Tim Tadder is a visual communicator; a producer, director, writer and photographer. The New Era project demanded he wear all of those hats, plus.
By Missy Hunter
Tim Tadder is known for his epic imagery. However, his meaningful work isn’t just about the images produced, but the orchestration it takes to create them. Tim Tadder took on a mammoth task when shooting the New Era sideline collection. Five NFL players, also New Era ambassadors modeled the knits and caps for the home and away collection.
We spoke to Tim to get a better idea of the scope of the project.
Can you give us a sense of the size of this project, in comparison to the norm?
“We needed to shoot stills, lifestyle shots, TV, video, broadcast commercials. The question was how do we execute this? It was a daunting task.”
With a masters in visual communication, Tim Tadder has developed incredible story-telling skills. As a result, he is a creative solution partner. This shoot was something he and his team did direct with New Era, not through an agency, therefore, the assignment was broad in scope. Tim and his team were up for the task.
“The shoot was two, 12-hour days each with a 60-person team in Chicago and Los Angeles. This shoot was enormous. We had a lifestyle set, uniforms, training gear, a green-screen shoot for the uniforms, and lifestyle knits as well as the design set. We ended up with 100s of still images, nine different online versions, a :30 broadcast spot plus videos of the hat design sessions and behind the scenes.”
“You should see me in a crown.”
Through sports in college, Tim Tadder learned the value of hard work and that accomplishing anything worthwhile takes commitment, sacrifice and focus. Tim regularly works with athletes and players and identifies with the gritty and intense personas.
“Attack on the road. Defend at home.”
“This shoot was more than visual. There was a lot of interaction with the players. We needed to make it fun as there were long, long days.”
The feedback from New Era and the players’ agents was unanimous: Tim has a knack for developing an excellent rapport with the players and establishing 100% trust.
Want to see which epic athletes he gets to photograph next? Follow him on instagram, you never know who will show up.
