The biggest moments in Pittsburgh's history have been broadcast on Channel 11, and anchors David Johnson and Peggy Finnegan have had the privilege to bring you these stories for the past 28 years.
For a promo that would make its debut in the Super Bowl, and then in the Winter Olympics, we had to think just as big, and we wanted to create something to embody the history and nostalgia of our city and this station.
>>PHOTOS: The making of the 'Big Event' promo
Studio 11's production space was the perfect setting, and to create our backdrop we painted the giant white cyc wall green. While planning the shoot, our team was also pouring through archive video and making lists of historic moments to include.
The shooting took place during just one afternoon with about 10 crew members, a Panasonic V35 camera with Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses, a custom constructed ramp, green sheets and many tiny target markers so that our graphic artist would be able to work his magic during post.
While the shoot took a half-day, the post-production took about a week, with long days (and even a few long nights), powered by lots of sugar!
The visual effects were created all in Adobe After Effects. The target markers allowed the camera movement to be captured by the software built in motion tracker. After Effects was also used to remove the green screen and adjust color output.
The final product is 30 seconds of David and Peggy literally walking you through 13 or so of our city's biggest moments. There are certainly many, many more and it was hard to narrow it down. If you didn't recognize them all we've listed them below. We hope you enjoy the promo and reliving these events!
Mt. Washington Tornado - 1998
Three Rivers Stadium Implosion - 2001
Beaver County Flooding - 2011
David Zubick Installed as 12th Bishop of Pittsburgh - 2007
Independence Day (July 4th) - 2017
MDA Telethon - 2009
Quecreek Mine Rescue - 2002
McKnight Road Flooding - 2017
Blizzard of 1993
Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Victories- 2016 & 2017
Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl Victories- 2006 & 2009
Summer Olympic Games Rio- 2016
Military Homecomings - 2012 and 2018
Cox Media Group
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