BIG WAVE TOUR 2024
The WSL Big Wave season is the time of year when humans push the boundaries of what’s possible on a surfboard.
In the sport’s premier paddle-only event at Jaws and throughout a non-stop tow surfing challenge at Nazaré, these hard-charging men and women drop in and charge the impossible for the ride of a lifetime.
who produced it?
Creative Director: Jason Penning
Script/Copy: Daniel Willon
Edit/Motion Graphics/Sound/Color: Matthew Hogan
what was the production process?
Working with the Creative Director and Copywriter, we brainstormed several ideas to achieve the following requirements,
Highlighting relevant athletes (Tudor sponsored athletes, or athletes attempting to set a world record that year)
Showcase the wave
Drive traffic to Big Wave landing page during the awareness phase, as well as creating live tune in assets to drive to Redbull.tv during the event.
Level-up the look and feel from previous seasons.
Storyboarding/Pre-production script
Challenges during this project include incorporating the Tudor tagline “Born to dare” into the piece, as well as continuing to level-up the look and feel, without abandoning what we had build over the past few years. This was made particularly difficult, as the event had not run the previous year and therefore we had no new footage to work with.
To solve the first challenge, I collaborated with the copywriter and we landed on animating the last copy line to change from DEFY to DARE to seamlessly integrate their branding into the script.
For the second challenge, I sourced a collection of glitchy analog transitions, and used them to create dynamic backgrounds, as well as using them as displacement maps for text animations. This solved the problem by adding more depth and grit to the overall look, which reflects the grit and intensity involved in big wave surfing. Utilizing other techniques such as making footage black and white, creative cropping, and using animated background behind text graphics allowed us to give a new look to older footage.
what made the project successful?
This project was successful because it responded to the creative brief, and integrated the sponsor into the content in a way that was more intentional than just slapping their logo on the end card. The brand, as well as the other stakeholders were very happy with the results.
One of the reasons I chose to highlight this project is the creative freedom that allowed me to bring several ideas to the table to make something that felt dynamic and engaging. From the duo-tone video filters using Big Wave colors, to the flickering text and analog style effects, to the music and sound design. I had a lot of fun working on this, and I think it shows in the final product.