Award-winning cinematographer & producer from Chicago, Cody Madsen came by and shared with us three of his favorite projects.
“Through word of mouth, some people contacted me and said, ‘hey, we’re building a basketball court in a church and want to tell a story about basketball in Chicago while being symbolic and cinematic.’ So I said, ‘ok, cool.’ I sat down and brainstormed. The idea was since there’s so much violence in the city, there’s no safe haven. The theme came from Tupac’s, “Thugs Mansion” where its a place you can go in your mind and the church looks so surreal so beautiful inside, and it didn’t seem real it almost seemed like it was heaven in a way, so there’s a lot of symbolism in the way we came up with the concept.
The city is very gritty, grimy, and dirty; this kid's escape is looking for a court to climb out of a shitty situation. He closes his eyes and opens them, and he’s in the church. The way we kind of shot it too was very gritty and grimy and shaky early on, and then when he gets in the church, it's on a steady cam, it flows smoother.
For the kid in the video, we went into his real house to shoot part of the commercial. He kind of lives in a bad situation; it was perfect for the story, plus he was so good at basketball. It primarily was a three-day shoot, but we had to do two days because the night before bullets went through his front window. His mother didn’t want any attention being brought to their house, so we had to wait till things cooled off. So we had to convince his mom about how it would be a good opportunity, and it's going to be a beautiful piece.
I remember pulling up and it being kind of hectic for me to see this and thinking how this kid goes home every night and passes through this every day. It was eye-opening for me, that's why it's one of my favorites. One because it was shot so beautifully in the church and also getting to tell this kids story.”
“I got into sports through skateboarding. It's always been my main passion. It’s how I got into film and that's why I love this clip so much. Growing up, my best friend Chaz Ortiz became a pro skateboarder, one of the best in the world.
Anytime I work with Chaz, it doesn’t feel like work, it feels natural. This was last summer he had this idea to hit this rail, so we did it. We had shot it the previous year for a Zoo York project where he back 50’d the rail and it's a huge rail so it’s very scary.
The next summer, he was like how do I step it up, ‘I always wanted to feeble it.’ Which was kinda crazy because when you feeble it, your front truck has to dip down, and the rail here doesn’t come to an end, so he has to actually pop out over it.
There's so much that can go wrong. I remember how scared he was. To clear that and land it, it's insane it takes an extreme amount of talent, precision and athleticism.
In cinematography or filming, if its production, you could always say give me one more take. In skateboarding, there’s no more one more take, if I mess up that’s on me. There's a high level of stress that comes when filming this level of skateboarding.
Shooting with Chaz for a long time, I know his mentality and how he goes through things. I know how he functions and how he acts when he’s going to do something when he’s not. I know when to hit record and when to not.
He went for the feeble the first time, and he jumped off, and he could’ve landed it. The next one, his truck slips off, and I remember him being so scared you could see the rail spark. The adrenaline was rolling, and he eventually landed it. It was one of the coolest moments I've shot recently for skateboarding.”
“When I was working for the Bulls, they would always do something over the top and extravagant for their holiday card. One year it can be an animation with a Christmas jingle type vibe, we’ve done so many I can write a list for you.
But for this one, Josh Kahn had this idea where he brings in a live orchestra to play Christmas jingles while the team scrimmaged around them. It was off the wall, no one had access to do what we could do. No one saw live practices, let alone bringing in 100 kids playing instruments around it.
I shot this on a skateboard. I remember we had a ronin, and we threw a camera on it that’s steady enough, but they were like now do that on skateboard around NBA players. I remember the whole time I was freaking out if I was to fall, I could hurt a player. It had to be done in a five-minute take, and I remember being really tired after this one, on a board holding a 60lb set up rolling around trying to navigate through kids playing instruments and million-dollar athletes.
Whole-time I was telling myself, ‘whatever you do, don’t hit a player.’ I remember this one moment, it was the year when Derrick Rose had just come back from recovering from his injuries. I was scared to even possibly hit him, and out of all the people on the court, Derrick stepped out of bounds where I was going, and I’m not kidding you I was a foot away from clipping his ankle.
No one was harmed. The players had a great time. The video concept was very cool and creative; a lot of people enjoyed it. Creatively it's one of my favorite pieces because of the circumstances.”
Cody Madsen
is an award-winning Cinematographer & Producer from Chicago, IL. Cody's career includes shooting Commercial & Social Campaigns for major brands like Nike, Reebok, Jordan Brand, and Infiniti amongst many more. He spent 6 Seasons with the Chicago Bulls as a Producer where he earned multiple Clio, Emmy, Telly, and Sports Business Journal awards. Cody also creates Social Media Content for Professional Athletes and Musicians as well as continuing to expand craft in other aspects of Film making such as Music, Documentary, and Fiction Film.