in a statement. “I wanted to keep the intensity and excitement up throughout the piece so it’s fun to watch every time viewers tune in.”
The Thursday Night Football logo shield was turned into an 8x8’ foot physical structure based on initial concept illustration by Mr. Wonderful Creative Director Gary Keenan and featured almost 250 unique lighting elements that were programmed in time to the song.
“We enjoyed working with Bodega on this project,” said Dixon, also in a statement. “We shot in a practical, stylized tunnel on location in LA and teamed up with King and Country for the design component, helping us to blur the line between the real and digital worlds. The combination of these two highly collaborative production and design teams helped us create something exciting, youthful and fun for Thursday Night Football.”
CREDITS:
Client: NBC Sports
Executive Producer: Fred Gaudelli
Coordinating Producer: Rob Hyland
SVP Creative: Mark Levy
VP Creative Director/Director: Tripp Dixon
Senior Associate Director: Charlie Vanacore
Senior Associate Producer: Julie Schwartz
Senior Director On-Air Graphics: Wade Echer
Senior Project Manager: Kea Kelly Alcock
Production Company: Bodega
Executive Producers: Kristopher Walter, Mark Littman, David Gioiella
Executive Creative Director: Adam Reid
Line Producer: Cliff Schumacher
Director of Photography: Chuck Ozeas, Jordan McMonagle
Production Designer: Evan Rohde
Editorial: Northern Lights
Editor: David Gioiella
Executive Producer: Robin Hall
Producer: Jenny Figarola
Assistant Editor: Kieran Mulroy
Audio: SuperExploder
Sr. Mixer/Sound Designer: Ted Marcus
Sr. Producer: Meredith Nazzaro
Concept Design: Mr. Wonderful
Creative Director: Gary Keenan
Executive Producer: Damien Henderson
Art Director: Frank Farella
Design, 3D Animation, CG/VFX: King and Country
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