Colorado University Athletics
CU Sports Video Prepares For "Forward"
August 05, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER - Grab some popcorn and a cold drink and get ready — from the people who brought you award-winning productions “Seasons” and “Forever” comes “Forward,” the latest project from the Sports Video folks at the University of Colorado Athletic Department.
If “Seasons” and “Forever” sound familiar, there's a reason: both won Heartland Emmy awards — not something one would usually associate with athletic department video efforts. "Seasons," meanwhile, was named the FBS video of the year by FootballScoop for 2014, and earlier this week, "Forever" was named a 2015 finalist.
Those projects are are just two of the many reasons CU's Sports Video department is generally considered to be among the nation's best. But “Forward” might be the Sports Video's most-ambitious project yet, one that will include a series of episode designed to chronicle the entire 2015 football season. The first episode is scheduled to be ready early in camp, but if you want a sneak preview, you're in the right place — the trailer for the series was released today.
“We've always done big video projects at the end of the season,” said Jamie Guy, CU's Director of Sports Video. “This year, we decided we wanted to do something more creative and show off some of our work. We want to do the entire season and let the players and coaches tell their story through their eyes.”
“Forward” — so named to reflect the direction of the Buffs' football program — doesn't have a set number of episodes, nor a preset schedule.
“We will have regular installments, but we purposely haven't set a specific number of episodes or the times when they'll be out,” Football Video Productions Manager John Snelson said.
Rather, the course of the season will in some regards dictate the timing.
“Say, for instance, we pull off a major upset,” Guy said. “That's something we'd want to get out there as soon as possible, so we might throw an episode out that week. Other times, we might develop a storyline over a long period of time.”
Sports Video has done a series in the past. When coach Mike MacIntyre arrived in spring 2013, they produced “Proving Grounds,” chronicling MacIntyre's first spring with the Buffs.
“We had a lot of success with that,” Guy said. “We'll take what we learned from that and make this even better.”
Added Snelson: “We want this to be more than pregame speeches and highlights. In some ways, it's going to be a lot different than anything we've done before. It has the potential to rival a TV show like 'The Drive' (a Pac-12 Networks series that features football and basketball programs from around the conference).''
Fans may also have an inclination to compare “Forward” to “Hard Knocks,” an HBO production that chronicles an NFL team during training camp. While there may be a few similarities, “Forward” won't follow that format.
“This is going to focus on the players, the coaches and the season,” Snelson said. “We're excited about the season because we think it's going to be a big step forward to winning again.”
“It's going to be a lot of work and we'll spend a lot of time on it,” Guy said. “But it will be worth it. We'll be able to tell a great story in a positive manner.”
Joining Guy and Snelson in the project will be student assistants Grayson Simon (who won an Emmy for his audio production with “Forever”) and Lucas Flores.
“We have a great team,” Guy said. “We all have different roles, and we each put our touches on projects. It's how we get the best quality possible in every segment.”
