Not to make the audience look at the screen, but to pull them through it. The best visual effects work doesn’t draw attention to itself. In many ways, the goal is the opposite. The technology should disappear. We don’t want the audience to think about how something was created, we want them to believe they are part of it. The opener becomes a portal to a new state of mind. A transition from the ordinary world into the one NBC Sports has created.
And that belief looks different depending on the sport.
For Sunday Night Football, it meant transforming Carrie Underwood’s Las Vegas stage performance into something that felt like a national event.
For Sunday Night Basketball, it meant capturing the energy, movement, and attitude of a sport that rarely stands still.
For Sunday Night Baseball, it meant creating the feeling of a perfect summer evening at the ballpark.
There was just one small complication with baseball. It was filmed in the middle of winter.
