Bulls & American Express team up on new video series

Bulls’ point guard Derrick Rose

THE CHICAGO BULLS and American Express teamed up to produce the  “Home Court Advantage” series of video content that shares stories of Bulls players, fans and Chicago businesses.

Produced by award-winning BullsTV in-house production team, headed by director/EP Brad Siegel, the four-part series consists is two-three minute videos, vignettes of players on and off the court. The series are available on Bulls.com, Home Court Advantage microsite, and the Bulls’ and American Express’ mobile app.

The videos showcase Bulls players visiting places they consider “home:” Joakim Noah in New York.

Tony Snell in Chicago, Joakim Noah Taj Gibson in Brooklyn, Pau Gasol in Los Angeles and Jimmy Butler in Tomball, Texas.

Josh Kahn was senior creative producer/director; DP, Chris Ramirez; Katian Sandoval, editor; Cody Madsen, associate producer; Jay Burger, production assistant. Color correction by Optimus’ Jeff Greco.

THE MARTIN AGENCY of Richmond, Va. again teamed with Company 3 senior colorist Tyler Roth Walmart’s new multi-spot “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” campaign that’s currently running nationally.

Roth did the color grading on a dozen 15s and 30s vignettes for broadcast and web and a 60-second anthem spot for cinemas.

“It’s always a pleasure to work with Walmart and The Martin Agency, but this project was particularly memorable because I’m such a big ‘Star Wars’ fan myself. It was a lot of fun creating a look that would resonate with other fans.” 

Roth conducted virtual sessions with The Martin Agency’s team in Richmond, Virginia throughout the grading process.

“FREAKS & ERRORS: A Rare Collection,” is filmmaker Mark Cwiakala’s feature doc about postage stamps, collectors and the life-long quest for the highly desirable stamps that contain errors of some sort.  

“The title also plays with the public’s perception of stamp collectors as out-of-touch eccentrics, obsessed with an old-timey habit,” says Cwiakala.

He began production in 2011 and is looking to wrap in early spring and head for festivals thereafter.

Stamp collectors interviewed include LA-based singer-song writer and actress Jackie Tohn, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, billionaire bond-king Bill Gross and pulp-mystery writer Lawrence Block.

Cwiakala wrote, directed and co-produced with Jon Singer; DP was Eon Mora and Alexander Cheng is editing.  

The doc has a Kickstarter campaign going with almost half the funds reached towards a $17,000 goal. 

Send your production news to ruth@reelchicago.com. Include production credits and a couple of photos, too.