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USA Hockey Heads to the Winter Olympics

In production, you hear a lot about high-pressure moments, but my recent experience working on the USA Hockey commercial for the Milan Cortina Olympics was a great reminder of a simple truth: pressure is just a reason to trust your process.


I grew up with soccer coaches constantly drilling one phrase into my head: "You practice how you play." It’s a simple concept, but it’s exactly how I approached our recent commercial shoot.


The schedule was tight. We had a world-class roster of players, but we only had them on set for a 15-minute window. When you’re staring down a clock like that, the goal isn't to work faster, it’s to ensure that everything is 100% ready before they even walk through the door.


The Art of the Stand-In

A huge part of the success of this shoot happened long before the players arrived. We spent our time:

  • Transforming the space: We took a completely empty locker room and built it out into an authentic Team USA environment.

  • Practicing the shots: We worked extensively with stand-in actors to nail the lighting and composition.

  • Treating every "take" as the real thing: My mindset was to make the stand-ins look as close to the real players as possible.


Whether it’s a stand-in or a pro athlete, you do the job you know how to do. By treating the rehearsals with the same level of detail as the final shoot, we gave the director the space to make every critical decision early.


The Final Result

Because the "invisible" work was handled, the 15 minutes we had with the team were seamless. You can see the result of that preparation in the final spot, featuring a classic locker room speech from Jon Hamm.


Watch the final commercial here:



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