On Monday the Manitoba Moose had an off day and yet they still took to the ice in downtown Winnipeg at Canada Life Centre. It was a production day, when they shoot most of their videos and photos with players that are used throughout the season. We had a chance to drop in and peel back the curtain a little bit on all the work that goes into this day.
It was all hands on deck for this endevour which involved Moose folks from both the Front Office and Hockey Operations staff. They even had some Jets folks who were lending their assistance. Colin Peterson is the manager of Game Presentation and Content who is tasked with pulling it all together. Colin told me that planning for this day begins about a month out and then kicks into gear about two weeks prior.
“Then we finalize the creative plans and sort out exactly how many stations and who’s executing them. Next it’s securing additional specialty lighting and camera equipment as well as out of house staff to operate them.”
He added the “last push is three to four days out once we start to have an idea of the player makeup”.
There were 11 stations set up throughout the arena where players would do Tik Tok videos, have their headshots taken, answer questions, etc.
We then headed onto the ice to see more of the production. Normally we are high above the ice surface in our usual pressbox seat for Moose and Jets games but this offered a different viewpoint.
The team used the jumbotron at Canada Life Centre to enhance the visuals.
Side shot of C.J. Suess getting his close up.
Credit to cameraman Nathan who nimbly handled the camera on this boom arm with a remote control.
A photo of the aforementioned Colin Peterson trying to share his vision for this video with Seattle Thunderbird now Manitoba Moose teammates and Jets prospects Thomas Milic and Tyrel Bauer. Not sure the duo was buying what he was selling.
In total the production day shoot begins with the crew arriving at 7 AM. The first player interaction gets going an hour later and then it was all wrapped up around 4 PM. Of course that’s just the start of the work as they will thereafter spend hours in post-production getting ready for the AHL season which is right around the corner. You’ll be able to see some of these creations (tickets here) when Manitoba welcomes Rockford to town for their home opener on October 26th.
And maybe, just maybe there might be a little IC surprise coming your way.
