NEW YORK - Vidiots (www.vidiots.tv), here, recently collaborated with Tampa, FL's Habana on the music-driven primetime open for ABC/ESPN College Football. The Celebrate open was shot in HD on the Pontiac Garage Stage located high above Times Square. Artists such as 50 Cent, Perry Farrell's Satellite Party and Kelly Rowland are featured performing a cover of Rare Earth's "Celebrate," which was rewritten with custom lyrics for the sporting event.
The project marks a continued collaboration between the two studios, as they also worked on a pair of musical opens for ABC/ESPN College Football last year.
Vidiots co-founder Michael Amoia once again served as director and editor, with Steven Levy executive producing for Habana Avenue and Val Fischler again serving as supervising producer for ABC/ESPN Sports.
Again, the team returned to the Pontiac Garage Stage for a night-time, four-camera HD shoot. Amoia and DP Marc Bloomgarden used four Panasonic VariCam HD cameras for the shoot - two handheld, one on a 15-foot Techno Crane and one located across Times Square equipped with a 86:1 lens.
While pyrotechnics were used for practical effects, CG was used to create ribbons of energy that encircle the performers. Greenscreen footage of 50 Cent was also shot at Silvercup East to create the scenes of the performer precariously perched on the giant screens above the Pontiac Garage Stage.
Amoia created the offline edit on an Avid Adrenaline and prepped the CG compositing, which was performed through Vidiots. The open was also finished in Adrenaline.