Here at HUSTL Media, we do quite a bit of sports video production, and one of our favorite types of sports is definitely boxing. We have one of our clients who has reached out to us last year with creating fighter profiles for Amazon Prime since the fights take place in Las Vegas, the fighting capital of the world. So far up to 2025 we’ve done three of these and in the beginning of this year the client reached out to us again because there was an upcoming fight card Benavides vs. Morrell taking place in Las Vegas on February 1, 2025, and this was again gonna be hosted on Prime Video and, the client tasked us at HUSTL Media with creating fighter profiles. We would create various types of looks and the terms lighting we used to go with traditional high key, then low key, silhouette type of lighting. So contrasty, rugged and probably more punchy type of looks if that makes sense so this time the client had an idea to create kinda like a lightbox and they send us a reference and they asked us if we would be able to pull it off.
Honestly this was a tall task and just looking at the space that we were gonna be doing it in a lot would need to be taken into consideration and a lot would need to be accounted for in order to actually make that happen but using the reference photo we talked to our Las Vegas gaffer Ian Grau and basically tasked him with creating a list of components of everything that was gonna be needed in order to accomplish this. The venue we were going to be filming in was MGM Grand Garden Arena because that’s where boxing press conference takes place and all the fighters come together so we have a very small window of opportunity to funnel them onto our set and we get probably roughly 5 to 7 minutes per fighter to accomplish all of the looks that will become part of the Prime Video live broadcast on the day of the fight. This is a Pay-Per-View event after all.
Working in a convention type space with low ceilings is challenging but as an experienced Las Vegas video production company we are well equipped to make the most of any space. Carpet is not camera friendly, walls are not camera friendly, ceilings are not camera friendly. We needed to create a box that would fit our needs, but more importantly you know something that would work as well. First we looked at the ceiling heights, we had abut 12 to 13 feet to work with and we knew we needed about 2.5 – 3 ft of separation from fighter to the box.
Ideally this would’ve been an 8′ x 8′ by probably 4 ft tall box but you know given our space constraints, we actually decided to go with a 6 x 6 lightbox and 3 feet tall.
Time was a huge concern and also it needed to fit the budget and the space. Also the box needed to be as light as possible as safety was a huge consideration. Usually these type of boxes are built in a studio setting where you have the ability to safety chain them to trusses and suspend them without the use of any combo or other type stands or other trusses.
For our purposes and to keep our sports production set as clean as possible we opted for 2 hi-hi combo stands that have a weight capacity of up to I believe 80 pounds each. The whole structure was gonna be supported by 2 20-foot speed rails.
In terms of lighting fixtures we decided to go with 4 Aputure F22Cs because they’re lightweight light mats and they have full RGB color build into them and they have some effects built into them as well and probably more importantly because they were super light weight.
In terms of diffusion and to not show the lights in the box we decided to double break it so we had a layer of diffusion in the middle and a layer of diffusion on the bottom of the box, basically double breaking it. The whole box was enclosed in dyvetine and the top was enclosed as well to prevent any light spill.
Ultrabounce was used on the inside to bounce any light back into our scene. The bottom diffusion was an 8×8 ft 1 stop seamless diffusion as any seams would show and would spoil the effect. The diffusion had to be stretched really carefully across to hide any creases and really make it seamless. We used grip clamps to pull everything out. 2 inch gaff tape was used across the perimeter to hide any additional imperfections.
Simply placing the box into our room was not going to work. In order to create the effect we needed to enclose the box and create a void for which we decided the easiest way was to simply use pipe and drape. Once that was in place we raised it up to the ceiling but that was not all.
Because we were going to use wide shots and the box was going to be part of the scene and so was the floor we needed to hide the carpet so we opted for interlocking gym mats that were very accessible and added texture. They’re not slip because another consideration was maybe to lay down some dyvetine, but that was gonna be a hazard because what if the fighters would’ve slipped.
With pipe and drape up there were still sections visible so we needed to hide them with more dyvetine and we needed to dress up the stands in dyvetine as well. Blacking out the set was key to creating the desired effect.
In terms of the team we had we had a Gaffer and two utilities, director of photography and help from client’s side as well.
If we could’ve added anything else, it probably would’ve been a ceiling so not only enclosed the box itself, but the space from the box to the upright so create 100% enclosure so that when we were shooting on a mobile rig, in this was it was a Sony FX6 w cine lenses on a DJI RS3 Pro with Ring Grip and a DJI Lidar system, the ceiling would not be revealed.
It took us about 4 to 5 hours to complete and test everything out and get it up in the air.
Of course we had some concerns as this was uncharted territory. The speedrail could bend and the night before the shoot, we were really hoping that the structure was not gonna collapse. The only thing that we probably could have differently is use different type of lighting fixtures that would’ve had more effects built into them. We could have used Aputure Infinimats if we would have had access to them, probably something like a 4×4 but not sure if it would have had enough output or maybe use a bunch of Aputure Infinibars stacked.
In terms of sports production in Las Vegas this was probably the most intricate set up up to date that we’ve been able to pull off in a short period of time and within budget. At HUSTL Media in Las Vegas we always strive to push the limits, push the boundaries in terms of creativity and in terms of what we were able to do in a short period of time and under budget so we hope that just down the line we have access to more resources.
Ideally, we like to be able to do a set design so work with art department and also work with more interesting locations, perhaps something industrial or steam punk to vary the look and feel.
One of the ideas that we had for this preproduction was to create a skyline of Las Vegas so create like 3-D models of buildings and then raise them 5-6 feet into the air and then have the fighter be in the middle of all this towering over the city and shoot it that way, kind of like a Godzilla style so that would’ve been pretty awesome. If you have any more questions about the box reach out to our Gaffer, Ian Gray and he has more details in terms of building the box and what it was like.
If you need anything in terms of sports video production in an around Las Vegas , don’t hesitate to reach out we are available and HUSTLMedia.com and you can reach out to us by email Art@HUSTLMedia.com . All the best.
