Prod Co: Cold Harbor Creative Director/Producer - Mike O’Donnell DP - Trent Watts Edit: Qu Nmashie Color - Ruben Herrera For this project, I brought to life some ideas that had been brewing in my head for years, inspired by the glowing colors and dynamic camera movement of the iconic Jerry Bruckheimer action movies I grew up on (Tony Scott, Michael Bay, Simon West, Dominic Sena). In my process, after determining the story/goal of a project, my next step is always to look closely at the filming environment to determine what I can and can’t control. I immediately thought of the swooping spotlights used to hype up crowds during games. During the pre-production call, we discussed the feasibility of hiring the stadium’s spotlight operators. Upon learning of their relative affordability, I immediately pushed to bring them in. I brought on my @hollylandtech headsets so all crew could communicate hands-free, and had a blast choreographing the action with Mike and calling out the lighting cues to my team. My Chief Lighting Tech, Dave Mikutsky @kutsk_tps, tastefully programmed the green and gold backgrounds lights, and the flickering 5ft octabox for our key. I also had a Joker 1600 HMI with spotlight attachment rigged high up in the rafters. For this “DP’s Edit”, I wanted to use a contrast between rough and shaky Super8-style footage with glossier slow-mo gimbal shots, to convey a mix of grit and graceful style.