| By: Carolyn Braff, Managing Editor | Published: August 31, 2009 |
For the 2009 football season, Kitay Productions has increased its stable of clients, bringing high-quality productions to mid-major football scoreboards up and down the East Coast. In addition to Saturday-afternoon productions at Towson University’s football stadium, Kitay Productions will now be producing scoreboard shows for the U.S. Military Academy (Army) and Columbia University. Also new to the company’s client roster this season is American University, for which it will produce a variety of video content.
“We have three different projects that we’re working on with American,” says President Joel Kitay. “They are unveiling a new Website, and we are creating an introductory video to show at the event and use as promotional pieces for it.”
Kitay is also producing a marketing video for the Eagles Club, American’s alumni fundraising organization and, beginning in November, will produce five episodes of a new Eye on the Eagles television show, featuring basketball coach Jeff Jones.
“It’s a cross between the basketball coach’s show and a general newsmagazine show about the American University athletic department,” Kitay says. “American just got into the TV-show business last year. They had a guy who was kind of a one-man band, shooting, editing, writing, and producing these shows. They wanted to increase the production value, and they really wanted some marketing videos done. So they called me, and we were able to wrap everything together.”
Kitay Productions will produce one Eye on the Eagles show each month, with some content generated by American University students.
“We’re going to shoot all the features, but there is no budget for us to go to every wrestling meet or field-hockey game to get footage, so they’re going to use some of their students to tape those games,” Kitay says. “They will give us highlights from what they show on their Website to use on the show, so we are working in partnership with the university.”
The Eye on the Eagles shows will air on Comcast SportsNet from November through March.
On the professional side, Kitay Productions is producing the video-scoreboard show for all home games at FedEx Field, home to the NFL’s Washington Redskins. In conjunction with NBC Universal’s WRC Washington, Kitay’s team will also produce the weekly Jim Zorn Show.
“We come in on Mondays, supervise a multicamera shoot with the coach, and then cut the show together, incorporating some features that they have pre-produced,” Kitay says.
As for the scoreboard production, Kitay Productions relies on two handheld cameras and one focused on play-by-play to cut the show, utilizing a four-channel EVS and Chyron Duet. The Redskins also have access to network feeds, so Kitay cuts those angles into the show where appropriate.
To help staff this increase in weekly productions, Kitay Productions has hired a new senior producer, Steve Shaw. He has done freelance production and technical work for the company since 2004, so he is no stranger to the workflow.
For Kitay, who works with athletic departments at universities known less for their sports than for their academics, the increase in clients this summer is a sign of changing times.
“From the angle of the small schools, everybody’s getting into sports,” he says. “These colleges and universities know that they need to be competitive in the video world, but they don’t know where to begin. It’s our job to help them get started.”
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