We often lament that in today's newsrooms, with all the pressures and challenges, the idea of having fun has gone the way of the news wire machines. Well, this is not the case at Florida's The Villages Daily Sun, where fun seems to be a key ingredient in how visual storytelling is carried out.
Today we take a look at the work of The Daily Sun in previewing the high school football season, a very local story, with local names and plenty of school spirit. More remarkably, however, is the way that what could be a mundane, routine early fall presentation of the key football players in the local team, turned into a glorious presentation.
It took effort, and each shoot was from 4-6 hours, according to Bonita Burton, VP Editorial Operations at The Villages Daily Sun, but I bet you the readers appreciated it. This appeared in the Sunday, August 21 edition of The Sun.
As soon as I saw these pages, I asked Bonita to tell me more about the effort involved. In her own words:
“The Football Preview for our high school football team was two months in the making. It's a great example of how visual journalists can drive content decisions. The theme is the brainchild of photojournalists Amy Correnti and Louis Brems, who hung from ladders, balanced on playground jungle gyms and endured hours in Florida's insect-laden heat to bring the portraits to life. The section was designed by Adam Rogers with assists from Ryan Gregg and Bill Bootz. The double truck is a graphic novel guide to attending the game by Greg Williams. Sports Editor Nick Feely and reporter Tyler Breaman provides the smart alternative story forms. It was art directed by me, and, just for fun, I did the cover illustration.
“My main concern with the “superhero” motif was that it would be cheesy or trite, so we purchased Under Armor themed athletic wear instead of costumes for the players, refined the sophisticated lighting techniques and heavily scouted locations.
“We also produced a few hundred a reprints on glossy 70-pound UV paper just for the players and our booster club. A solid effort for a locally-focused community paper.
Following are the images and the behind the scenes in capturing them:
Batman
“Here’s Louis Brems getting ready for the Batman shoot at our printing plant. Each shoot took 4-6 hours. “
Superman
“For the Superman shoot, a farmer move his windmill for us.”
The Hulk
“We shot The Hulk in a high school chemistry lab – they used Mountain Dew and other colored soda in the beakers enhanced with food coloring”
Ironman
“For Ironman, Louis bought some Edison-style light bulbs online and one of our pressmen built an array to hang them from the ceiling. “
Captain America
“For Captain America, we went back to a man we’d written about who had a WWII jeep from Austria. Here’s Amy readying her shot.”
The Thor
The Thor shoot was at a massive electrical tower in a nearby conservation preserve.
Spiderman
Spiderman Here they are capturing Spiderman.
The creative team
Photojournalists: Amy Correnti and Louis Brems,
Designed by Adam Rogers with assists from Ryan Gregg and Bill Bootz. The double truck is a graphic novel guide to attending the game by Greg Williams. Sports Editor Nick Feely and reporter Tyler Breaman provide the smart alternative story forms.
Art direction and cover illustration: Bonita Burton.