Sometimes a project comes along that allows the CRA Film team to really celebrate something special—in this case, our first hometown of Charleston, West Virginia.
When Charleston’s minor league baseball team approached us about doing a hype piece for the team, we saw it as an opportunity to go big and go beyond just promoting the team, but also tying the city and the people of Charleston into the experience. And it was especially fulfilling doing creative for the team this year because of their recent name change to the Charleston Dirty Birds.
CRA Film approached the video concept by connecting the team’s name and the nature of baseball to the nature of the people of the city – hard working, blue-collar, not afraid to get their hands dirty.
We wanted this to feel gritty, emotional, and real. To achieve this from a production standpoint, everything was filmed handheld with mostly natural lighting at 24-35mm. Over an eight-day shoot, we filmed opening night of the Dirty Birds’ season and staged shots of players as well as individuals in several different industries—restaurant servers, trash collectors, barbers, students, firefighters, and coal miners. Voiceover was done by Charleston’s own Isaac Fadiga (Shelem), a local rapper and civil engineer.
This piece was fun to work on from start to finish and exciting to see come to life. Catching it on the big screen at the Dirty Birds’ stadium (just outside CRA’s Charleston office!) and seeing audiences enjoy it has been extremely rewarding. We hope this video continues to add to what makes Charleston so special for a long time.