Some projects just hit different.
In addition to my photography business, I also own a creative agency – Emotiv. At Emotiv, we’ve worked on a ton of large-format video projects, but this one? This one was personal. We recently had the absolute honor of creating the intro video for the Los Angeles Lakers with a partner group Benchmark Productions—and not just any video. This thing plays on ten giant projection screens that lower from the ceiling at Crypto.com Arena, surrounding the court in a way that’s honestly kind of insane (in the best way possible).
And for me? This was a full-circle moment. I’ve been a Lakers fan since elementary school, so seeing our work light up the arena before tip-off was surreal.
Making Something That Feels BIG
The Lakers came to us wanting something that felt epic, cinematic, and high-energy—a piece that would get fans hyped before the first whistle. And when you’re working with screens this massive, that’s not as simple as just scaling things up. Every frame has to move with purpose—too fast and you lose details, too slow and it feels flat.
We leaned into a Spider-Verse-inspired style, adding halftone textures, glitch effects, and bold, comic book-like visuals to make the footage feel dynamic and stylized. The idea was to create something that wasn’t just a video but an experience—something that would pull fans into the action before the game even starts.
The Challenges of Working at This Scale
If you’ve ever worked on large-format video, you know it’s a completely different beast. When you’re designing for something that spans an entire arena, you have to rethink how motion works.
These massive projection screens aren’t just playing one big video—they’re interacting with each other, surrounding the court in a way that needs to feel seamless from any seat in the house. Timing is everything. The wrong pacing can make a moment feel awkward or, worse, completely unnoticeable.
That’s where experience comes in. We’ve worked on huge projection projects before, so we knew how to make it feel cohesive—how to direct attention, balance movement, and keep the energy building.
Seeing It Live? Unreal.
When we finally got to see the finished piece play inside Crypto.com Arena, with thousands of fans going wild, it was one of those “damn, we really did that” moments.
As a Lakers fan, I couldn’t have asked for a cooler project. And as a creative director, it was exactly the kind of challenge I love—one that pushes the boundaries of storytelling, motion, and sheer scale.
If you ever catch a Lakers game at home, make sure you get in your seat early. When those screens start dropping from the rafters, you’ll be watching a little piece of Emotiv magic.