ActiveCasting

On Friday, June 25th in sunny San Diego, Mark Ellis and the Sports Studio team held an open casting call in search of athletes, actors and actresses for future projects. Sports Studio was hoping to find new talent to help create the most authentic on camera athletics as possible. With a few projects coming in the near future that include a football movie “Touchback”, numerous commercials and a potential lacrosse movie; the participants did nothing but impress the Sports Studio team.

Everyone who came out went through an athletic combine put on by the Sports Studio team in conjunction with Velocity Sports Performance. Some of the drills participants went through included ladders, hurdles, and different forms of cone drills. All of these drills helped assess overall athletic ability, speed and agility. From the way people were breathing and sweating I think everyone not only got a chance to show off their skills to Coach Ellis but also got a tough workout and learned a few things from a great company such as Velocity Sports Performance.

The weather was very nice but the temperature was still high and people needed to continue to drink liquids to keep their bodies from overheating. Good thing Gatorade helped fuel the casting call by supplying enough drinks for all the contestants to stay hydrated.

While participants went through drills Coach Ellis watched their every move and whenever he saw someone he believed had what it took, he sent them to the casting tent where they read lines. This may be a nerve wrecking experience for those who have never read lines before but all those who were chosen did their best.

Sports Studio was excited to see a wide range of athletes from all ages. Some of the athletes participating in the event were not in the age ranges of some of the upcoming projects but it was good for Sports Studio to see them and have their talents ready for future opportunities by being a part of the Sports Studio Casting database.

A participant in this particular situation who caught the eye of the entire Sports Studio team was a talented athlete from the San Diego area, Kathy Rudkin. She went through the combine with ease and even managed to almost beat out a male participant 8 years older than herself in one of the agility drills. When questioned by Coach Ellis her character shined immediately and she spoke with the confidence and maturity of an adult. Kathy was then chosen to read lines and after some direction did very well.

Kathy has that “It” factor and we think she has a bright future in whatever she pursues in athletics or maybe even acting!

Sports Studio had a great time working with everyone who participated in the PacificXposure casting call and hope everyone who took part in it had a great experience. Stay tuned to SportsStudioCasting.com for videos from the event.

For pictures from the event CLICK HERE

Check out some behind the scenes footage of “Grown Ups” starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider. Coach Mark Ellis, Sports Studio Coordinator, talks about what it is like working athletically with these comedic actors.

For the upcoming Happy Madison production “Grown Ups”, Sports Studio Coordinator Mark Ellis talks with Pooh Richardson about what it was like training actor Adam Sandler and helping out the rest of the cast including Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider.

It’s the premiere of the extended version of the JATO commercial! We hope you enjoy it and we can’t wait to get back to Dallas-Fort Worth! Let’s do it again!!

Sports Studio/JATO Commercial Extended Cut from Sports Studio on Vimeo.

On Wednesday, the 16th, Coach Ellis will be on radio stations across the country, promoting Grown Ups, starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James, and Rob Schneider, which is set to release June 25th. Coach Ellis and Sports Studio coordinated the basketball action on what looks to be this summer’s blockbuster hit.

Coach Ellis will be on the following stations:
6:30 AM
WFTL in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
Host: Jeff DeForrest

6:48 AM
KNBR in San Francisco
Hosts: Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey

2:00 PM
WNST in Baltimore
Host: Chris Bonetti

2:15 PM
KSFX in Portland
Hosts: Isaac Ropp and Jason Scukanec

2:30 PM
FOX Sports Radio in Baltimore
Host: Jerry Coleman

2:45 PM
KILT in Houston
Hosts: Rich Lord and Robert Henslee

Tune into a radio station near you to hear Coach discuss his role on Grown Ups as well as upcoming Sports Studio projects!

In Coach Ellis’s newest video blog he announces a new football feature film Sports Studio is casting for!

Who says actors can’t be athletes?? Congratulations to Sports Studio’s friends, Woody Harrelson (Semi-Pro) and Mike Myers (Love Guru) and the rest of the World team, who beat England’s side in the Soccer Aid charity match. Woody scored the game-winning penalty kick!

We hope you have enjoyed the Sports Studio/JATO Commercial so far! We have received a lot of great feedback and hope you continue to share it with friends and family. As promised, we want to make a downloadable copy available to you. It might take a bit to download- it’s a higher resolution, HD quality.

Also, we added a bunch of still shots from the weekend to the Sports Studio Facebook page. Be sure to check them out and tag yourself!

Facebook Album Photos

Additionally, we are working on the extended version of the commercial that will premiere next Friday, June 18th!

Click on the link below to download your copy of the commercial:

Download the Sports Studio Jato Commercial

Congratulations to the UCLA Women’s Softball team who beat the University of Arizona, 15-9, to capture their program’s 11th NCAA National Championship. Sports Studio was fortunate to work with many former UCLA players on the upcoming James L. Brooks project, currently titled, How Do You Know. In this film, Reese Witherspoon plays a professional softball player and Sports Studio was asked to cast her teammates and opponents in the film. We also worked with UCLA Softball legend, Sue Enquist, to make sure the softball scenes were authentic. Sue coached at UCLA for 27 years and produced 65 All-Americans and 12 Olympians.

Again, congratulations to Sue and all of the Bruins that we worked with: Amanda Freed, Andrea Duran, Anjelica Selden, Jodie Legaspi, Alissa Eno, Amanda Kamekona, Julie Hoshizaki, Karen Juno, and Monique Mejia.

Stay tuned to Sports Studio Casting for more updates about How Do You Know, starring Reese, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson.

It’s the premiere of Sports Studio’s JATO commercial!! Despite the challenging weather conditions, we feel we came away with a great product- we hope you enjoy it! We want to thank the following people who helped make this project possible: Jay and Todd Fitzgerald and Angie Nickens from JATO, Angela Schelbitzki and Baylor Sportscare, Richard Allen, Julie Harrison, and the TCU FTDM department, Dan Abdalla, Mark Plakorus, Michelle Royal, Adam Clementson, Paul Davenport, and TCU Soccer, our dedicated TCU FTDM student crew, TCU alumnus Clint Gage, Jonathan Nicholas, Lindsay Graham, and Jaclyn Napier, and Sports Studio Casting. Finally, a BIG THANKS to all of the wonderful people in the Dallas-Ft Worth area that braved the weather and braved Coach Ellis both days! We will keep this commercial up here on the website- be sure to send the link to all of your friends and family. And check back next week- we will have a downloadable version, so you can have your own copy. Also, stay tuned because we will be releasing an extended version as well!

Sincerely,
Mark Ellis and Jessi Moore

Sports Studio’s Jato Commercial from Sports Studio on Vimeo.

Check out a sneak peak of the upcoming Sports Studio Jato Athletics commercial that will premiere on June 4th!!!