The 40th season of ESPN's Monday Night Football kicked off with a show open supervised by Habana Avenue's Steven J. Levy. The open follows Hank Williams Jr. through the California desert to his high- energy performance at a rockin' roadhouse.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the show, ESPN director Robert Toms decided to keep Williams Jr. close to home, using Nashville’s full-scale replica of the Parthenon to give some historical gravitas to a raucous MNF party. With help from Fresh Paint Visual Effects and Design (now represented by Spots & Content, part of the Habana Avenue Network of companies), the classical edifice was cast as the MNF Hall of Fame in which stone statues of football players come to life as Williams Jr. performs to cheering crowds. The open marked the 21st season Williams has been featured; he’s won four Emmy Awards for his work on MNF.

Habana Avenue was charged with staging and lighting the extensive two-day shoot at the Parthenon, an art museum in Nashville’s Centennial Park. Radio and Internet casting calls recruited some 250 extras for an interior Parthenon party scene and another 500 for an exterior party sequence.

The open concludes by reprising the custom helmet animation based on the 17 regular season match- ups. CG helmets of the opposing teams explode out of the MNF Hall of Fame, fly into the night sky, gain altitude, escape gravity and float by astronauts doing a space walk before finally returning to earth, where they are composited, on the fly, into live footage of the week’s host stadium. There they crash together in a force field of glowing energy to reveal the NFL logo.

To take advantage of Williams Jr.’s availability, a cross-promotion for Wieden+Kennedy was piggybacked onto the Parthenon shoot. The agency needed to capture greenscreen footage of the singer for an Internet banner ad for Williams Jr.’s branded barbecue sauce.

“By servicing multiple clients with different needs during the same shoot schedule we made it very efficient and cost effective,” notes Levy. “We understand the economic climate today, and we’re ahead of the curve in providing a model to deliver all the components that might be required by agencies and their brands. We were able to make Wieden+Kennedy feel very comfortable because of our experience dealing with broadcast, promos, advertising and long-form production.”

Spots & Content @ Habana Avenue executive producer Chris Miller coordinated for Habana Avenue, Alison Hill produced for Wieden+Kennedy and ESPN’s Brian Harmer lent support.

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