Super Bowl LV: Kansas City Chiefs' Digital Team Hurdles COVID-19 Obstacles in Team's Return to the Big Game Preparation for this game is very different from last year's in Miami By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor Wednesday, February 3, 2021 - 2:10 pm
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Prior to Super Bowl LIV last year, the Kansas City Chiefs were the lovable underdog trying to win its first championship in five decades. On Sunday, the franchise will be vying for back-to-back titles and setting the foundation for a potential NFL dynasty. Magic may happen on the field at Raymond James Stadium, but, leading up to the game, creative pixie dust has been spread through the team's social-media and digital channels.
We have a couple of things up our sleeves, says Glenn Connelly, director, content and production, Kansas City Chiefs. Going to back-to-back Super Bowls has allowed us to home in on what made an impact last year.
Calling an Audible: Crew Limits Staffers Onsite, Relies on Services at Arrowhead The crew will produce a typical flurry of videos, posts, and other visuals this weekend, but the workflows are in stark contrast to those deployed last year. Connelly and his team have remained in Kansas City throughout this week, an approach used for road games during the regular season.
A quick look behind the scenes of production day! pic.twitter.com/8mGSgAuKnx
- Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 2, 2021
The lack of player access has been a huge hurdle all year long, Connelly explains. Only one of our producers was able to be inside the practice facility, and the rest of our staff has been working from the press box at Arrowhead Stadium. In our studio, we set up interviews through Zoom with a teleprompter, and we have remote camera controls so [the staffer] can manage from an adjacent office. We've had to get creative and manage our expectations.
When the team does travel to Tampa later this week, it'll be with a smaller staff than was deployed last year at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, all credentialed staffers were able to be inside the venue with a fair amount of player access. Despite the magnitude of the event, the production crew this year is looking at the contest differently from an operational perspective.
We are treating this Super Bowl more like a normal away trip, says Connelly. The NFL has permitted four of our staff, two photographers and two videographers, onto the field. In the operational zone, we'll have four additional photographers and three videographers that are local or flown-in freelancers. Last year, we had eight photographers and eight videographers, so we'll have to rely more on NFL Films for coverage.
Since seats on the Chiefs' airplane are limited, the production-crew members who will be working onsite this Sunday are traveling on different flights on separate days. The first photographer/videographer pair will leave Kansas City on Thursday, and the other pair will head to Florida on Saturday. The other video producers and digital team, including Connelly, will provide support from Arrowhead.
Inside the Infrastructure: Ops Include Remote Editing, ARRI Cameras The production team's infrastructure will look different from last year's. In February 2020, it was given the full week to gather content and set up a portable server in the team hotel to cover events and upload footage. Now this system is located in Arrowhead Stadium for remote editing during the course of the game.
It's a lot easier working in Kansas City since we have access to all of our footage, says Connelly. We'll be editing in Adobe Premiere and After Effects and will use CatDV as an asset-management system. We'll also use Frame.io as a large part of our workflow for content approvals and file sharing, so everything gets there for review by me and our other senior management before it's posted to our social-media channels.
With this system in place, crew members who will be working on the sidelines and inside other areas of Raymond James Stadium will be equipped with two types of ARRI cameras: ARRIs and ALEXA Minis. Before traveling to Tampa, the crew has used the equipment to shoot digital content at Arrowhead, including the stitching of the official Super Bowl LV jersey:
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#RunItBack: Hashtag Connects Super Bowl LIV Victory to Current Quest Since hoisting the Lombardi Trophy a year ago, the Chiefs have emphasized the idea of repeating as champions. The team's official slogan, Run It Back, appears on all promotional material as well as on the digital platforms and is now the Chiefs' official social-media hashtag. The digital team has pushed out short clips under this umbrella, connecting last year's success to this year's mission. Its efforts have buy-in from players: for example, this video is narrated by team sparkplug and postseason defensive captain Tyrann Mathieu:
In a new twist to the hashtag, the social team is also diving deep into the South Florida mentality. In one of its most recent posts, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, defensive tackle Chris Jones, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and defensive end Frank Clark sail a Chiefs-themed pirate ship next to an illustration of the waterways that run from Kansas City to Tampa:
Game week. #RunItBack pic.twitter.com/ddL724Rk2s
- Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 1, 2021
Serialized Content: Long-Form Episodes Offer Regular-Season Highlight Serialized content is one of the themes that the digital team has emphasized throughout the past two seasons. Throughout the 2020 campaign, the organization has integrated corporate sponsors into some longer-form content. One in particular, Ki
