User Profiles

David Schindler
Atlanta Spirit

Tell me about Atlanta Spirit

Atlanta Spirit, LLC is the parent company of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and the world-class entertainment venue Philips Arena. The arena itself is named after the founding partner Philips Electronics. Since opening in 1999, the Philips Arena has consistently ranked among the top 10 concert and event arenas in North America. You can find us online at www.PhilipsArena.com.

What is your role?

I head up the video production department for the Atlanta Spirit and Philips Arena. We handle all video features for our two local sports teams, as well as our own in-house shows. My staff and I are always looking for products that help us realize our artistic vision.

Digieffects software meshes well with our production pipeline. We cut the video on an Avid system and do our compositing in After Effects. In a relatively short timeframe, we have already put Delirium and Berserk to good use on music videos of players, sponsorship bumpers, and some NHL video skits.

Examples

In this video clip, we introduce fans to the Atlanta Hawks A-Town Dancers. The Berserk Filmstrip effect allows us to innovatively display all the dancers which we then feature separately in their own two-minute videos. We also added some pizzazz with the Delirium Lens Flare plug-in.

This example is a fun skit that we aired while “a member of the opposing team, in this case the Washington Capitals” was put in the penalty box. As a joke we had “the penalty box offical” taser “the Capitals player”. The rippling blue flares were created using Delirium Electrical Arcs.

This is a follow-up shot to “the Capitals player” being tasered. At the end of the clip, we had him disappear as joke, leaving behind just smoke created with Delirium

This piece was used for when the players took the ice.  Here we really wanted to separate the player from the background. We Rotoscoped the player effected him and then applied Berserk’s newsprint to the background, it added a unique look and interesting texture.

What do you like most about Digieffects products?

Digieffects products help us to continually expand our toolbox of effects. We love being able to save money doing the work in-house. After all, the end result is the same whether we work on the project or outsource it to a high-end FX house. Digieffects gives us the freedom to be creative ourselves!