Two baseball action spots, with real baseball players for Chevy, the official truck of Major League Baseball, were produced by One at Optimus for Leo Burnett Detroit and are airing now through the 2015 baseball season.
The spots were directed by LA-based Jimmy Matlosz, who works extensively with athletes in all realms of the sports world and shot on locations outside of Los Angeles.
To assure authenticity of plays that excite fans, diamond, Optimus at One worked with Major League executives in choosing Minor League ballplayers from an audition held in LA: A pitcher, catcher and batter for the “Catcher’s Mask” 30 and a runner and first and second base men for “Slide.”
In “Catcher’s Mask,” the strength of the catcher’s facemask is matched to that of the truck’s grill. “Slide” required a player who could slide gracefully on his left hip and do it with a smile.
Filmed at 2,500 frames per second, the technical challenge of “Catcher’s Mask” was finding a pitcher who could release the ball in the exact spot each time and a batter who also could foul tip the ball.
“The process of arranging these spots was almost like putting a team together, says Matlosz, who applauded the agency’s collaboration and the athletes cast in the spots.
For One at Optimus, Lisa Masseur was EP/managing director and EP was Sarah Sleven Wein, who had been promoted to that post replacing Craig Leffel a few months ago. Editorial handled by Cutters Detroit.
See the spots here.
Leo Burnett credits: CCO, Steve Chavez; ECD, Steve Silver; senior copywriter, Cameron McIntosh; senior AD, Steve Kerry; SVP/director of integrated production, Brian Dooley; producer, Patrick Witt.
