Client :: University of Washington Men’s Rowing Team

Creatives :: Chris Cumming, Greg Sweney, Slavka Kuehn

Concept :: The concept of Rowtown USA needed to deliver on a few different fronts. Firstly, with the Boys in the Boat movie coming out we wanted to provide the UW (University of Washington) with content that they could use to draw a line from the 1936 Olympic Gold Medal winning team to today’s program. As more eyes turned to the UW after the release of the movie we wanted this piece to explain what UW Rowing is today.

It was also important to explain what ‘Rowtown, USA’ is and why Seattle is such a unique place in the world of rowing.

Lastly, we felt that by satisfying the first two deliverables it would help the final goal which was delivering the UW a piece that they could use as a recruiting tool and as a fundraising tool.

Deliverables :: Our final deliverables were a 5 minute long form piece, a 1 minute sizzle and 4 different 15 second cutdowns each illustrating a specific element or concept from the long form piece. We also delivered stills. We chose black and white imagery for a select group of deliverables to eliminate the distraction of color, distilling the photographs to showcase the stark, unadorned grace of the sport and the powerful physicality of the athletes.

Challenges :: Firstly, rowing happens early in the morning! In all seriousness though, between navigating variable weather and lighting conditions as well as an intense and set schedule of a program that has produced 46 Olympic Medals and 31 National Championships our first challenge was making sure we were in the right place at the right time. We also shot this project over 6 months so the feel of our footage changed just based on the time of year changing. We also were not going to be able to shoot the Olympics or a national championship or a big season ending regatta – the traditional arc of a sports piece was not an option.

Solutions :: We were actually happy to be there in the early mornings as it was a beautiful time to shoot, but the first thing we had to make sure we did was shoot a lot and be available for moments or opportunities that presented themselves rather quickly. There was no hand holding – if we got a spot on a chase boat or a launch we’d better be ready to be there as they weren’t going to wait for us. We also had to be a bit nimble as there wasn’t the physical space or time to have a big crew.

The solution that we employed to craft a piece without the typical narrative arc was to reverse engineer it a bit. We knew the interview with Michael Callahan was going to be the element that brought all the visuals together so we waited until we had the visuals and an idea of our story line. By utilizing this approach we were able to create VO that supported our picture and our story.

We were fortunate that Michael is very good in front of camera – his interview gave us a great backbone for the piece and the access we got to the team was the other critical piece as we were lucky enough to log a lot of shooting over the course of the project.

The real beauty of this project was that we were given the time and space to create. This docu-style shoot allowed us to embed with the team for 6 months, enabling us to capture the nuances of rowing, which would have been impossible to capture in just 3 days. We are super proud of our final library, as it illustrates our capabilities to deliver top-notch motion and stills by a stealth small crew. This project also illustrates our shared ethos and goal to tell authentic stories of real people for sports, outdoors, and life.