Jonathan Chapman’s Winter Baseball
The opening day of the Major League Baseball season was this week, and we’re all excited to see our favorite teams kick off a new season of America’s pastime. Photographer and director Jonathan Chapman was brought onto a project created and conceived for the Minnesota Twins Community Fund by Martin Williams in anticipation of a new year of exciting games.
Jonathan worked closely with the team at Martin Williams and Volt Studios to bring the “Winter Baseball” project to life visually on the frozen surface of Brownie Lake in Minneapolis. Pre-production involved creating an accurate baseball diamond the day before—surely the childhood dream of many a sports fan stuck inside for the winter. Jonathan had his team outline the shape of the ball field with a 100’ measuring tape. Then they removed snow until they had finally reached the base level of the lake.
As additional support for the project—and certainly essential for the impressive reveal shot at the end of the spot—Jonathan collaborated with Picture Factory, who brought in their CineStar 6 aerial platform to fly a camera over the whole scene and capture the impromptu game in progress. Further production supplies and support were provided by Tasty Lighting. Finally, the video was edited together and set to “January Hymn” by the Decemberists.
The final 30-second spot has begun airing on TV and will also be shown at Target Field, the Twins’ home turf, now that the 2013 baseball season is underway. “We hope you enjoy watching this alternate 60-second version of the spot here as much as we did creating it,” Jonathan writes (and, he adds, “Go Twins!”). For more insight into the process behind “Winter Baseball,” check out the behind-the-scenes video on the making of the ad here.
