NFL REACTS - UNRELEASED
Video unavailable until release
BRADLEY PRATT Production Assistant
KALLYN EHLERS STEWART Producer
CLIent:
NFL
TIMELINE:
1 DAYS
ROME ODUNZE
BRADLEY PRATT Set Designer, Cam Operator, Gaffer
KALLYN EHLERS STEWART Producer
JAY JULIO Production Assistant, Gaffer
When the shoot moved, none of the producers on staff had recent hands-on camera experience, so Kallyn tasked me with building the shoot from the ground up. I sorted through available gear, built out the set on the RedZone stage, and tested lighting until it matched the look established in Irvine. The camera was an FX9, which I had never run before, but the FX6 knowledge carried over cleanly enough to get it configured and shooting. Handling that internally meant the shoot happened on a moved date without rebooking the freelance crew, which kept the day on schedule and saved the league the freelance fees the original setup would have cost.
PURPOSE
NFL Reacts puts players in front of the tape and captures the unscripted response, which only works if the production around them disappears. The series lives or dies on players feeling loose enough to actually react, so everything upstream of that, the set, the lighting, the pacing of prompts, exists to get out of the way. I came onto the series to support production across two shoots and ended up owning the technical build on one of them.
PRODUCT
Four players were captured across two shoot days. The first was at Excel Football Management in Irvine with three players, working alongside freelancers who handled the set build while producer and manager Kallyn Stewart ran prompts. The second was Rome Odunze, shot at the NFL offices on the RedZone stage. The deliverable on both was footage handed to the editorial team, though I got to review an early cut of the series before my internship wrapped.
PROCESS
At Excel, I worked as a production assistant, supporting the freelance crew and the shoot itself while Kallyn led players through the prompted reactions. The Rome shoot ran differently. It was originally scheduled for the same day in Irvine, but since he was presenting the game ball at the World Cup, it was moved to Wednesday and relocated to the RedZone stage at the NFL offices. That change meant building the shoot in-house rather than with the freelance crew, and I handled the technical side from there.
