Florida means Football
Above: All eyes on Washington Huskies prospect QB, Will Rogers.
I’m starting to have a soft spot for Florida. It’s the second time I’ve been to Florida this year for work. And everytime, it’s its own little adventure. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to work with some talented, hard working souls in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a quick two day shoot in some hot, humid weather and I hadn’t brought quite enough bug spray. Either way, it didn’t matter the moment I stood on that field with a young quarterback by the name, Will Rogers. Will wasted little time as he got right to work. Throw after throw, I began to see why he was considered special. He meant business, taking military like instruction from three different coaches. His adjustments were minor but you saw the difference in every throw after that. It was quite the sight to see and for the next couple hours, Will and I sweat together under that clear bright cloudless Jacksonvile sky.
After Will’s throwing session we went over to Cortex Performance where sat down with Will and his team, QB coach Will Hewlett and Director of Sports Performance and Science, Dr. Tom Gormely to discuss the science behind the the sport. After enduring several hours out in the sun, I was looking forward to a cooler, quiet and slightly bug-less location to do interviews. The interior of the gym was absolutely pristine. I don’t think I had ever been to a cleaner gym. I even felt bad calling it that…a “gym”. This was more of a laboratory where government classified monsters are made. As far as I could see, the scientists were made up from a three-head coach, and Will was that monster they were working on creating.
ABOVE: Here are some BTS photos I took of some of the coach Will Hewlett (first two slides), Dr Tom Gormely (3rd slide) and Will Rogers (Pictured bellow).
I took all these pictures with Fujifilm X100 VI using film simulation bracketing drive. I’ve always love the film simulations these cameras come equipped with. Their color science has always been so incredible true to it’s film roots. At the time I was bracketing with Reala ACE, Acros+Ye and my personal favorite Classic Negative. With these BTS photos I was able to start a conversation with my director Graham Steele, over the look we wanted to go for in color correction. He had fallen in love with the Classic Negative photos I had taken of Will (pictured below). The colors contrast popped perfectly and the skin tones had a gorgeous roll off into the shadow. The highlighs melted like butter. I was kicking myself for not rolling with Fujifilm X-100 VI as a 3rd camera. It would have made sense. All eyes on the future of the sport.
ABOVE: Will turned out to be such a wonderful young man with a bright future. Had a great dinner with him with next day. His stories too me back to my days of being a student athlete and I couldn’t have been more thankful to have share that time with him.
BELOW: My sound guy, Joel Tower approved of my lighting. He was my initial stand-in while I worked out the lighting with my gaffer. I think he has a career in modeling.
BTS of my director and executive producer discussing my work at “video village.” They seemed impressed to say the least.
No idea what will happen with this project moving forward but I can only hope it takes off. There is obviously a lot of attention on college football at the moment so hopefully that draws the need for shows like this. For now, I can definitely say I had a wonderful time working with new and old friends with new and unique talent. Onward to the next one.