“How might we make a new official more informed before their first game?”
Problem
Clinic/workshops are organized every year to certify new and returning officials. In these clinics, specific rules and procedures are covered from the case book with little demonstration. This sort of learning doesn’t prepare you for the on-ice knowledge of where to position yourself or how to properly call a penalty. You can compare learning in-clinic to being book smart and learning while officiating a game to being streets smart.
Solution
Hockey On-Ice Official 101 is an informational video series that will help incoming officials feel more informed by supplementing the information they learned in-clinic. It is planned as a five part series, with two parts currently out. The videos show demonstrations and diagrams go into detail past what the clinic teaches that are typical for an official, on-ice and off-ice.
Series Focus
Most officials learn from their officiating partners that are senior/experienced when they first started out, telling them how to do things properly. Learning on the job and learning from your mistakes is how you typically grow as an official.
I wanted to make a video series that would be based off of the learning that officials gain from experience on the ice and provide information that the clinics don’t cover. This series is based on the knowledge I’ve gathered from my 6 years of being an official and references the official’s manual from Hockey Canada.
Design Approach
Stripes and the black + white colour from an official’s uniform to inform the graphic elements of the series. Black stripes are used to block out the frame to focus on the main subject and used as a transition to the next scene. White text on a black background emulates the stripes on the official’s jersey.
Outcome
I am looking to work on the next part soon and send it to my colleagues at my local hockey association. Getting their feedback on what they think about the series would be help inform the following parts I have planned and see if this series could get traction to be officially produced for the clinics.
The series is being developed over time, so if you see stylistic changes or new transitions, this is from learning more about After Effects and applying it to the video series. This video series is in a way documenting my learning process with AE.
