IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR A/V TEAM’S ABILITY / EXPERTISE
Some A/V teams are able to play a lot of content very quickly and accurately. The secret to a good gameday presentation is being very quick to respond to what is happening on the field, and having a (very easy to find) animation to quickly click and play to highlight the moment.
When your team scores — play the score animation immediately, and the energy in the venue will amplify when the crowd sees an energetic animation in tandem with their excitement.
Here are 3 examples of “quick-to-respond” animations that should be at your fingertips:
BUILD A GAMEDAY SCRIPT
It’s a BIG task to organize all the content, info, videos, PA announcements, etc. that go into a gameday presentation. It’s VERY helpful to have someone on your team that collects all of the various information from the wide-array of contributors that want to get something up on the board on gameday. This person should act as a funnel — and organize what-plays-when throughout the day.
The best way to plan your gameday presentation is to divide it in to 2 categories:
- SCRIPTED ELEMENTS – will always play at a planned time, typically in time-outs.
- IN-GAME ELEMENTS – these elements play in response to what’s happening on the field, such as scoring, penalties, injuries, etc.
SCRIPTED ELEMENTS
Every good gameday presentation starts with a good script. Your script is the “what do we do next” plan for every moment, starting from gates opening, to the last fan leaving the exits. You can fit a LOT into your gameday script if you keep it organized –and practice, practice, practice.
Scripted elements are those pre-planned moments that should always be ready and waiting for their time to come, based on where we are in the presentation. Typically we suggest dividing your gameday script into a few key areas:
- PREGAME WALK-IN LOOP
- PREGAME RUNUP AND INTRO(s)
- KICKOFF / GAME START
- TIMEOUTS
- HALFTIME
- TIMEOUTS (2nd half)
- POSTGAME MESSAGES
IN-GAME ELEMENTS
The best A/V teams are the ones that respond that fastest to what’s happening on the field. It’s very good to be able to run a planned video during a timeout — but the BEST crews are ready for a quick play that results in a big score. Running a TOUCHDOWN! animation immediately after the ball crosses the goal line is the mark of an A/V team that’s doing a great job.
- PREGAME WALK-IN LOOP
- PREGAME RUNUP AND INTRO(s)
- KICKOFF / GAME START
- TIMEOUTS
- HALFTIME
- TIMEOUTS (2nd half)
- POSTGAME MESSAGES
PREGAME WALK-IN LOOP
This pregame loop should be pre-made (using editing software) and compiles all of the messages that you would play every single game. There is no point in making your control room crew play 10-20 slides every home game. It’s much better to pre-make a playlist and simply let it loop during the first hour of gates opening. It’s also much safer, as fewer accidents can happen if the playlist is premade and easy to just hit play with everything pre-made in 1 roll.
PREGAME RUNUP / INTROs
Once it gets close to gametime, things start to move a little quicker and there are a number of elements that must be done perfectly on time (national anthem, player runout, starting lineup announcements, etc. Additionally, there are a lot of on-field acknowledgements of the visit team, visiting dignitaries, special VIP guests, etc.
KICKOFF / GAME START
We highly encourage athletic departments to develop “CULTURE” at the start of each game. This can be done in a number of fun ways that utilize the videoboard to get the crowd going. For example, there could be a specific chant that the student section is trained to yell in unison (ex: “Here Come The Hawks!”). We love seeing our customers get their Spirit Culture dialed up with pre-planned animations that make for great home field advantage. Develop your culture!! Here’s a few examples:
Another great “Culture Moment” is to highlight the attributes of your team by finding something the crowd can get involved in to chant, recognize, support and make big noise during key moments. For instance, if you want to highlight the Defensive nature of your football squad — make a point of calling out Third Downs. Here is an example of a team that “Lights Them Up” when the visitors are facing a third down:
Another example is to call out when your team has entered the Red Zone:
REHEARSALS ARE KEY
There is simply no way to get fast and responsive without practice. It’s critical that your A/V team have time to practice different scenarios, run rehearsals, and really get a feel for syncing up the videoboard, the PA announcer, and the tempo of the game. There are a LOT of opportunities to use motion graphics on your videoboard to engage your fans, activate your sponsors, and develop Gameday Culture.
It’s a big task – but organizing all of the information into a clean and streamlined script is critical!
FIND THE RIGHT ELEMENTS FOR YOUR GAMEDAY PRESENTATION
BOOK A CONSULTATION CALL
Our Creative Team is more than happy to walk you through the process and help you determine exactly what elements you will need, and how to customize them for your best application.