American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 14

Short Takes

Game On
By Andrew Fish

If your Sunday nights are reserved for the gridiron, you're well
acquainted with the work of Chuck Ozeas. This year marks the cinematographer's fifth time shooting NBC's Sunday Night Football open,
his fourth with country sensation Carrie Underwood, and his first with
a fully revamped format. The spot features a new theme song - closing out the previous tune's decade-long run - and gone is the
montage-style visual structure in favor of a behind-the-scenes football
fantasy sequence presented as a simulated single take.
When AC stepped onto the set at Universal Studios last
summer, Ozeas and NBC Sports Group vice president and creative
director Tripp Dixon - the latter of whom was helming the production - were overseeing a shot of Underwood swaggering past an
NFL tour bus. An Arri Alexa Mini was mounted to a Pacific Motion
Control Gazelle crane, and an Arri Amira was tracking the singer via
Steadicam. Both cameras were recording to CFast 256GB cards. Fourteen 960-watt MacTech LEDs with silk diffusion were serving as space
lights overhead. Lightning Strikes 8K Paparazzi strobes were flashing
under the supervision of Ozeas' longtime gaffer Chris Conway, as
digital-imaging technician Dylan Johnson monitored the shoot in Rec
709 with Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve.
Assisted in prep by an animatic and in post by prolific visual
effects - both provided by Soho VFX - the Sunday Night Football
14

October 2016

intro was shot in ProRes 4:4:4 at 3.2K resolution and framed for a
1.78:1 aspect ratio. The cameras, which shot at 800 ISO and at
approximately a T2.8/4 split throughout, were rented from CamTec
in Burbank. "Kavon Elhami and Scott Travers at CamTec have always
been very supportive of my work and each new project," Says Ozeas.
"I'm always confident that the gear they provide will be in perfect
running order." The production employed Angenieux's Optimo 1780mm (T2.2) zoom on the motion-control rigs, 15-40mm (T2.6) for
Steadicam and 28-76mm (T2.6) for the opening shot.
During AC's set visit, we rubbed shoulders with NFL stars
Russell Wilson, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas III of the Seattle
Seahawks; Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson of the Arizona
Cardinals; Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Clay Matthews
III of the Green Bay Packers; and Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders.
Other prominent players featured in the finished spot include Odell
Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants, Dez Bryant of the Dallas
Cowboys, and DeMarcus Ware of the Denver Broncos.
Far from immune to the rush of working with the sport's top
talent, Ozeas reveals in his chat with AC both his techniques and his
zeal for the job.
American Cinematographer : What shooting philosophies did you have in mind when you first began this project?
Chuck Ozeas: I've done this open for five years, and every
year I have the same mantra: Keep it as real as possible. Because we

American Cinematographer

Unit photography by Paul Drinkwater, courtesy of NBCUniversal Media, LLC.

Steadicam
operator
Andrew
Mitchell
captures
singer Carrie
Underwood's
performance
for the
opening
sequence of
NBC's Sunday
Night
Football.

American Cinematographer - October 2016

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