When the creatives at McCann-Erickson, New York, were faced with creating a baseball-themed ad for MasterCard’s long-running "Priceless" campaign, they came up with a multi-spot package that would follow a couple of regular guys on a summer-long baseball road trip. The guys’ goal? To visit all 30 Major League ballparks—the dream of millions of baseball fans. The ads would compare the cost of necessities such as road maps ($11), with a life experience on which a monetary value cannot be placed.
MasterCard took a shine to the idea, and soon after the assignment was awarded to director Greg Kohs, who’d previously helmed a hockey-themed MasterCard spot for the Canadian market. Formerly a producer/director with NFL Films, Kohs recently signed with bicoastal/international @radical.media (SHOOT, 4/4, p. 1).
The problem was this: The first spot in the campaign, "Trip/Cincy," would naturally take place during the season’s opening day at Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field. But to be timely, the ad would need to be turned around fast. In fact, with opening day in the U.S. falling on Mon., April 2, the client wanted the spot on air by that week’s end. The task wasn’t impossible by conventional methods. Still, the time constraints prompted agency producer Greg Lotus and his McCann-Erickson colleagues to bring editor Peter Odiorne of Crew Cuts, New York, along for the shoot.
"I’ve done a few commercials that involve a journey, and it’s always hard to demonstrate [being on a road trip] in thirty seconds," said Lotus. "For this series of commercials, it was really important that the first one conveyed the road trip idea. There’s always a measure of anxiety, but having Peter there, and having an Apple Titanium PowerBook G4 with Final Cut Pro on the set, I knew we could pull scenes and move on quickly. Knowing that we had certain shots was a huge bonus."
Another time-saver was the fact that Odiorne wouldn’t have to spend the usual day or two after the shoot familiarizing himself with the footage. "Being there, he knew every-
thing we shot and the sequence we shot it in," Lotus noted. Filming began the weekend before opening day in rural parts of Kentucky. Then the crew headed to Cincinnati for the ballgame sequences.
According to Odiorne, the editing process went something like this: A video tap led from the film camera to a digital video (DV) recorder. That footage was then fed into a laptop via a FireWire, and Odiorne began assembling the spots on Apple’s Final Cut Pro desktop editing software. Every few scenes, the production would pause, and Kohs, Lotus, copywriter Pete Jones and creative director Joyce King Thomas would visit the editor in his trailer to discuss what scenes were or were not working, and what shots were missing.
While a lengthy shot list had been drawn up for the three-day shoot, Kohs explained that they’d opted not to storyboard. "To give the message the look and realism we wanted, I wanted it to be spontaneous," he stated. "Any time you go into that type of shoot, there’s going to be a big question mark looming. But Peter allowed us to answer the question sooner, rather than later. It enabled us to prioritize and eliminate shots and do it confidently, because we felt it was going to work. It wasn’t a mystery."
Likewise, Odiorne noted, "My gut feeling was that people were nervous [about the production]. But by the time we left Monday night, everyone was in a really happy place. We already had two rough cuts to jump off of."
Back at Crew Cuts, the editor made QuickTime videos of the rough cuts, which were imported into an Avid system. "By Tuesday, we were eye-matching those cuts with the [35mm film] dailies," Odiorne said. "It was basically like using tracing paper. By Wednesday night, we had an approved cut."
Beyond the quick turnaround made possible by Odiorne’s presence on the set, Kohs noted that the editor’s close proximity enhanced his creative contributions as well. "It was convenient not only because of the technology, but because of the personalities involved," said the director. "Everyone from Peter on—our sensibilities were similar. So his involvement wasn’t a gadget. We took advantage of him [creatively] as much as possible."
Whether Odiorne will travel with the crew on the next four baseball spots for MasterCard has yet to be determined. Two will be filmed this month at Boston’s Fenway Park and Baltimore’s Camden Yards; in July, two final ads will feature Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Safeco Field in Seattle.
Either way, Odiorne is grateful for the chance to put Final Cut Pro to the test. "People have been buzzing about Final Cut for a while, but I’ve yet to see people utilize it thoroughly," he commented. "It’s not taking over the world, but I was amazed by what it can handle. Compared to my Avid, it smoked. As editors, we’re going to have to pay attention to it."
