Customers

This is the place you’ll see stories about the great video projects our customers are producing. If you have a story you’d like to tell about your work using gear from Professional Video & Tape, please let us know.

For our first story, we turn to Professional Video & Tape’s “Avid Guy” Dave Spraker. Late in 2004, Dave took a short break from selling and installing editing systems to work on ESPN’s coverage of the WNBA Finals.

Getting the Call

It had been over 2 years since I left KGWcreative (the in-house advertising agency at KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8, Portland’s NBC affiliate). Two years without the pressure of editing under deadline pressure.

Then I got the call.

Former Blazers Broadcasting producer Pat Lowry – now a coordinating producer for ESPN — was looking for an Avid editor. The gig? To cut opening teases for the sport network’s coverage of the WNBA Finals on ESPN2.

Pat and I had been talking about work being done by a customer of mine using Avid Xpress Pro with Mojo and the Boris Motion Graphic Pack to edit on location for ESPN golf coverage. Pat herself had been featured on avid.com several years ago for her own editing with the Blazers. Since this other editor wasn’t available, Pat nicely asked if I might be coaxed out of “retirement” for a week on the road.

My Network Debut

Game 1 featured the Connecticut Sun playing host to the Seattle Storm in the most unlikely of places for professional basketball — an opulent Indian casino set in woods of New England. ESPN had the services of two high tech production trucks and 14 cameras to capture every grimace and moment of glory on the court. The editing facilities were more modest — a large construction trailer — which at the beginning of the setup day had yet to arrive. So we temporarily set to work editing music on a laptop in one of the team locker rooms.

I had brought along Avid Xpress Pro with Mojo loaded on an HP xw8000 PC, Avid SCSI Drives and the latest plug–ins from Boris and GenArts. The Mojo’s component inputs were connected to a Sony Digibeta deck with the production truck’s digital router feed looped through it.

Veteran ESPN producer Pat Knighton and I set about the task of creating an energetic one minute opening tease that would draw viewers into the drama and emotion of this best–of–three final. In addition to boxes and boxes of game highlights, we had footage from a fun shoot showing the players posing with the championship trophy and a music track from rappers Salt–n–Pepa.

Seattle Storm Sue Bird: original image and image with glow and tint from Magic Bullet and the Scan Line effect from GenArts Sapphire.

We worked late into the night and started again early the next day. Not only did this one minute movie have to be tightly edited to music and tell a story, but also to squeeze every ounce of emotion from the short shots. Game time approached with little time to consider the “look” of the piece. This is where the real–time capabilities of the Mojo can in handy. Once the piece was edited for content, each clip was individually color corrected to smooth out the look of the numerous video sources and get a crunchy, high contrast look. GenArts Sapphire Glow plug-in and a couple of slick transitions from Boris Continuum Complete completed the look.

Seattle Storm Lauren Jackson: original image, with GenArts Sapphire glow, and with color correction from Avid Xpress Pro.

Twenty minutes before air, the completed tease was delivered to the production truck.

The Hardest Day

Game 2 was to take place a mere two days later across the country in Seattle. So after 4 hours of sleep, 13 hours of travel and 6 hours waiting for our gear to arrive it was time to start editing again. In all, 29 hours straight. That story another time…