Too many people struggling with an opioid addiction find themselves alone in a losing game. A New Game Plan depicts this struggle as a lopsided, 4-on-1 basketball game with monsters that represent the symptoms of addiction that make the disease so difficult to overcome.
PRE-GAME HUDDLE
We developed an overall tone that took inspiration from and referenced elements of Samurai films, basketball hype videos and anime. Using character illustrations developed by Rescue Agency, our designer blended the disparate references onto a basketball court. These detailed frames aided us in the location scout and were crucial for blocking on shoot day, the perfect alley-oop to our production team.
GAME TIME
A New Game Plan was produced on location at Madison Square Recreation Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Leaning stylistically into anime fight scenes, we used camera movement to strategically enhance the motion of the animated characters in post.
With a cast of one and no monsters for our actor to reference in realtime, director Owen Lang was instrumental in guiding the narrative on set, ensuring reactions, movements and timing felt authentic and would work in post. This sometimes meant demonstrating the stunt moves.
Our ability to handle all aspects of production, from shooting boards to directing to visual effects supervision and early collaboration with our motion graphics artists allowed for an incredibly smooth post-production process and a PSA our clients are ecstatic about.
