Champ Bailey Interviews Deion Sanders for TNT Sports
Champ Bailey (foreground) interviewing Deion Sanders
It’s always interesting when one legend interviews another - and this was no exception.
I first worked with Champ Bailey many years ago when he was the star cornerback for the Denver Broncos. Back then he was the one getting interviewed.
But now that he’s joined the team at TNT Sports - he’s the one doing the analyzing and the interviewing - and this was his biggest interview yet.
It was also the only major sit-down interview Deion Sanders - AKA Coach Prime - has agreed to so far this year.
Why?
Because Champ and Deion are good friends. And their friendship really came through in their interview.
In fact, it was more like a great conversation between friends than a formal interview.
👇 Check out the final piece below 👇
We arrived in the morning for our early afternoon interview. This gave us a few hours to load in and set up.
Our mission was to turn a room overlooking Folsom Field into a three-camera interview set - one camera on Deion, a “dirty over the shoulder” on Champ, and a wide middle shot on a dolly that sees both of them from the side.
The challenge with any three-camera interview (and we’ve shot quite a few over the years) is that the wide middle camera sees exactly where the two key lights need to be for our talent.
So those lights either need to be boomed in from stands out of frame, or be placed way off frame and have a lot of punch.
Another choice is to use a lantern-type fixture between them - usually much lighter but you still have to arm it in.
Due to our time restraints and available equipment, we chose to set our keys just out of the middle camera’s frame.
Luckily we had two Aputure 600’s - which pack a lot of punch even when modified by light domes. We placed solid flags next to each light to keep them from lighting up the other person too much.
Our crew setting up - Jon Wignal, Ben Rader & Trevor Nordeen
The next challenge was the big “BUFFS” sign that was spelled out with little Hollywood-style bulbs.
This was the logical choice to feature behind them for our middle shot, but quite a few of the bulbs were out.
We waited a while to see if there were any replacements coming from the University, but eventually had to pivot. We decided to light the bulbs from the side making it look like they were all working.
This introduced a bit more light in the background than we would have liked, but it was really our only choice.
And it did look pretty cool in the end.
When Coach arrived, we all had forgotten that he likes to wear a big cowboy hat, and he certainly wasn’t going to take it off for the interview!
Luckily we had placed a little glass-topped table between them that reflected the light from our key light under the brim into his eyes.
I’d like to say we planned that, but it was really just the lighting gods looking out for us :)
We also had to move our OTS camera over a bit, lest the brim of the hat block Champ’s shot.
The interview went well - lasting about twenty minutes after lighting it for three hours. Typical for these high profile shoots! After the interview, we spent time with Champ around the stadium shooting his intro for the piece.
Since this was Wednesday, and the piece was airing Saturday, we needed to get the files to the editors in Atlanta ASAP.
Our Sony cameras can concurrently shoot lightweight proxy files that we were able to Dropbox right over to them so they could get started. Later they just synced their edit up with the large 4K files from the hard drive.
I love modern technology.
All and all, it was a great shoot day. We really enjoyed working with the team at TNT Sports, and as always, appreciate the CU Buffs for hosting us!
HERE’S one of the final versions as it aired:
And here’s another version:
Deion Sanders Sat Down with Champ Bailey to Talk Colorado Football's Season and His Impact