Toronto Tempo - My Why Series
Deliverables:
Five ‘My Why’ episodes, weekend event coverage, tagged b-roll library, social cuts, Tempo Talks recordings
Stakeholders: Toronto Tempo, Always Mettle
Timeline:
Ongoing
Role: Creative Producer, Director, Editor, On-Site Producer/Shooter
Additional Credits: Stephen Nano (DP), Albha Egan (2nd Camera Op), Fresh Bread Productions (Tempo Talks Camera Ops), Jadon Lam (DIT)
An original front office documentary series and a full-scale live event content production.
Building Canada's first WNBA team's content infrastructure before a single game was played
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Toronto Tempo Content Library
Building a Fanbase Before the First Tip-Off
“My Why”
An original documentary series featuring the Tempo front office team, asking each person the question that started it all: Why this? Each episode followed a different member of the Toronto Tempo front office team
Tempo Live @ STACKT
A weekend fan activation at STACKT Market requiring full production coverage across 5+ simultaneous experience zones
The Constraints:
New brand with no established visual language or content archive.
Content had to serve both real-time social and a long-term b-roll library
Creative Challenge:
How do you build a content library for a team that hasn't played a game yet and have people fall in love with the humans building it?
Discovery & Strategy
Pre-Production-
Built the complete content capture plan and crew brief from scratch
- Developed a 130+ shot list across 7 distinct locations
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Designed the b-roll library + tagging system built for Tempo's in-house team to pull from independently
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Wrote role-specific direction documents for each crew position
- Hired all production crew: A-crew (Talks), B-crew (b-roll at stackt and ‘My Why’ series), DIT, and on-site editor
Strategic Approach- My Why (series): Lead with vulnerability over achievement. Find each person’s reason for joining a team that didn’t exist yet
- Tempo Live (Event): Four layered content strategy: pre-event hype, real time social, post-event recaps, and long form b-roll library
- Tone: Community forward over sports hype. This was about belonging not basketball only.
Tools Utilized at this stage- Claude: Structuring content capture plan and strategic brief from raw set of requirements, developing 130+ shot list and organizing shots by zone, type and usability
- Figma: Utilized for making presentation decks for multiple stackholders to understand workflow quickly
- Google Suite: Writing and sharing scripts and building shot list spreadsheets
At least ~6-8 hours were saved in planning and documentation. The tools allowed me to produce a higher level of organization than the budget would normally allow.
Production
My Why (visual approach)
Each My Why episode was shot as a standalone portrait. Designed to feel like spending time with someone rather than watching an interview. The camera was always in service of the subject, never showing off.
• Shallow depth of field for intimacy
• Handheld where appropriate
• Lighting: warm, naturalistic
• B-roll shot in the subjects' actual environments
Tempo Live @STACKT (production approach)
Each My Why episode was shot as a standalone portrait. Designed to feel like spending time with someone rather than watching an interview. The camera was always in service of the subject, never showing off.
• Experimental basketball shots
• Intimate portrait coverage for talks
• Wide documentary sweep for activations
• All b-roll shot with reusability in mind
Post- Production
- Each episode was built as a standalone episode meant to later be repurposed into a full video combining narratives. structured to move from who this person is, to why they joined, to what they're building toward. The edit had to feel like a conversation.
The philosophy was to utilize warmer tones on skin highlights and cooler tones in shadows that felt in line with the Tempo branding. Grain and lighting needed to feel consistent throughout. While contrast used slightly lifted shadows for a clean intimate approach.
A challenge was working in different settings for each video. From the Tempo’s original office, to the Recess studio, community centre gyms, and newer offices as the Tempo grew.
Full colour pipleline in DaVinci Resolve with a custom node structure per episode.
Music: AI generated beds via ElevenLabs, prompted for emotional tone rather than genre
Mix: Voice forward. Subject’s voice sits clearly above everything else.
Consistency: Music held across 5 episodes, making the series feel like a body of work.
The color and sound had to do the same thing: make people feel as thought the series was approachable.
Built out type treatment for ‘My Why’ series intro along with simple text pop ins in After Effects
Client Collaboration
Scope Development:
Scope development across multiple iterations:
- For the ‘My Why’ series we agreed collaboratively on a $5000 solo producer model. (producer/shooter/editor)
- For ‘Tempo Live @STACKT’ we expanded the quote to a $11,500 full crew model with DIT, On-Site editor, and four b-roll shooters
- Managed the score expectations around the b-roll library, editing turnaround, and on-site capacity
- Worked directly with the Tempo’s content team (Always Mettle/Karlee Bedford/Khaleed Juma) as creative lead
Learnings:
- Structuring multi-crew live event production from scratch with no existing playbook
- Understanding difference between content that lives on a feed and content that becomes infrastructure
- Protecting creative quality at scale operating across different activations
- Scoping iteratively. Starting with what’s essential and building toward full vision
Final Deliverables
My Why Series
Three of Five examples as the full series is yet to release.
A total of 20 social cuts from Tempo Talks Delivered
Total of 6 different Tempo Talks Videos
Full b-roll library for Tempo social teams to use
Impact & Results
Metrics:- Content library built and delivered before the team's first regular season game
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Tagged b-roll available for Tempo's in-house social team to pull from year-round
- “My Why” series introduced the front office to a fanbase still learning about the new team
- Tempo talks delivered across six sessions with full multi-cam edits
What Worked:
✓ Developed a complete content infrastructure for a brand new WNBA franchise.
✓ Managed 7+ crew members across five simultaneous locations without losing shot list coverage.
✓ Delivered real-time social content alongside archival library footage in the same weekend.
✓ Built a visual language for “My Why” that gave the series a distinct, non-corporate identity.
What I learned:• Managing distributed crew in live environments
• How to produce storytelling that creates emotional connection before the product exists
• Building for a brand means building for infrastructure, not just moments