KIND: COMPUTER SCREEN |
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Project: Action Heroes Television Series
Role: Creative Director of Soup to Nuts
Dervish Media, in partnership with the United States Olympic Committee, added a children’s sports television series to its roster of projects. We created an initial concept for a show based on Olympic athletes who had overcome a personal challenge to dominate their field. We pitched the USOC media staff and they loved the idea. Once we had their backing and initial approval to use their extensive film library, we set to work developing the specifics of the series.
The show paired a current, recognizable Olympic athlete with an Olympic athlete from the past. An animated host, and his sidekick, would overlay the live-action footage to create a kid-friendly, humorous team who interacted with each episode’s guest athlete. This would allow us to generate the most flexibility in our story using current and archival film footage.
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To sell the concept to the U.S.O.C., their talent agent and the necessary partners, we created a website that touched on every aspect of the show, from the creative to the production budget. |
The Olympics have a long history with many forgotten moments of glory. “Action Heroes” would expose that deep library and introduce today’s children to sports figures deserving of adoration. The creative opportunities were numerous. We proposed the use of Flash animation, which was just beginning to be a viable animation option. It provided the technical flexibility and the budget requirements the show would demand as an independent production. |
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The research for the show and the creation of all the creative assets took a year. We examined the target audience, children age nine to thirteen; their media consumption habits; how they participated in sports and their sports role models. We developed two animated characters who would act as the straight-man and his side-kick to introduce the current athlete and each episode’s historic sports figure. |
Accurate budgets were generated for all pre and post production activities, online development and merchandise creation. |
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We developed several revenue opportunities with co-branding merchandise once children associated the show and the Action Heroes brand with their own sports aspirations. |
I created all the web graphics, merchandise designs, wrote the scripts and summary documents. I edited all the athlete footage, added music and pitched the entire concept. The USOC sent me to their talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, and several Olympic research agencies, such as the LA84 Foundation. |
Conclusion: The project was “moth balled” when an unexpected personnel change at the U.S.O.C. removed our internal patrons and supporters. We determined that the length of time it would take to convince the new staff of the viability of the project and await the review process would be too long. We moved on to new projects…
View: The pitch site can be viewed at www.actionheroes.tv. Please email me for a user name and password.