LIGHTS, CONNOR, ACTION . . .
7 years ago
So, how do you think Connor McDavid spent the end of his first day as the captain of the Edmonton Oilers? Out on the town celebrating with friends or teammates? Doing interviews with various national media outlets? You’d think so, but no.
McDavid, unveiled to absolutely nobody’s surprise on Wednesday morning as the youngest captain in NHL history — 19 years and 266 days – spent a couple hours last night shooting pucks at the McCauley outdoor rink on 96th Street under bright lights with a distinct chill in the air. He must have shot 150 pucks in the hour I was there.
McDavid and the Oilers have hooked up with Edmonton director Michael Maxxis, who is one of the most talented people you might not ever have heard of, to produce the video that’ll be shown on the big screens of the centre ice scoreboard at Rogers Place before every home game this season.
When finished, the video will be about three minutes long. The segment shot last night, complete with lights, full crew and Maxxis overseeing every shot and every angle for hours on end, will make up about 10 seconds of that three minutes. My guess is the finished product will be brilliant. It’ll damn sure be edgy.
A NEW LOOK
Maxxis, who has been nominated for so many Much Music Video Awards and Juno Awards I’ve lost track, has worked with artists ranging from Billy Talent to Silverbird to Elle King. You likely know his work, even if you don’t know him.
If you want to check out what Maxxis is all about, you can see some of his work on his website. You can see his collaboration with Elle on her Ex’s and Oh’s video here. He directed it. When he’s not working on videos or short films, he’s overseeing operation of the two restaurant-bars he owns, El Cortez and Have Mercy, just off Whyte Ave.
Maxxis is also a big fan of the Oilers, which makes him a perfect fit for this project – he’s been shooting the scoreboard video for weeks at Rogers Place and at various locations in and around the city. Having done a little writing work with Maxxis on another project he’s working on, I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the closed session at the McCauley outdoor rink last night.
The video is scheduled to debut Oct. 12 at Rogers Place in the Oilers 2016-17 regular season opener against the Calgary Flames. Watching all the work that went into shooting what’ll be just a few seconds of the final video last night was fascinating. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TEAM 1260.
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