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Man In The Arena: Tom Brady on ESPN +, was a project two plus years in the making, encapsulating the story of one of the greatest Football players and athletes of all time.
Our design team worked relentlessly to ensure a consistent quality and level of detail across the entire series. Creating over 3,400 different shots touched by bespoke design, animation, editorial montages and visual effects.
When we first talked to Religion of Sports about the series, it was clear we all wanted to do something outside of the realm of traditional football or sports documentaries. To encapsulate the wide range of themes and subject matter, this is needed to be a cinematic journey, a classic and poetic experience, something that spoke to the emotions and challenges of sport and of life.
The aim of our design approach was to craft a visceral and narrative tone to portray how it must have felt for Tom to experience all of his victories (and defeats) — on and off of the football field. This meant stepping beyond a traditional graphics package and creating bespoke effects and abstract moments to illustrate certain emotions, pain from injuries, memories, the competitive nature of Tom Brady, and more. These moments allowed us to build themes throughout each episode portraying different periods of Tom's life, and to create detailed visual subtext to help drive the story forward in meaningful ways.
This project was far more than just creating nice visuals; It was all about finding ways to graphically and visually embellish the story of Tom Brady.
Client: Religion of Sports
Design Studio: Elastic
Creative Director: Duncan Elms
Art Director: Kennon Fleisher
Lead Creative Editor: Rachel Fowler
Designers: Pete Sickbert Bennette, Yelim Lee, Lynn Kim
Animators: Jim Pierce, Steven Biggert, Trix Taylor, Peter Murphy, Laura Reedy, Chavilah Bennett, Ben Bullock, Lucy Kim, Jonathan Minaya, David Wave, Steven Do, Kyle Kerr
Assistant Editor: Javier Gonzalez, Josh Hamester
Senior Producer: Paul Makowski
Associate Producer: Megan Rodriguez
Production Coordinator: Shane Hoffman
Deputy Head of Production: Zach Wakefield
Executive Producer: Luke Colson
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Kate Berry
Managing Director: Jennifer Sofio Hall