A Day on the Courts

The crew met at 7am on a sunny, cool morning that makes you realize why we live in this beautiful city. The purpose of the shoot was to capture three mature, professional men playing a game of pick-up basketball as a rights managed stock shoot for Getty Images. After much scouting, we decided on David Lam Park in downtown Vancouver, for the location we wanted.
-> Watch Basketball Video

For talent, we cast for both look and playing ability—they had to be able to get past me with the ball, which provided some fun at the studio. I find this very important when doing a sports shoot; I can always tell when talent are faking it. DP Kevin Hagell was brought in to capture HD video footage from the shoot. Acting as director for the filming—while shooting stills—is a new role for me. I think motion is the future in advertising, so am trying to incorporate this into most of my shoots.

Crew consisted of Amy Lu as stylist, Ellen Pratt on make-up and hair, Jeannette Gallant as producer and Erich Saide and Hedwig Schipperheijn assisting. The first order was getting the location set up. Erich changed the ratty basketball net with a nice new net that suited the urban location. Make-up and wardrobe were set up in a corner of the court we would not be shooting.

With the great morning light, we began with wide-angle shots of the location using natural light. Once the models were done make-up and wardrobe, we focused on playing and had the models sweating as they really got into the shoot (though Ellen had some fake sweat just in case). The talent proved to be very competitive, which is just what we were looking for. I was able to give direction, then wait for the scene to unfold. For the tighter shots we opted for using a large softbox and location kit to get a more interesting and stylized look. All in all it was a very productive half-day shoot.



Watch Basketball Video
Watch Basketball Slideshow