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Home » Juniper Jones Works with ESPN to Deliver Spectacular NBA Finals Broadcast Open

Juniper Jones Works with ESPN to Deliver Spectacular NBA Finals Broadcast Open

Thursday night, June 13th on ABC, millions of viewers will see Game 4 of the 2013 NBA Finals match-up between the San Antonio Spurs and the defending champion Miami Heat. This will also be their fourth chance to watch the spectacular new Broadcast Open for the NBA Finals produced by the creative force Juniper Jones (www.juniperjones.tv) through its continuing relationship with ESPN.

Going back several years, Juniper Jones founder and creative director Kevin Robinson helped create ESPN’s Conference Finals Open. The invitation to pitch for the new Finals Open was yet another tall order, and Robinson and his colleagues pulled out all the stops to make it sensational. According to ESPN senior coordinating producer Tim Corrigan and his team producing each of the 2013 Finals telecasts, the new Broadcast Open was a two-month project. “It puts all the focus and attention on great players, great teams and great moments that only happen at the NBA Finals,” he said.

“The montage is definitely front and center,” Robinson explained. “That’s the main piece, and I credit editor Eli Mavros as being the driving force of this project. Around those visuals, we set out to drive the overall Open with the additional elements we shot and the animation and visual effects that make the montage feel even more part of the live event.”

Continuing, Robinson added, “It was a balancing act of enhancing the story and not distracting from it. We wanted it to feel like this big screen was physically in the stadium at the NBA Finals, and get viewers excited about the special moments they are about to behold in this season’s championship series.”

Once everyone agreed on the storytelling approach for the two-minute Finals Open, the Juniper Jones studio in Brooklyn was in operation around-the-clock to deliver the finished piece. Naturally, the montage opens with great moments from past NBA Finals, before featuring some of the league’s most famous dynasties. For example, the rich history and culture of the legendary Boston Celtics is enshrined first, before the Los Angeles Lakers of the “show time” era take center stage. Next come game-changer Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls who are elevated into the heavens, before viewers are pulled back into the arena with Shaq and Kobe. For the Spurs, Juniper Jones’ artists feature their Texas locale and branding, and when they get to the Heat, sparks fly with their flaming logo.

“We tried to give everyone their moment and tried to give the proper weight for the different dynasties,” Robinson said. “And for the final celebration, we just tried to make everything feel spectacular.”

All around the movie screen in the center of the new Open, viewers see stagehands and other live-action elements interfacing with the screen. Those plates were shot by Robinson, director of photography Scott Maguire and others during one long day of filming at City Stage in Manhattan, where the ARRI Alexa digital motion picture camera system was used to capture principal photography on green-screen. “Knowing that the goal was to create a new Open that is meant to last for the next eight years, we tried to do as much as we could within our timeframe to make it special,” Robinson concluded. “What we delivered is built to evolve, and because our clients were so fantastic, we were able to get it all done in time and make the strongest Open possible.”

For ESPN, credit goes to Executive VP John Wildhack, Senior VP Mark Gross, NBA Finals producer Tim Corrigan and producers Valerie Fischler, Mark Teitleman. Along with Kevin Robinson, Eli Mavros and Scott Maguire, Juniper Jones’ credits include executive producer Susie Shuttleworth, senior producer Ryan McRee, associate producer Kyle McKeveny, art director Lloyd Alverez, TD/CG supervisor Caius Wong, 3D generalist Joe Nguyen, 3D VFX Joe Gunn, compositor Chris West, designer/compositor Steve Lee, designer/animator Naomie Ross, rotoscoper J Bush and assistant editor Jonathan Rouzier. The 2013 NBA Finals Broadcast Open features the music track “Legends and Heroes” from Peter Zepina of Mibe Music, and the sound design and mix are courtesy of Joe Just of Vidiots.

About Juniper Jones
Based in DUMBO on Brooklyn’s waterfront, Juniper Jones is the creative force dedicated to creating custom-tailored solutions. The firm’s rogue team of award-winning directors and designers believes beauty is always in motion, and that forging deep collaborative experiences with clients yields epic results. Leveraging the brand expertise of its clients, the force’s meticulous diligence reveals spot-on insights, which then benefit from legendary storytelling craftsmanship. At Juniper Jones, all things are real and beautiful and anything is possible… and our mission is to bring your stories to life. Ready to begin? www.juniperjones.tv.

–SHOOT Publicity Wire

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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