Based on its long-standing relationship with ESPN that includes handling the 2009/2010 redesign of ESPNU, the leaders of U.S. creative production company National Television (NATL, www.natl.tv) know first-hand that the 24-hour college sports network is focused on reflecting the unique ways that serious fans and fanatical alums watch sports. A guiding lesson from their past experience is that to these fans, sports are not just about a three-hour football game every Saturday: Sports are integral to their lives. nnSo naturally, it was a very happy day last April when ESPN creative director Mark Groeschner called to discuss the packaging for an important new show that would represent ESPNU’s first-ever live late-night entertainment program. Set to begin airing daily at midnight on ESPNU beginning in late August, the show was envisioned as a live "late-night snack" of sports, humor and social buzz.nn"When Mark first contacted us, no sets had been built and the hosts were not yet cast, but they wanted to begin capturing the spirit of their target audience in the show’s packaging," said NATL’s creative director Brumby Boylston. "Knowing it was a nightly show that would be going up against Letterman, Leno, and Stewart (and now Kimmel), we were tasked with wholly-developing a fast-moving, sophisticated-tech aesthetic for ‘the screen generation.’ Early conversations and exchanges of reference materials centered on creating something that felt less like traditional television and more like a living app… an extension of the many windows and screens people use today."nnnView the work online at Vimeo here.nnUltimately, NATL’s producers and artists helped distill the proper tone for the show in the course of creating and delivering UNITE’s logo, it’s open, bumps in and out, transitions, backgrounds used on television and online, custom content for 20+ custom "franchise" segments, and much more. Another very important asset was the "rundown," an animating dock of upcoming segments similar to the "Coming Up" stack on "SportsCenter." "The rapid-fire sequence of terse topics on ‘UNITE’ meant some organizing of the content had to be done to allow viewers to understand the flow of the show, bearing in mind that it’s meant to reflect the audience and their attitude and feel less like news," Boylston added.nnAfter several months of honing the logo, refining the look and generating tests, NATL and ESPN’s executives arrived at the glossy, tech-savvy package that slightly skews traditional sports graphics into a fresher direction which Boylston also describes with a smile as being "slightly insolent."n nAs NATL’s executive producer Jared Libitsky explained, the design and production process occurred around ESPN’s executives coming into NATL’s New York studio for presentations and conference calls. Also deeply involving NATL’s LA studio, UNITE began taking shape around a long-distance dialogue of visual ideas, with each camp reacting to designs and tests sent the day before. "The show began to solidify in run-throughs and casting," he said, "and the show runners got a better sense of the innate attitude of the program. They increasingly responded to wilder and zanier takes on the graphics. We eventually abandoned formal Photoshop style frames in favor of rudimentary, hand-drawn sketches. With the look increasingly set, this allowed for a fast and fluid pipeline of animation and delivery, and offered a better format for the humor to come through."nnUNITE successfully debuted on August 27, reflecting all the hard work of the network executives and the team from NATL, who admitted that only a couple of weeks earlier, the logo was the only design element that was finalized. With Boylston describing it as "the largest package imaginable for a single show," UNITE is a perfect testament to NATL’s growing capabilities.nn"This project is pretty defining in regard to where we’re going," Libitsky confirmed. "Designing for a whole show, billboard animations, interactive animations that commentators are interacting with during the show… this is the scale of the challenges we are facing and loving these days." From start to finish, the project was completed in about five months.nnFor ESPN, project credit also goes to art director Tim O’Shaughnessy and producer Jessica Gonnella. Along with Boylston and Libitsky, NATL’s team also included producer Zach Wakefield, designers David Chun, Brian Won and Jeni Wamberg and Tom Bik, and animators Preston Brown, Diffan Norman. nnLive from Bristol, Connecticut, at midnight ET, hosts Danny Kanell, Reese Waters, Marianela and DJ Rob Swift bring viewers ESPNU’s version of late-night entertainment. For more information, please visit www.twitter.com/unite and www.facebook.com/ESPNUNITE.nnAbout National Television (NATL)nU.S. creative production company NATL specializes in awe-inspiring design, animation and live-action storytelling for discerning youths and other young-at-heart audiences. Launched in Los Angeles in 2004 by partners Brumby Boylston, Christopher Dooley, and Brian Won, NATL has built its reputation through patently original creative contributions to projects spanning on-air packages and promo campaigns for top entertainment networks, commercials for leading advertising agencies and brands, and music videos for a Who’s Who of stars and recording artists. Now also based in NYC, NATL’s principals are teaming-up with creative world leaders to deliver the next generation of creative communications across all media platforms. To learn more, please visit www.natl.tv.
Roger Darnell DWA for NATL Phone: 1.828.264.8898 Contact Roger via email
Goldcrest Post Speeds Delivery of “Severance” Season Two
The New York Times recently wrote that the just-released Season Two of Severance will “blow your mind”—and we couldn’t agree more. Created by Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller, the Apple TV+ drama is smart, spellbinding, distinctly original and packed with surprises. For those who aren’t already devoted fans, the show centers on Mark Scout (Adam Scott), leader of a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a “severance” procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. Goldcrest Post provided post services for both seasons of the show, including picture editorial support, sound editorial, ADR and sound mixing. Editorial for Season One began in 2020. Due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Goldcrest supplied both onsite production offices and edit suites, and remote editing systems for individual editors, with everything linked to a central server. "Mixing at Goldcrest with our team has been a great experience,” says Stiller. “Bob and Jacob are in sync with our creative process and so good at what they do that the experience is always one where it's about how we can enhance the creative vision, with a baseline of knowing everyone is totally committed to making something as good as it can be." Diana Dekajlo, the show’s co-producer, says that the arrangement worked so well, they chose to continue the hybrid approach for Season Two. “We’re a remote friendly show,” she explains. “Whether we’re at Goldcrest, our studio in the Bronx or at home, our workflow is seamless. I conduct remote daily meetings with my immediate staff, and weekly meetings with editorial and VFX, and we talk to each other as if we were just down the hall. It makes for great staff... Read More