a few months ago we started working on a series of films with several US athletes about their journey to the Olympics. the pieces revolved around the idea of showing the training, trials, triumphs and emotions that they go through before they step on stage in London. part of that story was told through archival footage and the rest of it we filmed on a rather tight schedule.
much like the Callaway series we DP’d a couple years back, this one features a series of athletes with spots that all tied into one campaign, but unlike that series where all the athletes played the same sport we had the challenge of filming all different sports. while this certainly kept things fresh it also made pre-production and production all the more intense as we had to prepare for swimming, soccer, gymnastics, track& field, beach volleyball and even tae kwon do, all within a couple months time.
one of my favorites is our shoot with Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte. for Lochte’s film we had all hands on deck. after all, this is Ryan Lochte,the man who just took home the gold for the 400 IM in London and swept Michael Phelps out of the water. Shawn Robbins, the director and executive producer for this entire series, had really neat ideas on showcasing both Lochte’s intense training regiment as well as his lifestyle outside of the pool and the entire team was so excited when we found out what was in the works.
Shawn produced entire sets built from the ground up to resemble the London locker room and tunnel out to the pool deck, a massive 50′ American flag as a prop and oh yes, even a private jet complete with an airplane hanger. it was certainly a lot of fun to be on a big shoot like this. with a full lighting crew and grip truck, dolly track that ran almost the entire length of an Olympic sized pool and the Kessler KC-12 with fully motorized revolution head for the more complex moves we all had a ton of fun with this shoot. P and I ran two cameras and bounced back and forth between setups to make the most out of Ryan’s time. after all we only had a total of 8 hours with him to tell that story so we came up with an entire lighting plan, did our research during pre-pro and rehearsed shots before he arrived on set.
for us it was a lot of fun being able to dial things in so that each shot was as close to perfection as possible, that is something we often don’t have the chance to do in the event, TV or documentary world. at the end of the day, we were all pretty excited about what we captured and it even had Ryan smiling behind the monitors as we reviewed the shots together. so here it is folks, Ryan Lochte’s journey to the London Olympics.
produced by Robbins Media
directed by Shawn Robbins
cinematography by stillmotion
- lil’j
The Pros & Cons of Indie vs Big Business. When there’s big $$$$$$ involved, everyone with a stake in it has an opinion & a say. Vicariously learning through StillMotion!!
Proud of you guys!! As others (and yourself) have already said.. its not a StillMotion piece and that’s really too bad, but bravo for being there and getting it done!
This is like shaving truffles over canned brown beans. SM being the truffles of course.
Proud of you guys!!
Did you guys conquer this entire project with the one RED or did you have multiple units with that 8hr time limit? :)
Interesting comments since my first post. I think what a lot of people forget is that the filmmaking business is — and will always will be — a business. And a lot of business decisions have more to do with politics, your clients, the corporate image and many other factors that go much beyond story telling and cinematography and what the filmmaker would like to do in an ideal world. There are MANY other things at play to put something like this together. Folks, this is not a wedding where the only people you have to please are the couple. This is also not selling out. Stillmotion is a business, and for those of us in the business, we know that the ‘business’ side is at least 50% of the challenge of this equation, if not more. It’s not always just about your work and about your story and I applaud Patrick and his team for taking on jobs so, so far removed from their roots. That is growth and I think credit needs to be given on how far Patrick has been able to grow his business. To do an AT&T spot for the Olympics, come on! That is a HUGE accomplishment.
your definitely on point that this isn’t a deeper story and at the heart of what we are about. we were brought on as the production crew and we absolutely took our approach to this and tried to make it as authentic, real, and relevant as we could for the part we had but beyond that there are many more factors at play here. would we trade a commercial spot for the chance to follow Ryan for a day, unlit, and tell a real story about his journey? absolutely. but we signed on for this project and we had to give it all we had regardless of how it evolved.
thanks for the comment though. it’s very well said and appreciated
P.
great looking spot. needed a bit more direction in the voiceover.
if you check out Ryan’s interviews this is pretty spot on for how he sounds :)
P.
Ya, I am pretty sure he is the worst person to be on screen, scripted or not. Outside of the fact he is a world class swimmer he seems pretty dull. I am seriously impressed with the amount of energy you guys got out of him.
Hmmmm in the 3+ years I’ve been following y’all this is the very first stillmotion film I’ve seen where I have mixed feelings. Would’ve liked to see the same film with Patrick as a director. This is way too “slick” (for lack of a better word) to me and I to be honest I don’t see the “stillmotion” in this one. The edit was lazy and the on-screen animations/vfx didn’t add much to the story but worked rather distracting and seemed to cover up the lack of content. It also felt way too long.
It doesn’t help much that Lochte’s story isn’t really captivating either and that he tells in it a monotone and almost boring way. So he likes Lil Wayne and skateboarding … OK. I can’t help but think that this kind of work isn’t really helping stillmotion in the long run (unless this got paid really well).
Pascal Pascal Pascal
appreciate the comments. i don’t think the same film with Patrick directing is possible – this was super complex and was designed as a commercial. i think what you connect with in our work (as do we) is that it is generally not commercial. had this been approached like the Callaway series it would have been very different in feeling, but that absolutely wasn’t the objective here. with the given objective, like it or not, we think it was very well directed and we did all we could on our end.
P.
Hi P., thanks for taking the time to respond. For me this clip has very little to do with the stillmotion DNA. And I don’t believe commercial is a bad word, but there’s good commercials and generic ones ;-). And you read my mind, my first reaction was : an approach cfr. the Callaway series would’ve been much more captivating. Of course it’s well directed (as in “professional”), but I missed character and personality. And from stillmotion I’ve come to expect more than just “well directed” ;-) That’s all. I understand the need for a company to evolve, but there’s progression and then there’s doing something that confuses people. It could’ve been anyone doing commercials who shot that, whereas all your other work really has the stillmotion stamp on it, regardless of who’s directing or editing.
thanks Pascal, we really appreciate that. well said
P.
The cinematography was great, but what the heck was that about?!
No story. Empty. Meaningless. Wish you had directed it and not just filmed it.
keep in mind it is an ATT spot for the Olympics so there is a lot of factors at play as to what needed to be included and how this was put together. being on set with Shawn, he managed a ton of things and made some impressive sets. this one in particular was a ballroom of a hotel and it was crazy how it all came together. the story, like it or not, was way beyond us or the director. thanks for the comments, definitely appreciated
P.
Pffff… SM shows the way over and over again!
It’s not bad. I know it’s a great step for stillmotion, but personally I like ‘older’ stillmotion. This one would have been probably much better if SM crew were in charge 100%. With all respect to produce team and director, Patrick would have handled it more stillmotion style, better style ;) ; at the same time…I understand that this video will sell better to a wider audience.
I agree, I think you can get all the shiny new gear and all that Jazz, but stillmotion should just do what they do…. Thats why they get hired Im assuming, for what they do in the past… Great work though..
Keep it all stillmotion and nothing or no-one else
I agree that the Still Motion is much better than what I saw here. I also like the ‘old school’ Still Motion style. I disagree that this video will sell better to a wider audience. It’s just not good enough. The voice over was terrible. Total disappointment.
Wow. Look how far you guys have come. From weddings to Game of Honor to this. You’re more than inspirational to the rest of us…. you are legend.
well thanks for sharing the ride with us.
P.