A Look Behind the Screen and Cameras with Colorado Rapids Video Producer

As sports fans, it is sometimes difficult to understand and envision the processes behind the content production seen on our favorite teams’ social media pages. Athletes and coaches are the center of focus for media content, and those behind the screen and cameras work under the radar.

Mallorie Lough currently works as the Club Video Producer for the Major League Soccer (MLS) team Colorado Rapids after previously working for FC Dallas. She is in charge of video content creation for the club’s digital outlets, broadcast partners, in-game entertainemtn and sponsors. This includes being heavily involved in day-to-day video editing, shooting, producing and delivering to internal and external clients.

To give a behind the scenes perspective to those behind the camera, Lough answered a few questions in an email interview.

What got you interested in videography and working for professional sports media?

-It wasn’t until I took my first media class in college [at SAGU] that I realized it was something I was good at and really enjoyed doing. I chose sports media because I grew up playing sports and wanted to be involved in sports some way or another.

When making video content for the team, how do you and your team maintain a cohesive style and brand image?

-Luckily, we have a branding tool kit that’s given to us by our graphics designer every year before the beginning of the season. Within the tool kit is a guideline we have to stick to no matter what. However, when creating new graphics/motion graphics for videos, whatever design is created is sent out to a team of 5 or 6 for any edits and for approval. It’s not until that graphic is cleared by everyone that it’s okay to use and/or post to social media.

What is the greatest challenge when making new content, and do you study engagement analytics to see how your audiences are interacting with the content?

-The scariest thing about making new content is wondering if it’ll resonate well with your followers. One way to get over that concern is by looking into engagement from previous content that’s similar to what you’re trying to produce. For soccer, quick social clips around training and games do very well and any behind the scenes content around players and coaches.

Do you take inspiration from any other organization’s media styles and format?

-I love learning new things and two ways I do that is by watching a lot of YouTube videos and by keeping up with other sports teams on social media. Look, feel, format and style are constantly changing, and are changing frequently now-a-days, so to almost stay relevant you have to always be on the lookout for new ideas.

When you plan your shoots and go through the editing process, how much of that time are you shaping the format to fit different platforms? (i.e. video formats for Facebook and YouTube are different than Instagram stories and swipe up ads)

-I’d say I spend about a fourth of my time planning a different format for my videos. I edit a video in a normal 16x9 format (for website, YouTube and Facebook) and if it needs to be resized for a platform like Twitter and Instagram, I simply change the composition size and make sure my subject is the main focus. Majority of the time I know in advance if I need multiple formats for a video, so that allows me time to lay out everything within the project before I even start editing.