Going “Beyond the Spotlight”
The background
Becoming a household name doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years, if not decades, of grit and sheer determination. But what happens to the person and passions that existed before the fame?
They continue – beyond the spotlight.
This fall, we partnered with award-winning Stephen David Entertainment and Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio on a new documentary series that profiles celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, Kristen Bell, and Samuel L. Jackson, who overcame difficult childhoods and circumstances to achieve success, garner critical acclaim, and turn their passions into personal prerogatives to change the world.
The challenge
Here’s the thing about being a household name – everyone knows your name. They see you on their television screens and grow up wearing your jerseys, but, more often than not, they know little about how you got there.
Our primary challenge was ensuring the content we were tasked with creating captured an accurate, honest reflection of who each person is, and where they’ve come from – in a matter of minutes.
The approach
For every hour-long Beyond the Spotlight episode, we created a main title sequence custom to each person, capturing moments from their childhood that shows where they have come from, highlighting the journey they’ve taken to get where they are today.
Customized with motion design, each sequence was built in-studio and serves as a microcosm for the story told throughout the episode, showcasing the deeply personal, heartfelt conversations that only happen when people talk about what inspires them in their own words.
The results
Following its November 19th world premiere, the series was picked up by HBO Max and Amazon Prime and is currently available for streaming on both platforms, with three additional episodes slated for release in 2021.
The takeaway
To infinity, and beyond.