Watch Party is a Q&A style interview series where we discuss a recent Demo Duck video production with the team that brought it to life.
At Demo Duck, we "know ball." And you could imagine our excitement when the Atlantic 10 conference asked us to create an exciting, basketball-forward broadcast ad to show during the current season. The project team of Brett Pere, Ossian Mendoza and Jarrett Hothan sat down to chat about their approach to this commercial video production.
Also, just a reminder that Brett can hit a half-court shot under pressure if need be. Anyway, let's shoot our shot...
How did you decide to explore the concept of "Attention" within this piece?
Jarrett: I could try to come up with a super artful response, but the conference's name is the A-10 and my mind immediately connected it with "Attention." I think sometimes the best ideas are just sitting there for you, waiting to be picked up and built on. You don't have to overthink it. But as we discussed it more during our brainstorm, we realized how well it tied in with the ask of the project.
Brett: Exactly. There are a some larger conferences out there with super high-profile athletics programs that get a lot of publicity. But don't overlook the amazing drive and performance of A-10 student athletes. Pay attention, because if you overlook these teams—they might get you.
Jarrett: Like when the Richmond Spiders knocked off the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round of the tournament, even when we had both Keegan and Kris Murray. We all learned a valuable lesson that day. (Editor's note: Jarrett is a UIowa alumnus—at least he has Caitlin Clark).
So you didn't want to go for the "#A10tion" pun?
Brett: It honestly was a big point of discussion. We actually have a very brief moment of "A10tion" flashing at the end. But considering that the video was a hard 30 seconds—and how quick everything would move—we didn't want to count on viewers immediately internalizing that "A10tion" was a stand-in for "Attention."
Jarrett: Also, the "word meets number" portmanteau has been used in sports marketing for maybe a decade now. I think the first time I saw it was when Derek Jeter retired in 2014, with the "RE2PECT" campaign.
Brett: Ah yes, "The Captain."
Jarrett: That approach usually works better for a full marketing campaign launch, which includes print and static assets or even apparel. For now, we needed this animation to stand on its own.
How did you make sure the visuals caught viewers attention too?
Ossian: We produce plenty of videos with text in them. But considering this would be a 30-second video with no voiceover, we needed to make sure we didn't rely on too much text. The text lines needed to be simple and impactful, so we could keep it moving. Each script line could set up a visual world we could play in—attention on the basketball court, attention in the classroom. We thought of each text moment as its own design piece that could stand on its own and tell its own story.
30 seconds is pretty speedy. How did the time constraint influence how you approached the project?
Brett: We started with, of course, acknowledging the mandatories that the client asked for. We needed to have a moment to represent the schools in the conference with their logos, and we also needed to show a mix of sports. We needed to lead with a few basketball moments—since the ad will be shown during A-10 hoops season—but it was also important to showcase different sports too.
Ossian: For some of our longer projects, we try to utilize artful and creative transitions. But with just 30 seconds, we had to make sure we we kept the flow and momentum up—which meant using transitions strategically or utilizing punchy cuts.
Jarrett: It was a good scripting exercise for me. As someone who is prone to verbose rambling and trailing off, it forced me to minimize word count for max impact. We needed folks to be able to watch the ad on TV at a loud, crowded bar during March Madness and still get the message.
Ossian: The video was really about capturing a sense of bold, exciting energy too. And that relies on timing. Something we did during the production process was to create an animatic before full design and animation. That way we were able to make sure every moment was getting the right amount of time and that we were still keeping up the pace and energy the project needed.
How did you settle on this "dynamic collage" visual style?
Brett: Well, originally we thought that we might use more 2D animation and illustration of characters and even environments. But as the project went on—and discussions with the client—the real story is the student athletes and the fans. The idea of showing real people and real settings felt like the most authentic approach.
Ossian: A style like this also gives us a lot of flexibility. The client provided us with a variety of photos and video from their archives. But they naturally were shot in different lighting, weather, different cameras, etc. With the dynamic collage style, we were able to make the different assets look cohesive with color treatments, graphic overlays, repeating textures and more. It's a way to bring some of the disparate action from across sports and make it feel uniform to a branded video production.
Jarrett: To Ossian's point, this approach allowed us to use photos or video that told the best story—as opposed to just using the best quality footage. One of my favorite parts of the video is a sequence where the VCU women's basketball team is doing a community outreach program. There's a nice story within the images—the reactions, the smiles. Those photos, taken in the moment perhaps with a smartphone, are just as valuable to our story as some 4K slow-motion phantom cam shot. Our style allowed us to use them—and even add a little creative elevation to them too.
Ok, we're almost at the final buzzer. What was your favorite part of the project?
Brett: Seeing the creative come to life. Watching it go from a short script to storyboards to animation. It's not a typical explainer where the graphics have to be overly prescriptive. I enjoyed seeing it go from words on a page to something tangible, which then gave us something we could continually iterate on design-wise.
Ossian: I agree, seeing the first animatic was super exciting.
Jarrett: It was very cool to pitch our ideas to the A-10 team in the first place. We often work with marketing teams who may have very specific goals or KPIs in mind. But for this video, it was more about capturing a sense of pride, energy and enthusiasm—more of an emotional goal as opposed to a specific "benefit" being communicated.
Ossian: It's fun to work towards a broader creative goal every once in a while.
Jarrett: Oh, I also tuned in to the Fordham vs. Duquesne men's basketball game and saw the ad on TV, which was super cool.
Brett: And now we know how to spell Duquesne too.
