Lights, camera, action!

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last summer, the National Sports Center tested a brave new project -- video production. At the Schwan's USA CUP soccer tournament in July, KickTV was the daily video journal of the tournament. Interns Tara Durheim and Taylor Kruse put in 16 hour days to produce a new five-minute show every day. And it was undeniably popular, with over 20,000 views to date.

Fresh off the success of KickTV, we've now made the commitment to get into video production in a big way. We've invested in new equipment and staff training. Coming in late March "NSCtv" will be the weekly video journal of everything happening at the NSC -- interviews and stories about the people and events at the NSC. It'll be available to view for free every week on the NSC website. If you play or spectate at the NSC, keep your eyes open for the NSCtv crew. You might even end up on camera!

But even with the premier of NSCtv a month away, the NSC's new video production team has been hard at work. To get warmed up, we're busy producing two special video projects for the Herb Brooks Training Center (HBTC) at the Schwan Super Rink. Last week NSC staffers Greg Hutton, Angie Bertrand, KickTV veteran Tara Durheim and myself went to the Sports Institute in Mankato to shoot footage of the Woodway Blade skating treadmill, a high-tech piece of hockey training equipment that has been purchased by the HBTC and will arrive in April. The Sports Institute is the only location in Minnesota with this amazing piece of equipment, so that's where we had to go to shoot footage.

Above: Greg Hutton and Tara Durheim set up a shot at the Sports Institute in Mankato.

We've also been spending a lot of time at the HBTC taping interviews to use in a promotional video about the facility, and the video team spent the entire weekend editing the footage we had shot.

Above: This is where the hard work of video production happens, in the editing room! Greg Hutton puts his artistic talents to work.

The goal is to finish the video projects so the HBTC can show them at their booth at the Let's Play Hockey Expo, at RiverCentre in Saint Paul, March 7-8. Then, look for us at the Oscars. Just kidding!

And in case you're wondering KickTV will be back for its second season at the 2008 Schwan's USA CUP.