How it Was Made: The Eagles’ #FlyEaglesFly Video Starring Bradley Cooper

This afternoon I reached out to 160Over90, the local branding agency in charge of creating the Philadelphia Eagles #FlyEaglesFly videos. I chatted with Creative Director Brendan Quinn, who, along with a team of writers and videographers, was in charge of the concept and creation of the spot. He talked about how he got Bradley Cooper involved, how keyboardist Kamal Gray helped procure the rights to The Roots song in the background, and getting some of Philly’s rowdiest Eagles fans involved in the project.

Why did you decide to get Bradley Cooper, The Roots, and John Legend involved in the videos? I’m assuming the local ties.
The local ties were a big thing. We wanted something that reflected the current team: fast, lively and explosive on the field. We thought Bradley Cooper was perfect, with him growing up in the area and being such a big Eagles fan. It just made sense that his energy and read of it could match the speed and pace of the team.

He’s a pretty busy guy these days. Was it tough getting him involved? 
He was actually really responsive in wanting to be involved with it. He said he would be honored to do it, which comes down to his love for the team and growing up in this area. In terms of working with him, he was in London filming [Adam Jones] over the summer. He recorded it from a studio in London. We were in Philly and able to direct and talk to him from here. The experience was great. He was super friendly. A total professional. We had those scripts in our minds for a long time, and he brought another dimension to it. The moment he started reading, we all got smiles on our faces. It was really cool to hear his passion come through on that script.

You used the track “Hard Times,” which came from The Roots and John Legend’s 2012 album Wake Up! What made you choose it?
We searched for tons of songs to match the video. We wanted something that reflected Philly. That track has soul to it. It’s got speed. It’s got funk. That reflected the entire idea behind the spot.

How did you get the rights?
Kamal Gray, a member of The Roots, is a huge Eagles fan. He goes to a ton of games. When we landed on that track he was one of the first people we were able to contact about getting in touch with the record labels to help us get that song.

Enough about the famous people. You used a lot of locals, too, right?
It was all shot in Philly using real fans across the board. There was a scene where we wanted to shoot a tailgate party. The vehicle we ended up using was a totally decked out RV painted in Eagles colors (pictured up top). The guy who owned it asked friends to come down and be a part of it. A group of about 30 people showed up. That’s where you see the extreme passion of the fan base. We shot that on a Tuesday morning at 8 a.m.

You also shot in some Philly row homes?
Some of the interior scenes of the family watching the game, and the Thanksgiving scene were shot in a row home in South Philly. We also shot in the home of the McNamara family, who have their entire basement decked out in memorabilia. We tried to reenact what they do every Sunday, how they get together. We wanted to find those true moments of how fans loved the team.

That’s the kind of tone you were hoping to capture throughout, huh?
Definitely. The fan base here is so passionate and so fanatical about the team. We wanted to add that energy, speed and passion to the spot itself. When you look at the script … it’s really about that bond between the city and the team. We wanted people to walk away from this thing ready for football, like kickoff can’t come soon enough.

http://vimeo.com/105044491