New Balance - Tommy Paul
Still Photography & Motion
Brief: Create still assets for the launch of the 996v5 tennis shoe featuring American tennis star Tommy Paul. Sneak in a motion piece if possible!
Solution: The tennis off-season is notoriously short, so we linked up with Tommy near his home in Delray Beach, Florida.
General Approach: Book a pristine hard court. Hire a hitting partner for Tommy. Spend an hour setting up a 12x. Kill the 12x almost immediately once you see that the location and the god-given Florida light need no modification whatsoever. Continue shooting.
Topspin Team:
Director/Photographer: Greg Mionske DP/Producer: Javier Fernandez
996v5 feat. Tommy Paul
New Balance Tennis 🤝 Topspin Studios
Tommy was more than generous with his time; however, we still wanted to respect his training schedule and not keep him out there in the beating Florida sun for too long.
After a few quick wardrobe decisions, we got right into shooting the stills.
The beauty of working with professional athletes is that they take instruction exceptionally well, which meant we wrapped the stills quite quickly and were able to move on to motion.
While there was no formal ask for motion from New Balance, the light was too good not to shoot. Plus, Tommy was willing and able.
Tommy and our hired hitting partner rallied back and forth while Javier and I worked the scene. As a tennis addict myself, there’s nothing better than the sound of a ball coming off a pro’s racket.
🌀 watch the campaign video below 🌀
We shot this right before Tommy went on to reach the semis of the Australian Open. Was my direction the final bit that unlocked Tommy’s potential? I certainly like to think so. 🎾
Thank you to Kirsten Rudberg for scheduling this warm and sunny Florida shoot in the middle of December.
If you’d like to see more photos from this shoot or to discuss how you can improve your forehand mechanics, hit us up.
greg@topspinstudios.com
javier@topspinstudios.com
subject line: tennis is my life