Los Angeles, CA & New York, NY — 99 Tigers director Brett Karley has won quadruple honors from PromaxBDA. Karley directed the show open for MSG Network’s “Friday Night Knicks.” At the PromaxBDA Sports Media Marketing Awards, his piece won Gold for Best TV/Video Campaign, a Best Editing Gold, and a Best Director Silver Award.
99 Tigers, the NY- and LA-based creative services agency, also won Best Long-Form Promo Silver for its MSG Media “You Are Here” video. Karley shot and edited “You Are Here” in collaboration with 99 Tigers creative director/writer David Seeley.
“It’s an honor to receive these awards,” Karley said. “It’s especially gratifying to be recognized for attempting some of the more ambitious executions.”
The “Friday Night Knicks” open features Robert Randolph and the Family Band heading to a soundstage from multiple New York locations, by subway, cab, and street. At the stage, they pump out a soulful, up-tempo number written explicitly for MSG’s Friday Knicks game night.
“Instead of going back and forth from the band to clips, I wanted them to share the screen,” said Karley. “So we shot them in a wide-open space in front of larger-than-life video panels of Knicks highlights.”
The open had to last two full seasons, “so the highlights had to be updateable for different games, new stars, and traded players,” Karley said. “Our solution was using large green screen panels, allowing MSG to swap out footage as needed.”
For the look, Karley kept the colors of the band’s world desaturated, allowing the Knicks highlights to stand out vibrantly.
Seeley credits MSG VP/creative director Doug Field for having the vision to create something different “and seeing it through to the end. That was especially true on our “You Are Here” video.”
“Doug wanted ‘You Are Here’ to emotionally capture the feeling you get from going to events at the Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and the Beacon Theater,” Karley said. “The event itself is a highlight, but so is the anticipation and journey getting there. So we captured these venues but also fans in jerseys on the subway, people walking into the sparkling lights of the Beacon, and more. It added up to a truly relatable New York experience.”