Swamp Party: Florida creates swamp-like media day shoot with Vū studio

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida director of creative content Alex Febles emerges from UF’s state-of-the-art “SwampVū” with fog machine smoke seeping out of the virtual production studio. 

Febles opens a door with a sign on it that says “NO PHONES!!!” 

He’s been surrounded by Gators for the past six hours in what looks like a literal swamp. Febles and his team didn’t have to go to the La Chua Trail to produce these one-of-a-kind visuals. 

“There’s my plant guy right here,” Febles said, pointing to a gentleman carrying one of several tall trees out of the SwampVū. It’s the only Vū studio on a college campus in the country, according to director of studio sales Kristy Reed. 

“That room is crazy,” UF running back Trevor Etienne said as he walked out. “It just shows what our standards are and how we do it at Florida — the Gator way.” 

The Gators unveiled their new studio for the first time with Billy Napier’s team last week during UF’s annual media day, which is called “Swamp Party.” The shoot lived up to its name this year. 

“We never used our Vū with the football program until Swamp Party,” Febles said. “We started to think realistically about what we wanted to show. And obviously, a swamp became obvious.”

To build the background for the 20-foot-wide, 13-foot-high LED screen, Florida senior director of recruiting innovation Doug Domingue and assistant athletics director for creative video Dennis Black worked with Vū during the pre-production process on what the swamp would look like. 

Febles found his plant guy — Duke Emerson — and gathered all the props for the set: computers and equipment, fog machines, lights, plants and trees. 

Florida’s creative team spent over 10 hours setting up for the shoot the day before, and it was all hands on deck the next morning. 

“We had all of us for this,” Febles said. “I mean, people were just moving trees. Somebody holding chords. Way, way, way more involved on a shoot. 

“I never thought that would ever happen. If you told me five years ago this is what we would be doing, I would not have believed you at all.”

This year’s Swamp Party wasn’t just the football team’s Vū debut, but also Florida’s first time using its virtual production studio with the Unreal Engine. The company brands itself as the most powerful real-time 3D creation tool.

“Basically in a nutshell,” said Kevin Camps, UF’s assistant athletics director for creative media & branding, “Unreal can create realistic 3D environments that we can manipulate in different ways. This is the first time we’ve used it creating a swamp environment.

“Bringing in different real life elements. Different trees and plants that we brought in to create the best looking scene that we could in the swamp. And so with it being the first time utilizing it that way, there was a lot of excitement around it to see what it can do.” 

Behind the scenes of SwampVū

Gators Online was granted access to the stunning swamp-like setup as Febles and his team filmed players inside the SwampVū studio. I didn’t take any photos or videos (NO PHONES!!!) but wasn’t alone as I stood in awe of the content being captured on camera. 

“At one point, there were like 25 people in there that never come to media day.  Like, we had staff members show up and they’re all standing in the back looking,” Febles said. “The players were excited to do it. This year you could see their excitement. Ricky [Pearsall] was really like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ 

“We did a nighttime shot and there was a moon in the background. We had a light shining on the backside of Ricky and it looked so real. It looked like it was literally out in the middle of the woods. We have a director’s monitor in there and seeing what we shot on the screen, it’s gonna look insane.” 

Fellow receiver Caleb Douglas was another player who experienced the swamp-like shoot during his media day session. Gators Online watched as the SwampVū and Unreal Engine made Douglas look like he was standing in a body of water. 

“It was awesome,” Douglas said. “The camera quality and just how they got me looking in the uniform, I couldn’t believe it. It was hyping me up.” 

Camps said Florida fans can get their first look at the Swamp Party footage on game days and eventually on social media. He adds that this first round of content, which Febles described as the test subject, is only scratching the surface of what they can do with the Vū technology and Unreal Engine. 

“What we showed last Monday was just the tip of the iceberg,” Camps said. “We’re excited to show it to the fans. I encourage them to get in the stadium and see that because it’ll be pretty cool once we get all the video edited up.”

Ain’t no party like a Swamp Party. 🐊

Media Day ‘23 is in the books! 🎬 pic.twitter.com/sY9uBdLPLG

— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) July 21, 2023

In addition to the SwampVū, players also had a photoshoot in the indoor practice facility with Matt Pendleton and other freelance and staff photographers, while Florida’s Rachel Riger handled social media content and Alyssa Morrison took behind-the-scenes video.

The schedule for the players was managed by UF assistant director for communications Matthew Hutchison, who mapped out the whole week and was grabbing guys in between classes and workouts. Communications assistant Billy Phillips also brought players back and forth between the IPF and F Club, where CBS was filming a select group of Gators for future broadcasts. 

“This is a day everybody waits on. You go through all the work and grind so it can lead up to days like this. Just being able to take pictures and have fun in our new uniforms, it’s a cool experience,” Florida cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. said after his shoot with CBS.

Pearsall added, “The Swamp Party is a day where we can be ourselves, show a little personality and have fun with it before we hit camp. So, we’re all excited to do this.”

Camps credited several additional staffers who were critical in the planning and execution of this three-day event. 

“A lot of different people are involved in the pre-production setup and running the day to make it happen,” he said. “From a marketing side, Scott Palanjian and Jake Terkoski helped out. And I don’t want to overlook our equipment staff, who have to prepare all these uniforms for every single guy and helmets and have them game-ready. Jeff McGrew and the entire equipment staff, Parker Brown, Matt Graham, Jake Taccone, everyone in that room who helped make that happen. 

“So, it’s a really huge effort to pull all that together and really do it for over the course of three days. So, it can be challenging at times, but it goes to making a great fan experience on game day and on social media, as well as helping our players get content, get exposure for their platforms and their brand in this NIL era. We’re always trying to do different things for them.”