At a time when excitement is building for Fenway Park to open its doors for a 105th season of baseball, a state-of-the art video produced by Red Sox Productions should increase anticipation a little more.
The three-minute time-lapse production runs in 4K video, which is ultra high definition, and takes viewers on a picturesque journey through a day in the life at Fenway.
Video: #MyFenway in 4K
The video starts in the early morning at the Charles River, and the camera then whips in to Fenway, where the sun is rising.
As the day progresses, you see the familiar visuals (Prudential Center, retired numbers, Yawkey Way, CITGO sign) in and around the ballpark.
The video, which launched Wednesday, has an ending caption of #My Fenway with 4.11.16 (the date of the home opener) scrolled at the bottom.
"When we worked on a release date this offseason, the goal was a couple of weeks out as we're looking toward Opening Day," said Tim Heintzelman, the director of creative services for the Red Sox. "When you watch that, we get excited for games to be back and for baseball to come back. You kind of see what Fenway's like as it comes to life into another season. We're hoping that's kind of what people see in this high-quality format."
While the video runs at warp speed, the process of making it was labor-intensive and ultimately rewarding for the Red Sox Productions team.
"It's something we've definitely been chipping away at for a while, so we're excited to post it," said Heintzelman. "Last year, we really chipped away at kind of homestand by homestand. With time-lapse video, it takes a while, obviously. You only get two or three [shots] maybe per game, and the cameras are left up there for hours at a time. There's definitely a lot of intensive shooting and experimentation and all that. It ended up pretty cool."
One of the best shots tracked the moon as it continued to rise over the field. There was another one with the sky tinted at various stages of orange just after the sunset in the early stages of a night game.
"This represented kind of the best that we got, and there were some different tricks and shooting techniques we used," said Heintzelman. "But like the shoot with the moon, there were some special moments that kind of happened that made those shots pop, getting creative with some hyper-lapse stuff and moving the tripod and using some sliders to kind of create a little motion.
"I think what's cool about the time-lapse stuff is whenever you can kind of create an effect that makes you wonder, look twice at the shot and make you wonder how did they get that. I think that was the goal. Every time someone went out to shoot these, they tried to utilize Fenway's angles, capture Fenway's pulse during the game and kind of what it feels like in as much of a unique angle as possible."
Kellan Reck and Luke Fraser of Red Sox Productions edited and produced the video.
"It was a group effort," said Heintzelman. "Everyone was shooting it, and when they had time, going out and trying to get some of those unique angles and piece it together."
The video serves as a reminder of how utterly unique Fenway Park is for all those who inhabit it.
"It really is just an ode to the ballpark how beautiful it is," Heintzelman said. "Visually, from a photographer to a videographer standpoint, it's truly a beautiful place to shoot. The video helps bring that to life."