CFP National Championship 2022: Crimson Tide Productions Keeps Coverage Fresh With Focus on Players

Team of nine content creators traveled to Indy for Alabama’s latest shot at the crown

It’s not too often that a program gets this comfortable on the big stage.

This Alabama Football dynasty has taken Crimson Tide Productions, the in-house media department for the University of Alabama, all the way to the national championship sixth times in the last seven years. That means producing elite content for a wildly engaged audience at a championship level practically year in and year out.

Its challenge that, as one would expect, they relish.

“This is a great problem to have,” laughs Justin Brant, Associate Athletics Director, Crimson Tide Productions. “Keeping the content fresh is very important, but we want always want to focus on the players, their stories, their families, their experience at the University of Alabama and their consistent accomplishments over the years. We are not here to show off our skills. We are here to document the greatness of the players, our program, and the University of Alabama.”

While the game didn’t turn out how the Crimson Tide would have liked, it was still an immensely productive week for the Crimson Tide Productions team that served its fan base with wall-to-wall video, still, and graphic design coverage of the team’s trips to both Arlington, Texas (for the CFP semifinal Cotton Bowl) and Indianapolis for the CFP National Championship game.

Channeling the personality of the team’s coach, Nick Saban, Brant says that Crimson Tide Productions treated last week like “a normal game week,” providing video coverage of virtual press conferences and player interviews, shooting behind-the-scenes at team practices for hype content, team arrivals (off the plane, to the stadium, etc.), and some live game preview shows, including a live video presentation of Saban’s weekly coach’s show (which was hosted from ma ballroom at the team hotel in Indy).

Crimson Tide Productions traveled nine staffers to Indianapolis for the weekend, which was notably more than they were allowed to bring last year when there were very strict COVID restrictions.

Churning out video content were Director of Video Production Alex Seiver, Creative Video Lead Mitch Bernado, Senior Producer/Editor Aaron Hepp, Producer/Editor Nick Macon, and Student Editor Garrett Loges. They also brought with them an impressive arsenal of gear that included a collection of Sony cameras: four FS7s, a FX9, three Sony A7s IIs, and a Sony A7sIII. They also had a Red RED DSMC2 Camera BRAIN with the DRAGON-X 5K S35 sensor. For lenses, they brought a Canon Cine Servo 25-250 EF, a Canon Cine Fixed lens set (14mm, 24mm, 50mm, 70mm), four Canon 70-200 2.8 EF, four Canon 24-70 2.8 EF, and a Sony FE 14mm. All of that was also supplemented by DJI Ronin Gimbals as well as a DJI Mavic 2 drone and a DJI FPV drone.

On the graphic design front, Creative Director, Football Jonathan King, Assistant Director, Graphic Design Ryan Adams, and Student Graphic Designer Nathan Jones kept social feeds engaged with the assistance of Creative Director, Motion Graphics Adam White, who was working remotely from back in Tuscaloosa.

During the game, the team was able to have six shooters on the field and two graphic designers in the press box. The rest worked in the working press area in the bowels of the stadium.

The Crimson Tide Productions group was also helped out in a big way by the athletic department’s team of photographers that were on-site. That included Director, Photography Kent Gidley and Assistant Directors Robert Sutton, Jeff Hanson, and Roger Champion.

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