NBA/ESPN "Beautiful Time For Basketball"

THE UTOPIA CAMPAIGN

The first round of what would become a multiseason campaign for ESPN, codirected with Grif. The concept: what does a basketball utopia look like? Starting from a completely blank canvas, we drew on reference from across the spectrum of utopian styles and chiseled away to find semiotic relationships between NBA players, their motivations, teams, and the sporting community as a whole.

THE PROCESS

Each shot was built in Unreal Engine and tailored to the featured players. We designed the worlds and worked out the camera language together. I also drove the edit, initially cutting from game footage to establish pacing and story, then refining as the CG came to life. For this first round, the transitions between worlds were strictly cuts, which set up a foundation we’d evolve in later installments.

DESIGN FRAMES