Q&A With a Broadway-based Cinebody Pro

We talk a lot about authenticity here at Cinebody. Over the years, we’ve been thrilled to find that footage that is remotely captured on an iPhone fosters a level of authenticity unmatched by content that is traditionally produced. It’s not a gimmick. It’s proven that user-generated content is heavily preferred by consumers. This makes UGC a perfect match for creating promotional or commercial content and we’ll leave it at that. 

But rarely does UGC come to mind when planning feature-length, theatrical content. It’s assumed that remotely shot and user-generated production methods simply cannot facilitate meticulously choreographed content that meets the creative and qualitative standards of theatre. That assumption quickly evaporates when you have no other choice but to give it a go. Thank you, COVID. 

Enter the Jimmy Awards; The high school equivalent of the Tony Awards. The annual Jimmy Awards are typically hosted in New York and feature a handful of the county’s most talented, high school-age theatrical performers. Nominees rehearse tirelessly to perform live theatrical numbers in a 2-hour long ceremony before 2 winners of the coveted Jimmy Award are announced. It’s an outstanding display of talent and always heavily anticipated.

But the 2021 Jimmy Awards were struck down by the still-looming pandemic, so the decision was made to go virtual. But remotely executing full-scale, feature-length theatrical production is no point-and-shoot task. Christopher Sepulveda is a producer for Apples & Oranges Studios, one of the key players that helped bring the 2021 virtual Jimmy Awards to life. We sat down with Christopher to pick his brain and learn more about the strategy that helped him and his team achieve the impossible.

2021 Jimmy Awards Opening Number

Can you sum up the Jimmy Awards? What are they? Who do they feature? What has it looked like in the past?

“The National High School Musical Theatre Awards® (the Jimmy Awards®) are a national celebration of outstanding student achievement, recognizing individual artistry in vocal, dance, and acting performance and elevating the importance of theatre arts education in schools. Prior years have brought nominees from around the country together, in-person, in New York City to work with professional performance coaches, directors, musical directors, and choreographers to learn a full-length show presented at The Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.

The 2021 National High School Musical Theatre Awards Ceremony was produced by Apples and Oranges Arts and presented by The Broadway League Foundation and The Pittsburgh CLO. The Ceremony was directed by Van Kaplan, Choreographed by Kiesha Lalama, Musical Directed by Michael Moricz and Executive Produced by Rachel Reiner.”

What was your primary reason for using Cinebody over traditional production for this project? 

“As COVID-19 forced theatre closures around the country, The Broadway League elected to conduct the 2021 Jimmy Awards program virtually. Apples and Oranges, along with the award show creative team, evaluated a number of software platforms and tools to facilitate the virtual production and found that Cinebody provided a great solution for video capture that was high-quality, user-friendly, and cost-effective.”

What was your strategy for onboarding/educating the students that filmed for you? Was this easy for the most part? 

“To onboard program participants, we lead tutorials over zoom, created explicit instruction documentation tailored to each shoot, along with detailed shot lists and storyboards. We also ran several test shoots leading up to production.  While this took some trial and error, on both sides, before long we sorted out an efficient and effective process that worked for all 72 participants around the country.”

What did the process look like as far as directing students on how/what to capture? Like was it zoom rehearsals and then zoom recording sessions? Was the shot list put to use? What were the mechanics of the project overall is really what I'm asking here. 

“For studio-based, small group shoots we were able to use Zoom to direct each shot as if we were on-site with our performers.  For the location-based shoots, which made up the majority of the productions, we relied heavily on the in-app shot list feature, the pre-production material we created an extensive rehearsal work to guide the performers.  As the footage came in our creative team would review, in real-time, and offer feedback or approval via the Cinebody app and Discord.  With as many as 72 performers uploading footage simultaneously. This was a herculean task, but the software, and a fantastic, dedicated creative team, made it possible.” 

On average, how did the students feel about using Cinebody as their primary tool for this project? Did they find it fun? 

“While several of our participants were familiar with some form of remote production, having found innovative ways to continue performing while their schools were closed over the past year, none of them had used Cinebody (or any of the other production tools we employed) so the learning curve was steep across the board.  Not unsurprisingly, the young performers embraced the technology faster and more whole-heartedly than many of the seasoned adults on our team. Many saw it as an advantage and really took the opportunity to do something that had never been possible in the Jimmy Awards. They had fun challenging themselves to submit clips with high production value, interesting camera work, and stunning performances that really elevated the quality of the overall presentation.”    

What did the reviewal process look like? Were their individuals reviewing footage in real-time or was it way after the fact? Was the 'selects' tool put to use? 

“Due to the limited time we had with the participants—about 1 week—and the extremely tight turnaround for delivery—about 1.5 weeks to cut the entire feature-length presentation together after the end of production—we used Cinebody to review footage in real-time, offer feedback to make changes/reshoot. As soon as the footage was approved, it was logged and distributed to a team of editors and assistants working throughout the process.” 

What did the post-production process (in regards to Cinebody footage) look like? 

“As soon as footage was approved in Cinebody, it would be sent to our team of assistant editors who would log, make copies (for backups/redundancies), and distribute to the appropriate lead editor to start assembling.  Given the tight time frame, several pieces were being cut simultaneously by editors in separate time zones, so the process took a considerable amount of production management and a terrific, dedicated team of creative artists. Cinebody helped keep our distributed team on the same page and the speed of the app assisted greatly with keeping us on schedule.” 

Did using a cloud-based production tool like Cinebody enable you to accomplish anything that you wouldn't otherwise be able to? 

“Using a tool like Cinebody allowed us to take our storytelling outside of the studio and capture footage on location.  The remote upload and pre-assigned specs allowed even our least video-savvy participants to capture professional footage in some of the most interesting locations their states had to offer. Our final presentation featured stunts in Central Park, singing on Beale St., dancing in front of the St. Louis Arch and the Golden Gate Bridge—stunning production value that we would not easily have been able to manage without the tool.  We also found the cloud-based storage useful to offer footage review access to stakeholders who might not need or want, access to our editing file structure.”  

Is there anything in particular someone needs to know before executing their first choreographed project with Cinebody, or even just their first remote, cloud-based production overall?  

“The best suggestion I could offer would be to test their process thoroughly before starting production.  Of course, things may change as you start rolling, but the more you can pre-plan, the more successful you will likely be, especially if you’re working under a tight time frame. Identify the best ways to use the tool for your particular project and rehearse/be as explicit in your instructions as possible.  We found providing still and video shot examples (mirrored for choreography) to be very helpful to ensure we got the shot we were looking for. Finally, it’s important for the creative team to be flexible, embrace that this isn’t the same as a traditional film shoot, and look forward to some of the happy accidents bound to occur.” 

How would you sum up the results of this project? 

“Overall, we are thrilled with the results of the 2021 Jimmy Awards.  The feedback from participants and viewers alike has been overwhelmingly positive and we are proud of what we were able to produce.  While the pandemic has been devastating to live theatre, as it has to so many industries, we have been truly inspired by the innovative ways that artists have found to continue telling stories and by the companies and tools that have helped facilitate them.” 

2021 Jimmy Awards Broadway Musicals Medley

The Jimmy Awards were presented live on YouTube by Corbin Blue and it went off without a hitch. Audiences were thrilled at the overall quality of the remotely captured performances, proving that remote production platforms, while still in their early stages, have the potential to allow you to pull off any type of production regardless of deadlines or budget.

You can watch more featured performances of the 2021 Jimmy Awards on YouTube.