BODEGA Opens NBC Sports' 2016 Thursday Night Football

New York/San Francisco-based content creation/production studio BODEGA teamed up with editorial agency Northern Lights, design shop King and Country, and NBC Sports Group to produce an epic stadium entrance in the 2016 open for NBC’s Thursday Night Football.

Fred Gaudelli, Executive Producer of "Sunday Night Football" and "Thursday Night Football," and NBC Sports Group VP Creative Director/Director Tripp Dixon wanted something new and fresh for the open and knew Pentatonix embodied the right type of energy and talent. The result features the Grammy-winning a cappella powerhouse ensemble performing a new TNF theme song, “Weekend Go,” which was inspired by their hit track, “Sing,” from their Gold album, “Can’t Sleep Love.” The open also features a number of top NFL stars.

The open launched on the NFL Network during the first of nine NBC-produced TNF games on November 3 and celebrated the kickoff of the football weekend. The cut features archival NFL Films game footage as well as newly shot footage of the NFL players. “Weekend Go” also includes a spoken word bridge to drive each week’s match-ups.  The Thursday Night Football logo shield was turned into an 8 foot by 8 foot physical structure based on initial concept illustration by Mr. Wonderful Creative Director Gary Keenan and featured almost 250 unique lighting elements that were programmed in time to the song.

To maintain a high energy level and keep the piece fresh for viewers week after week, Creative Director/Editor David Gioiella focused on pacing. “It was fun to dial in both the performers’ and players’ performances to the track,” he notes. “I wanted to keep the intensity and excitement up throughout the piece so it’s fun to watch every time viewers tune in.” 

“We enjoyed working with BODEGA on this project", adds NBC Sports VP Creative Director/Director Tripp Dixon. “We shot in a practical, stylized tunnel on location in LA and teamed up with King and Country for the design component, helping us to blur the line between the real and digital worlds. The combination of these two highly collaborative production and design teams helped us create something exciting, youthful and fun for Thursday Night Football."