Los Angeles Chargers Boost The Bolt With New Content Studio

Jack Morton Worldwide, IDF Studio Scenery, NEP Sweetwater, Samsung, Lighting Design brought the vision to life

To kick off the current NFL calendar, the Los Angeles Chargers moved into brand-new headquarters — The Bolt — in El Segundo, CA, at the start of training camp in July. On the top floor of the NFL’s newest training facility, the organization’s creative and production team recently opened the doors to their content studio after years of not having a permanent home.

“The growth that we’ve experienced comes with a greater demand for content,” says Jason Lavine, SVP, brand creative & content, Los Angeles Chargers. “We have a more solid foundational floor compared with where we were before, and we’ve raised our [creative] ceiling a lot higher.”

Moving On Up: Staff Finds Dedicated Space After Years of On-the-Go Shoots

Seven years ago, the Chargers were in a period of transformation from their past in San Diego to their future in Los Angeles. After traveling north to the City of Angels, they played three seasons at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA. At the time, the franchise’s headquarters were in Costa Mesa, CA, more than 30 miles from their then-home venue. Given the notorious traffic in metro Los Angeles, a trip between the two locations could take up a hefty chunk of the workday. Adjusting to a new city was important, but establishing the club’s brand on social media and within produced content was a high priority. The biggest challenge was to accomplish that with a small team: Lavine, two full-time staffers in total on social and digital, and a freelancer.

The content studio officially opened this week in the Los Angeles Chargers’ new training facility.

“In the beginning, our focus was finding and creating our voice,” says Lavine. “The credit goes to [Senior Director, Digital and Social Media] Megan Julian and her team for developing that, but everything we used to do was very much by our bootstraps.”

Without a fully dedicated content space, the strategy leaned heavily on shooting projects in various locations around the venue or within the city. Having to constantly build up and disassemble sets was costly, and, in the long run, the approach wasn’t financially and logistically stable.

“We have a series with Toyota called “Campin’ Out,” where we literally build a camping set from scratch, which is a $25,000 endeavor every time you do it,” says Lavine. “We want to do more of that, but the cost ends up getting higher. This new space helps us with our overhead [expenses].”

Jack Morton Worldwide and IDF Studio Scenery played a big role in the studio’s set design.

The ownership group and Chief of Staff and Counselor Fred Maas recognized the importance of carving out a sizable space for Lavine and his crew, which includes Senior Director, Production, Tyler Pino and Senior Production Engineer Brian Georgeson. The building opened in the summer, and when the finishing touches on the studio were done to complete the project this month, the team considers it worth the wait.

“I’m most excited,” Levine adds, “because I think it will allow us to create a higher quantity and higher quality of product.”

Hub of Content: Postproduction Takes Precedence

After many years of on-the-fly shoots, the team is known for pumping out stellar creative projects in a non-live setting. This concentration on putting together material in a postproduction environment ultimately drove the concept of the new studio. Also behind the effort were high viewership by the club’s fanbase and an ethos that runs contrary to other teams in the league.

“Unlike with some teams that produce pregame and postgame shows from a desk, building up a broadcast space wasn’t what we needed,” says Lavine. “95% of our content doesn’t touch the field, so we’re football-adjacent and use our players as the storytellers of our brand. The only thing that we know is going to exist is our Chargers Weekly Podcast, but the rest of [our content plan] is going to be dictated by other factors.”

Pictures of fans and important players in the franchise’s history are featured in the studio.

Opting for a content plan that’s not set in stone allows the department to operate with more freedom and fewer guardrails. From a technological standpoint, the non-stationary nature of productions means that the studio isn’t equipped with fixed camera positions. The crew has 10 cameras and 465 sq. ft. of LED displays, but, with the Chargers’ emphasis on spatial flexibility and increased mobility via technology, staples in other studios around the industry — a control room, for instance — were not necessary in the facility’s first year. Production switchers and graphics machines for live production may be considered in the future, but, as the crew get their bearings, postproduction is the main goal.

“We’d like to be able to live-cut a podcast that’s happening in here to cut down on edit time,” says Lavine. “We want the live capabilities to enhance everything that we do, but having the backend technology doesn’t mean that we have to go live.”

California Dreamin’: Studio Honors the City, the Franchise’s Legacy

To match the energy and vibrancy of the city, pay homage to the franchise legends, and provide an inviting place for those who stop by, the space relies on notable symbols of the city and the state. Visitors will recognize items shown on the wall: on one end, views of the city skyline and the palm trees lining its streets; on the other, the Bolt Up slogan in front of pictures of fans and historic players including Hall of Famers Dan Fouts, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Lance Alworth, Kellen Winslow, and Charlie Joyner. Smaller details tip a cap to California icons in books on the shelves, including Kelly Slater: A Life of Waves and Kobe Bryant’s The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. The studio as a whole is designed to suggest an upscale beach house on the California coast.

“That’s what the wood is supposed to signify,” Lavine points out. “I’m pleased with how it turned out. From our team and players to our city and fans, we wanted to make sure they were represented.”

The Chargers Weekly Podcast desk sits in front of the main Samsung LED display.

Representing players on the physical structure is one thing, but keeping the front door open for them to showcase their personalities within its walls is another. Located next to the team’s practice fields and a couple of floors above its weight room and other areas important to the day-to-day routine, it’s a prime spot at a time when player availability comes at a premium.

“It helps that you’re able to get in an elevator and go up two floors to get here,” says Lavine, “but it starts with having a good relationship with the players. This space isn’t only for us; we want this to be a space for our players, too.”

Along with ideas for potential expansion, another vision for the content studio at The Bolt gives local talent a place to express themselves.

“We also want to be a home for other creators and influencers as well,” Lavine explains. “We intend to make it something that is readily available to the market to rent. We hope it’s a space that anybody in the city will be able to take advantage of.”

Nods to Los Angeles — including the city skyline and palm trees — are a part of the studio’s aesthetic.

Critical partners made the project possible: Jack Morton Worldwide for set design; IDF Studio Scenery, fabrication; Lighting Design Group, lighting; Samsung, LED technology; and NEP Sweetwater, AV integration.

All for The Bolt: Team Grows From Humble Beginnings

The Chargers have supported this endeavor with the creation of a strong team. Some might say that completion of the studio is testament to the department’s immense growth. Over the years, some team members have stayed — Georgeson was an intern when he joined the team — and others have left, but the hard work and dedication from both groups of people have produced a beautiful playground for content.

“Our infrastructure wasn’t ready for this seven years ago,” says Lavine. “We built this the right way. Our team deserves a studio like this.”