by Kevin Cody
Two behind-the-scenes videos of last weekend’s Rams Draft Experience in Hermosa Beach were produced by the Manhattan Beach video production team of Travis Laubacher and Melissa Milo.
Laubacher is a director of photography whose clients include AEG, and Nickelodeon. His instagram account (@cameraguytravis) also includes reels of South Bay life, including skateboarding, bicycling along The Strand, and above and below water surf videos.
Milo spent six seasons with the National Football League, where she coordinated on-air reporters, hosts and announcers for the Super Bowl, Good Morning Football, Total Access, GameDay, and NFL Now.
During the three days prior to the Rams Draft Experience, Laubacher and Milo produced a time-lapse video of the Rams’ installation of a 60-yard-long football field on the beach, south of the Hermosa Beach Pier. The video starts last Monday, April 23 with workers laying tiles of synthetic turf on the beach. It ends Wednesday with an aerial view of the shockingly green field with a giant Rams logo next to beach volleyball courts.
Over the past week Hermosa students were let out of school to participate in NFL Combine-style “Skills and Drills” at the field. In the afternoons, the general public was allowed to test their throwing, tackling, running and jumping skills.
A second video Laubacher produced with War Room Productions and LA Drones, was a drone tour inside the Rams Draft House. Over the past four years, instead of making their draft calls from the team’s offices, the Rams have set up draft command centers in luxury homes around Los Angeles. This year they chose a Hermosa home valued on Zillow at $16 million that rents for $60,000 a month.
POV you’re a drone flying though our Draft House. pic.twitter.com/yogMYwYFoe
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) April 24, 2024
The drone tour showcased the Zillow Immerse app, which revealed a house designed as a Rams shrine, with rock star-style albums on the walls, including an LP of “Let’s Ram It,” a provocative 1986 rap recording by that year’s team.
Last Thursday and Friday Rams General Manager Les Snead and Coach Sean McVeigh made Zoom calls to their draft picks from the Hermosa home. On Thursday, in front of a jumbotron next to the temporary field, thousands of fans cheered as they watched Snead call first round draft pick Jared Verse at his Phoenix home and invite him to join the Rams. Verse is a 6-foot-4, 254 pound Florida State defensive end that the Rams hope will fill the defensive hole left by 10-year Pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who retired this year. ER
