When the Royals needed the perfect song to capture Jackson’s legacy, they came straight to Musicbed. This outstanding work honoring a great athelete and legend earned the Royals Hall of Fame a Musicbed Award. Read more to learn about their process and how song selection played such an important part.
Summary
When Bo Jackson was elected into the Royals Hall of Fame, they knew a special tribute was needed for this all-star athlete. The Executive Producer for the Kansas City Royals, Jeffrey Piper, came straight to Musicbed to find the right song for this project.
The Client
The Royals Hall of Fame Veterans Committee wanted to capture the history and nostalgia of such a legendary athlete in this video. “We knew right away that music would be a main driver of the feel and emotion of this piece. We were auditioning tracks against this script and mapping out the general timings of the rough cut well before we even turned on a camera. We went back and forth a few times and the music was scrutinized as much as anything. Music and audio were key on this one,” Piper said.
The Project
From the outset, the team knew music would play a pivotal role in shaping the project’s emotional landscape. Long before the cameras rolled, they were auditioning tracks and refining the script’s timings. “Our team produces a ton of content over a 162 game season, so we’ll often lean on basic music just to get us through the day-to-day. But we knew that wouldn’t cut it for a project like this. It was clear from the start that we’d need a higher tier resource and higher quality tracks to choose from. That’s where Musicbed came in.”
The Challenge
When tasked with capturing the essence of Bo Jackson for his induction into the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame, the production team faced a unique set of challenges. “We’re fortunate that we get to occasionally shoot and interact with Bo Jackson, but in this case, we wanted to convey the 27-year-old version Bo. That meant finding body double as our talent, which came with plenty of challenges and limitations on how and what we could shoot. Our main goal was always to portray him as being larger-than-life or almost superhuman, like the folk hero that he’s become. Pulling that off while up against the shooting limitations of using a body double was a fun challenge for our team,” Piper said.
The Outcome
The final cut for this project was emotional and honored Bo Jackson’s legacy. That’s why we’ve selected this project for a Musicbed Award. You can watch the whole video here:
The Team
Tony Snethen – VP, Brand Innovation & Agency Lead
Scott Lichtenauer – Group Director, Branded Content & Innovation
Jeff Piper – Executive Producer
Steven Funke – Sr. Director, Content Creation & Game Entertainment
Jana Patton – Director, Content Creation
Sam Lutz – Senior Producer
Jonathan Hanes, Senior Producer
Melanie Roberts – Content Producer
Brandon Todd – Senior Motion Graphics Designer
Looking for the perfect song for your project? Explore Musicbed’s collection here.
