Well over 100 members of Tampa Bay's LGBT community turned out to participate in the Tampa Bay Rays' â┚¬Å”It Gets Betterâ┚¬Â video shoot on Aug. 23 at Tropicana Field. The 125-or-so fans purchased special discounted tickets and arrived early for a crowd shot to be included in the video, scheduled to be released by the end of this month.
â┚¬Å”This has been a great experience,â┚¬Â said director Jeff Klein, who owns SwellFella Productions. â┚¬Å”The players have been incredible and really easy to work with. I'm very happy.â┚¬ÂÂ
The crowd scene was shot shortly after 6 p.m. and included Raymond, the Rays' mascot, and the Rays Girls. Using a bullhorn, video crew member and organizer Brian Longstreth instructed the crowd to yell â┚¬Å”It Gets Betterâ┚¬Â and â┚¬Å”Let's Go Rays.â┚¬ÂÂ
The entire shoot involving the crowd was done in only two takes.
Earlier in the day, Klein, Longstreth and a crew of videographers and sound techs profiled five members of the Tampa Bay Rays for the video, which encourages viewers to stop anti-gay bulling. The Rays are the ninth Major League Baseball team to participate.
Players Sean Rodriguez, Sam Fuld, B.J. Upton and Johnny Damon are all featured in the video, along with Rays manager Joe Madden. The segments involving the team were filmed throughout the afternoon before the crowd shot.
â┚¬Å”Things went every smoothly today,â┚¬Â Klein said following the crowd shot. â┚¬Å”Now I just have to edit this down to a minute or so and have it ready in a week.â┚¬ÂÂ
To read more about the shooting of the â┚¬Å”It Gets Betterâ┚¬Â video involving the Raysâ┚¬â€Âand for behind the scenes picturesâ┚¬â€Âread the Big Story in the Sept. 1 issue of Watermark. See the video on our Homepage
