Little League takes on look of Hollywood
Cross Bayou serves as site for ESPN TV commercial
By BOB McCLURE
| Article published on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007 |
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SEMINOLE – The fields of Cross Bayou Little League took on the look of a Hollywood movie set Dec. 14 when a production crew from ESPN was in town to shoot a television commercial for Little League Baseball.
Lance Van Auken, a former Seminole resident and now senior communications director for Little League in Williamsport, Pa., said four 15-second spots were produced to promote the merits of Little League. The spots will air on ESPN and ESPN2 between January and August. Altogether, Little League will receive more than 50 minutes of commercial time on ESPN.
“It’s part of our eight-year contract with ESPN that calls for them to provide us with four public service announcements per year,” Van Auken said.
The $30.1 million contract began this year and extends through 2014. This is the second consecutive year Pinellas County has served as the site following production a year ago at Little League’s South Region headquarters in Gulfport.
This year’s lineup of commercials includes a spot on Little League’s inner-city urban initiative, a general look at Little League’s different baseball and softball offerings, sportsmanship and a spot that showcases how Little League has become a pioneer in sports safety.
The one-day, 15-hour shoot included a number of Little League players, actors and production crew members from the Tampa Bay area under the close watch of director Evan Bernard of New York.
“I love baseball and love kids, so this is fun,” said Bernard who works for Chelsea Pictures of New York and Hollywood. “I used to play Little League baseball, so that motivates me.”
According to its Web site, Chelsea Pictures, founded in 1987, has produced more than 1,000 television commercials for a variety of clients including AT&T, Nike, Microsoft, Mercedes, ESPN, Budweiser, BMW, Miller Brewing Co. and more.
The New York-based talent agency DCODE wrote the scripts, arranged for the talent and produced the commercials.
“We have a nice mix of talent,” said Jon Paley, creative director of DCODE. “Some we had to cast because their roles are more performance-based. Other roles involved (Little League) players from the area.
“We have everything carefully planned out to the exact minute what we’re going to do,” said Paley, who recently completed a promo in Orlando for ESPN Weekend featuring Donovan McNabb and Roger Clemens. “We just put together the schedule for this yesterday.”
Cross Bayou Little League, located at 9850 102nd Ave., was chosen as the site only in the last couple of weeks.
“I called (Van Auken) to talk about other issues,” said Frank Dubee, president of Cross Bayou, “and as the conversation went along (the commercial shoot) came up.”
“It was ironic. Just a few hours before I was thinking about Frank,” said Van Auken. “It must have been the psychic unity of umpires. I grew up here and my son played (at Cross Bayou) before I went to Williamsport in 1996. Besides, where else are you going to shoot at this time of the year?”
In a matter of a few hours, Cross Bayou was approved as the site and plans were made for the shoot.
“This is good for Little League in this area,” said District 5 Administrator Suwannee Franklin. “We’re very proud to be chosen as the site for this.”
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Article published on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007
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