The reason I first joined NFL Films is because I admired how they capture human emotion. It was beyond hard hits and statistics; it was more about artistry," says Greg Kohs, who now directs spots via bicoastal/international @radical.media. Kohs, who spent 10 years as a director/producer at NFL Films, Mt. Laurel, N.J., certainly enjoys athletic competition, but what he’s really interested in are the emotion, energy and pageantry of sports.
Kohs recently wrapped a package of five MasterCard spots, via McCann-Erickson, New York, that are part of the credit card company’s long-running "Priceless" campaign. The ads follow a pair of young baseball fans traveling around the U.S. and Canada in an old van as they visit all 30 major league stadiums during the 2001 baseball season. The five commercials are "Trip/Cincy" (which first aired in early April, just days after the start of the season), "Trip/Boston," "Trip/Baltimore," "Trip/San Francisco" and "Trip/ Seattle." The spots aired serially over the course of the regular season.
"Trip/Cincy" shows the boys en route to opening day at Cinergy Field, where the Cincinnati Reds play. As they happily ride through the American heartland, a voiceover tallies, "U.S. roadmaps: $11," "baseball guide: $22" and "opening day tickets: $18." We then see the boys at the ballpark as the voiceover concludes, "One stadium down, 29 to go: priceless." The ad ends with the boys on the road again: They’re headed to their next stop—Cleveland—and Jacobs Field, home of the Cleveland Indians.
"The whole idea was to show these kids out on this journey and to make it feel as real as possible," explains Kohs. "There are a lot of looks that are sincere and honest because they really are enjoying themselves. We didn’t rehearse a lot. It was like, ‘Let’s just do it and see what happens.’ "
Even though the spots were clearly mapped out, it was important to Kohs to capture moments that weren’t totally scripted. By way of illustration, the director points out the kids’ reactions when they first see the Green Monster, the legendary outfield wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox, in "Trip/Boston." Another example he gives is when Seattle Mariners outfielder Mike Cameron autographs one actor’s jersey in "Trip/Seattle." Kohs says the moment has a certain authenticity because, "It was a real major league baseball player. We just told the him, ‘Do what you normally do.’ We didn’t rehearse it."
Kohs actually directed his first MasterCard spot, "Major League Fans," when he was still with NFL Films. The ad, which was for the Canadian market, shows zany fans rooting for a junior league hockey team with a passionate, major league sense of loyalty. McCann-Erickson producer Greg Lotus had a good experience working with Kohs on the ad, and when it came time to find a director for the MasterCard baseball package, he contacted Kohs at his new roost.
Kohs also had previously worked with his present roost: While still with NFL, he’d been loaned out to @radical.media to helm Nike’s "Dri-Fit," out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Kohs collaborated with @radical.media executive producer Robert Fernandez on the spot, and the pair worked well together. When asked how much of a sports fan he is, Kohs replies, "The sports page isn’t necessarily the first section I pick up when I open the newspaper, but it’s one I’m interested in."
Although he is a sports fan, Kohs is open to directing non-athletic spots. "I’ll embrace any opportunity, if the story is nice," he continues. "The people I want to work with and the people who want to work with me will see the humanity, the realism and the authenticity in the work regardless of whether there’s a football helmet on the person or not."
Kohs attended the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., where he earned a degree in history. While still in school, he worked as a freelance still photographer for various sporting publications, including Sports Illustrated. Upon graduation, he started working at an NBC affiliate in South Bend, where he wrote, directed and produced promos.
"I discovered NFL Films late one night after work," recalls Kohs. "I saw this amazing documentary on some playoff game where these Navy SEALs were jumping out of a plane to bring the game ball in. It was a goose bump moment. I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I wanted to figure out how to create that moment that I was experiencing."
The young director contacted NFL Films and was hired shortly thereafter. "That’s where I learned the art of making films," he states. "It was like film school—your assignments weren’t necessarily graded; they were put on national television every week."
Kohs created numerous films and highlights for the league. "I was able to apply my eye for photography and sports photography and my storytelling sensibility," he notes. "You would write your own material, you would edit it and you would follow it through post. All of the producers were one-man shows."
After working on films, he transitioned into directing :30s and :60s, which included helming opens and closes for shows produced by NFL Films, as well as directing spots for outside clients. Spotmaking afforded Kohs the chance to direct pieces that weren’t purely sports-oriented. As the director puts it, "I wanted to move beyond the sports page.
"That’s why I made the transition to radical," he continues, "to be opened up to opportunities outside of the gridiron or the baseball diamond that are out in the real world."
