For the last two seasons, the Dallas Stars & I have tossed around the idea of doing a stop motion project and just before the Olympic break the talk turned into the sound of motor-drives and clicking shutters. Lots of clicking shutters.


I brought in the incomparable Austin Mann to help me shoot during the Feb. 6th game against the Phoenix Coyotes. Because the entirety of the story takes place between the locker room and the ice and we were shooting the players on game night (meaning, no second takes), we only had four opportunities to grab all the images we needed. Logistically it was rather challenging, but also a lot of fun. We had 5 camera bodies, two set up remotely and three that we worked handheld.

For the most part everything was shot between 5 & 8 frames per second in-camera; I then created image sequences at frame rates from 6 to 30 frames per second, which I then edited in Final Cut. The story evolved a bit during the edit process, enabling me to bring in some of the work I shot for the Stars over the last two seasons. For the music, I chose one of my favorite MUTEMATH songs – ‘Reset’ – and am hugely thankful to them and everyone at Teleprompt\Warner Bros. Once we locked picture, I took the whole thing to Defacto Sound, where Dallas Taylor (yes, I only work with people named after Texas cities) did a masterful job on the sound design.

The final edit contains just over 2,200 still images and is being used in the team’s 2010 season seat holder renewal package. They are using variable print technology in the final online delivery, so each seat holder sees their name on the locker at :30. That piece of the puzzle was handled by Channel 1 Media.