A hundred people — including all of the morning, noon and evening anchors — an outside shoot in a public place, elaborate costumes and everybody dancing in one continuous shot. Take a look.
Usually, I like to write a catchy intro that sets up the work you are about to see, drive interest, arouse your curiosity — but not today. Because you’ll probably want to watch this one more than once.
I saw this spot and immediately wrote Don Smith, the marketing director for KENS, Tegna’s CBS affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, asking him to tell me all about it. And he did.
Take it away, Don.
This was our image spot for Fiesta, which is a 10-day event here in San Antonio.
The spot was shot in Historic Market Square with all of our morning, noon and evening anchors.
In addition, we invited nearly 100 people closely tied to Fiesta — people who make elaborate Fiesta hats, Fiesta royalty, dancers, etc.
The spot was accomplished in one continuous shot using a Sony FS7 on a gimbal. We did speed ramping to get the continuous shot to fit inside of :30.
A few weeks before we shot this spot, our creative team was not sure we’d be able to accomplish such a complicated spot. Would we be able to get enough people out there? Will Market Square let us shoot there? Will the weather cooperate? Will shooting 100 people in one continuous shot work?
I’m usually one for pushing the limits and believing anything is possible — so I was incredibly proud of our team. They knocked it out of the park.
Kyle Adams, Andrew Fann, Andrew Delgado, and Don Smith
The spot was produced and directed by Andrew Delgado, shot by Andrew Fann, with the production team consisting of Caitlyn Alvarado, Kyle Adams, Brett Mauser, Derrick Barrios, Mario Ruiz, Fred Fechter and Gabby Gonzales.
Our anchors had a great time, many of whom had to skip a couple of newscasts to be there. That’s OK — our News Director Jack Acosta was on-site with his daughter Scout, who can be seen at the end of the spot.
We wanted authentic music to the city and Fiesta, so we licensed a song from local artists Piñata Protest.
There were several on-site camera rehearsals in the days leading up to the shoot and on shoot day we did a full rehearsal with everyone for a little over an hour and then we shot for about an hour.
In the end, I believe we set KENS 5 apart during this incredible city-wide event. Viva Fiesta!
NOTE: How ideas begin, where do they come from, what path do they take when others collaborate on it, interest me. While Don Smith didn’t touch on that here, you have to hand it to him and his team for the audacity and willingness to take a chance on this promo. I would have loved to have been there on set when this was shot.
Lots of video and film production aficionados are fans of the one continuous shot. There are many examples of the technique in movies today. But the most famous one is the opening crane shot from the 1958 Orson Welles movie, Touch of Evil.
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If you have a question, need help or want to contact Paul Greeley, he’s at [email protected] or 817-578-6324. Greeley lives in the Philadelphia area.
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