FOX SPORTS: MLB IN BLACK AND WHITE

To celebrate Juneteenth, FOX Sports broadcast the top of the fifth inning of an MLB game at Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field in black and white and 4:3. To achieve this look, they brought on All of it Now to take over the broadcast, affect the live video feed with a film treatment, and add the frame of an old television set to complete the immersivity.

The FOX Sports team specified in their brief that the quality of the image should replicate the look of Willie Mays’ famous play–“The Catch”–at the 1954 World Series. Preparing the right look required ample A/B testing with the client, who would instruct the creative team to add or subtract highlights, shadows, and midtones; add or remove certain kinds of noise and scratches; and arrive at a final product that would look good on any screen. Using Notch made this process easy for the team, as Vishal Sharma at AOIN explained:

“Notch’s ability to combine multiple render passes in real time was huge for this one because of the vast range of feeds we needed to consider. We also relied heavily on the suite of built-in Modifiers and effects in Notch to simplify control and create a condition-based system for when we were on site.”

Using Notch’s live network editing allowed different teams working in different locations to properly dial in the finished looks, including adding more cues as necessary, contributing to the final broadcast. Millions of viewers tuned in to the broadcast, which received enthusiastic reviews for its retro sensibility and stripped-down nature uncharacteristic of modern TV.

Additional press coverage:

Sports Illustrated, Awful Announcing, Sports Business Journal.