How to Make a Commercial in a Weekend
Who needs an experience when you have some free time and a lot of trust?
I’ve never sent an email to Jeremy Maclin in the spring. But this was different.
How often do you actually find something on Instagram that excites you?
Unless you’re really into AI slop or incredibly dark humored memes, Instagram is not a place you go for exciting things.
But then Kirkwood’s football program posted a 3D image of their new black helmet design.
They already had the black uniform.
And with the helmets, Kirkwood had a look they’ve never had before.
I got excited. Like Raven Symone catapulting her consciousness into the future, I envisioned what a hype video would look like, what it would sound like, how it would make people feel.
I snapped back to reality. I emailed Coach Maclin.
“Coach — I have an idea.”
“…whatever you want to do, go for it…”
Okay — So, now what?
One man. One cam. One plan.
The best part about passion projects is that I get to skip all the boring stuff — like rules and proper procedures — and just focus on the essentials, like:
The entire point of the video and
How to shoot the damn thing with limited time, resources, man-power, and experienced.
Thankfully, delusion can help you figure all of that out.
The Inspiration
I made it clear: The goal of this video was to be unlike everyone else. Hype videos get boring. There’s only so much clapping into the camera and blaring horns I can take before I get bored.
So, I took inspiration from the mid-2000’s Jordan commercial called, “No Cinderellas.”
The Story
The first drafted featured multiple locations, 20 players, and 4 coaches, plus wardrobe changes, etc. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever written.
Then I remembered the guy shooting this video — me — was going to struggle with this steep of a story.
So, I cut it down to 1 page, 3 players, and 1 coach.
This project was created, written, shot, and edited by me. The photos and graphics, too.
I went handheld for the entire shoot and below is a list of equipment used:
Camera — Sony A7III with Sigma 24-70mm
Microphone — Rode Shotgun Mic
Lights — 1 Amazon Light Stand + Plenty of natural and building lights
Extra Sound — iPhone 15 Pro + Voice Memos App
The Shot List
I went through every paragraph of the script and wrote shots by hand on a legal pad. Then, re-wrote the shots into my Notion dashboard, adding and removing shots as I saw fit.
Special thanks…
…to Head Coach Jeremy Maclin and Coach Courtland Griffin, as well as Kirkwood players Jamir Sloan, Quinn Millikan, and Colin Griffin.
I appreciate your participation, enthusiasm, and help in pulling off this project.
