We wanted to get natural moments while still capturing the energy of the workouts. The key to realism is paying close attention to talent even when not rolling. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, looking for any natural moment we could use. A few times, I saw Michael moving to the music or panting, and I immediately started rolling. Moments like that are natural and hard to recreate when talent is aware of the roll.
For the story, we needed slow moments when he caught his breath. We had him drink from a water bottle, but it didn’t look natural. What ended up working was one of the moments I kept rolling after a workout set. He was out of breath, bent over, and gave a long exhale. We captured the perfect moment, and that’s my favorite spot in the commercial.
Another trick I often do with sports cinematography is roll even after “cut” is yelled. I wanted to make sure we got any little moments that we could use in the edit. Sometimes there’s little gems at the tail end of a clip. Editor Tim McLaughlin was able to work those into the edit. One of these moments was when Blue finished with dumbbell flies and dropped the dumbbells on his last set. One kept rolling and Tim cut this in with the music perfectly.
Isaac and I connected on the athletic video style and visual approach for this project. We embraced a darker look with color contrast to highlight the athlete. I chose to shoot anamorphic on the Atlas Orion lenses, embracing the lens flares, widescreen aspect ratio and the cinematic aesthetic. We added atmospheric haze, then I lit with a toppy warm overhead and steel blue backlight. This approach gave it strong sports cinematography visuals, which I’ve always loved. I shot all the action elements with the EasyRig, giving it a very dynamic and energetic feel. This lends itself to cinematic sports cinematography visuals.
In the color grade with Brandon Jones we dialed in the warmth and blues. The blue from the flares and the steel blue backlight are not the same color of blue. When a heavily flared shot followed a primarily steel blue shot, he had to cheat the blues a bit so it flowed better. Brandon is a magician with color and I always love working with him!
I’m very proud of what we achieved as a team in this spec project for Rogue Fitness. I love the kinetic energy of sports cinematography and creating excellent visuals featuring athletes. It’s invigorating to use my craft and skills as a cinematographer to highlight an athlete as they exercise their skill all while helping sports and fitness brands create excellent marketing and athletic advertising videos.
