Creative Focus: Wry On The Fly

A Day in the Life of 'This Is SportsCenter.' BRISTOL, Conn.--The NBA's patrolling basketball courts, looking for naked knees? Yep. Kelvin Cato and Rasheed Wallace of the Portland Trail Blazers were each fined $2,500 by the league for wearing shorts below their knees. For the New York-based Wieden & Kennedy creative team, this event offered perfect fodder for a new ESPN SportsCenter ad. To produce a timely spot addressing the recent NBA controversy, Wieden creative director Stacy Wall called on Hank Perlman, a former agency colleague who developed the SportsCenter campaign, and Bryan Buckley, a director well-versed in SportsCenter style. Perlman and Buckley recently joined executive producer Stephen Orent to form production company Hungry Man. Armed with a budget well under $100,000, the team trekked north with a skeleton production crew to ESPN headquarters in Bristol to parody the NBA's recent fascination with fashion. The ad is an addition to the 11 SportsCenter spots recently produced by Wieden's Portland office and directed by radical.media's Rick LeMoine and Steve Miller. Wall and his co-directors, Buckley and Perlman, huddle in a circle in the ESPN newsroom, sorting out the details that can turn a humorous spot into the awards sweeper that many of the ESPN ads have become. Since 1995, Wieden has produced more than 90 commercials for SportsCenter. During this visit, the ESPN newsroom remains relatively calm. No team mascots or players run around, and the limited production budget has allowed for only one camera, rather than the usual two. In keeping with the irreverent spirit of the campaign, the commercial slated for production focuses on ESPN's "recently adopted policy" regarding the on-air dress code. Anchors are subjected to incessant policing by a corporate fashion cop, played by Wieden's ESPN account director Winton Sweum. Anchor Kenny Mayne's suit is inspected thoroughly, and he is fined for violating a number of rules, including wearing French cuffs. After the interrogation, he protests management's disregard for his personal taste. "I am French cuffs," he screams into a telephone. "People call me Cuff back home." Though the goal is to shoot "Suits Policy," two other spots are also being produced, one mocking the Southern Baptists' boycott of ESPN's parent company, Disney, and the second poking fun at the dismantling of the Florida Marlins. In "Marlins Trade," bat boys, dropped by the penny-pinching world champs, have been hired by ESPN. A 10-year-old camera operator in a Marlins uniform is caught nodding off during the late-night broadcast. The spot spoofing the Disney backlash features ESPN anchors appeasing the religious right with references to God and faith in their sportscasts. While it's uncertain whether anyone outside ESPN will ever see the "religious" spoof, the anchors happily comply with the directors' requests to add an occasional "Amen" or "Praise the Lord" to their performances. To the dismay of the sound man, laughter is difficult to control both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Wall, Buckley and Perlman are the worst culprits, howling as they see their ideas acted out on the ESPN set. During the two-hour drive from Manhattan to Bristol, the three hashed out many details, including dialogue and scenarios. The line between what could actually make it into the spots and what is pure fun is blurry. Wall considers background visuals in the religious spot: maybe a snake handler, he says, demonstrating the shot with arms flailing and eyes rolling into the back of his head. Perlman presses Wall to appear in the spot and jokes, "How would you feel doing it with real snakes, Stacy?" Though the spots were written by Wall, the trio continuously tries lines and jokes on each other while filming. "Our roles are undefined," says Perlman. "Everyone contributes." The ESPN talent is briefed with the concept, but the language, style and nuance of the performance is left to the anchors. "With SportsCenter, you are intending to create a 'mockumentary,'" Wall says. "You're suggesting a reality, then contriving a way for that reality to take place. [Improvising] is a better way to get an honest performance."

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Creative Focus: Wry On The Fly

Eleftheria Parpis

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Eleftheria Parpis