Kitay Productions Bringing New, Uniform Look to Army Football

by John Rice

Next fall’s Black Knight Army football games at historic
Michie Stadium will be dressed up with a new look and feel under the direction
of Kitay Productions. Kitay, with offices in Baltimore
and New York,
has been awarded the contract to provide crews, creative services, and
production support for the 2009 season.
Kitay will be providing complete turnkey services for the
games, including a crew of eight or nine, newly designed graphics, and
production elements.
“We’re going to really ramp up the graphics,” says Kitay Productions
founder and president Joel Kitay. “We’re going to have a lot more real-time
statistics and we’re going to create a more consistent look for them.”
He says the look will be integrated across live content,
video and message board graphics, and pre-produced video elements that are
created by Army producers.
Michie Stadium at West Point
was built in 1924. Last year, a new 7-by-15 Daktronics video board and 4-by-14
foot message board were installed in the stadium. Games are covered with three
cameras: play-by-play, a high end zone camera, and a wireless camera that
travels throughout the games.
“We’ll run the message boards, the CG, tape, edit roll, and
the cameras,” Kitay explains.
Joel Kitay will serve as producer and there a director/TD will
round out the crew.
Material will be created and shown in standard definition. Army
has installed an inexpensive clip player, Edirol, from Roland and a Grass
Valley Indigo Switcher.
Kitay will create graphics using PhotoShop, Maya, After
Effects and Final Cut. Layers and templates will be generated from the
stadium’s character generator, while the Edirol, which has a dedicated clip player,
will play out the rest.
Kitay Productions, founded in 2002, has live-produced “hundreds
and hundreds of games,” as Joel Kitay characterizes the business. Current and
past clients include the University of
Maryland, Towson,
and Boston University. The company has also provided content for Temple University
and the University
of Rhode Island, as well
as the New Jersey Devils and Baltimore Ravens.
Joel Kitay sees a number of schools from “the second level
of Division I” installing big screens, as Army has done. But they don’t necessarily have the internal
resources to provide the level of content and production services available
from companies like Kitay.
“We provide a cost-effective and quality-effective solution
that is close to what the big boys are doing,” he says.
Joel Kitay is a panelist at SVG’s upcoming College Sports
Video Summit, which takes place in Atlanta
on June 9 and 10. College, university, and conference professionals who register for the
Summit before
May 15 can receive a free hotel room night. Click here to register today!