From Behind Landen's Lens: Xavier videographer tells the story of March Madness, gives fans behind-the-scenes access
Mar 24, 2023
Xavier men’s basketball has consistently set a standard of excellence, both on the court and in the social media space, for many years.
The team’s on-the-court triumphs are well known, but digitally, the @XavierMBB Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels often rank near the top of the league in fan engagement on social media.
The work is supported and carried out by team staff and also by a group of marketing and communications professionals inside the department. It all maps back to a winning content strategy that supports the overall brand and reputation of the men’s basketball team and the athletic department as a whole.
In the past three months, as the Musketeers began the stretch run into the postseason, fans following the program on its many digital platforms likely noticed a change in the frequency and style of the video content surrounding the program.
Enter, Landen Brocato.
A newcomer to the Xavier Athletics marketing and fan engagement team, Brocato joined the University in February as Assistant Director of Creative Video and has made an immediate impact with his eye for cinematic-style storytelling— helping to document what has already been a memorable season as the Musketeers roll into their ninth NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance this weekend.
After earning his first creative gig in professional sports with the Kansas City Royals, Brocato finds himself back in town for the NCAA Tournament documenting every moment— from tip-off to practice and everything in-between— and helping to shine a light on every aspect of March Madness.
Learn more about Brocato’s professional journey, how he found his passion, developed his skills, and what he loves about being part of the Xavier community so far in this Q&A:
Tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming a professional videographer.
I'm originally from North Dakota. I went to high school and grew up in a small town up there. I graduated in a high school class of 23 students. Once I graduated, I kind of knew I wanted to do video work— but I didn’t really know in what direction. I thought I’d go work for an advertising firm or something like that.
For college, I went to North Dakota State in Fargo, North Dakota, and that’s where I discovered my love for sports videography. I fell in love with it right away there. I spent two-plus years as an intern and a content producer in the athletic department.
While I was a student, I started applying to internships in professional sports. The Kansas City Royals actually called me and offered me a position as a trainee there, which was basically an apprenticeship or a paid internship position.
I started there in January 2022 and actually left college early to go to the Royals. I was there until that summer when I got a full-time offer from the Cincinnati Reds, and that’s how I ended up in Cincinnati.
You left school early to pursue a passion; how close were you to graduation?
I was a year and a half out, in the middle of my junior year, when the Royals called. I finished that semester online, but I didn’t finish.
Here at Xavier, I’m going to finish out my degree.
Was there a moment you knew this is what you wanted to do for a living and how did you train yourself to do it?
There wasn’t really a specific moment, but I knew I enjoyed it. At a point, I didn’t know I could make a career out of it. I was kind of going through the motions a little bit, going to school and working. My sophomore year, I shot my first football game and I was like, “This is awesome.”
I’ve taught myself— YouTube University, we call it— and that’s kind of how I learned what I needed to get going.
Working with people like I did at the Royals was huge for me. That’s where I learned a lot of what I know now, especially when it comes to editing and coloring video footage— and working with high-quality professional production cameras.
🎥 | 𝐗𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐬. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞#LetsGoX
— Xavier Basketball (@XavierMBB) March 3, 2023
What sports do you love to shoot and how did you develop your style for producing videos?
I honestly hadn’t shot much basketball before I got to Xavier. Football was always my absolute favorite to shoot. Baseball is right there behind it. I was freelancing with Xavier before I came aboard full-time and I found that I liked shooting basketball a lot too.
Because I’m more of a cinematic storyteller— as opposed to the hype, fancy, fast edits you see a lot on social media— I was thinking it would be harder for me to do basketball, but I think I’m finding my way now.
At first, it was pretty daunting because I wasn’t sure how my style was going to fit into basketball— it’s such a fast-paced game as opposed to football and baseball. But I think I’ve started to find my way and find my style. I’ve been enjoying it the whole time.
As far as my style, it’s just the way I’ve always shot. I’m more of a shooter than an editor, that’s what I enjoy more. When it comes to the way I shoot, I just try to do it in a way that I don’t have to edit extensively. It ends up falling under that cinematic look, or whatever you want to call it. I’m not into all the big fancy glitch effects and stuff like that. I think it takes away from the beauty of the shot.
The creative scene in sports is experiencing crazy growth right now in general. How have you seen it evolve and where do you see it going?
When I first started, I don’t think I even knew it was an industry. I think, coming out of COVID, it’s really started to blow up even more because now you see a bunch of teenagers getting into it. When I was at that age, I wasn’t even considering that as an option.
It’s great to see other people finding a love for it, because it’s what I love to do and want to do for the rest of my career.
Before Xavier, you took a full-time position with the Cincinnati Reds. Did you have a prior connection to the city? What have you liked about living here?
I had never been to Cincinnati, so it was kind of shot in the dark. But it was the best fit out of the offers I had and I really liked the people I was coming in to work with and everything.
It was a crazy transition, though, because my first day of work for the Reds was at the Field of Dreams game last summer. I started and I hadn’t even moved to Cincinnati yet. I packed up my car and drove to Iowa for the game and then moved after that. But that was something I couldn’t miss, just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at that game.
I’m from a small town and I feel like Cincinnati has that “small-town feel” with the amenities of a larger town. It’s not overwhelming like New York or Los Angeles. I go out and run into people I know. It’s fun and enjoyable to live here as opposed to feeling like it’s a hassle or a job just to go do something.
As you share content and engage with Xavier Nation on social media, what's your impression of our fans base?
I think Xavier fans are just very supportive overall. I mean, anything we’ve put out it seems like they’ve loved just as much, or more, than what I’ve seen from other universities or teams.
The fans are very receptive to our content that goes out and that’s huge. It makes me feel great and motivates me to want to put out even better work. It’s just fun to be part of this community.
What was it like covering the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden? Many seemed to really love the narrated 'hype video' you put together for it.
The BIG EAST Tournament was my first conference tournament. It was incredible to be there. I had never shot a championship game outside of high school, so that was super exciting getting all the way to the title game — and now getting to go to the NCAA Tournament too.
The BIG EAST Tournament was huge, though, and I wanted to go all out for it. First of all, the voiceover was not Morgan Freeman. It was a voice impressionist. I wanted to create something that would set us apart from other hype videos you might see, so we hired him on Fiverr. It came out amazing.
We were also able to piggyback on a FOX shoot, getting footage from that, so I just laid it all out and grinded out the edit in New York.
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲'𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿...⚔️🔥#LetsGoX
— Xavier Basketball (@XavierMBB) March 9, 2023
What's life like on the road for you? How long does it take to produce an edit of a game?
If we’re playing a game and we just won, I’m making a recap as soon as possible. In New York, it was tough because usually I take two days to edit a recap before it gets posted. It’s usually about 16 hours or so of editing.
At the BIG EAST Tournament, though, we played every day so it took a couple really late nights to edit the videos. But normally on the road it’s filming the players traveling, busting out some quick shots to post on social media and in the days following. I’m filming every aspect of gameday, from pregame in the locker room to postgame in the tunnels.
From there, it’s editing a recap so I’ve got to find a song, sync up the broadcast calls. All that takes time. There’s also times where I’ll watch the whole game again, which takes about two hours. I’m looking to tell the story of the game instead of just getting the highlights, that’s always my goal with the recaps and I think that’s something that can set us apart from other teams.
Even in a loss, just posting a clip of AK [Adam Kunkel] and Colby [Jones] hugging in the back tunnel is huge because they tell the full story of the team. I think that was well received on social media too even though we lost the game.
𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙮𝙚𝙩... March 12, 2023
If you were talking to someone who wanted to pursue your professional path, what advice might you give them?
Well, the big key to this industry is connections. The more people you know, the better. That’s how you kind of move to different and bigger roles. I wasn’t very good at it when I first started, I didn’t post my work on social media and I never connected with people outside of the ones I directly worked with.
But with social media, it’s huge to just post whatever you produce and have an archive of your content to go with your portfolio. You have to be able to show people, “this is what I do.”
You’re able to message people in this industry pretty easily and now that I’ve gotten into it more, I’ve made connections all over the country. That’s what I would encourage anyone to do if they wanted to get started.
Photos courtesy of: Isaac Fiely, Miles Kaminski, Xavier Athletics