NCH 30-Minute Broadcast Special Case Study
aba logo 30-Minute Broadcast Special Case Study

30-Minute Broadcast Special Case Study

How n2 Productions brought commercial-grade production quality to a journalistic format, and delivered a broadcast special for Nicklaus Children's Hospital that held the same visual standard as everything else the hospital had ever put on air.

Three Stories. One Broadcast Standard.

Setting the Scene

In 2018, AB&A Advertising brought n2 Productions in to produce something the agency had never commissioned before: a 30-minute broadcast documentary for Nicklaus Children's Hospital.

The hospital wanted to tell three stories. Lucky, born with a severe spinal deformity so pronounced his back was shaped like a reverse number seven. Daniella, diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain tumor at just two years old. And Olivia, born with a congenital heart defect that required multiple open-heart surgeries beginning just days after she took her first breath. The goal was to put those stories on television in a format that would showcase the hospital's clinical expertise and move viewers to support it, with calls to action woven throughout the 30-minute runtime.

Not a commercial. Not a 60-second spot. A broadcast documentary, produced to network quality, that had to feel like journalism.

AB&A Advertising, which had managed NCH's campaigns for years, was producing it. And they brought in n2 Productions to run the shoot, not because we had a background in news, but because every piece of video content this hospital had ever put on television had a particular look and feel. That standard wasn't going to drop just because the format was different.

Clear Division of Labor

The journalism side of this production was handled by people who knew it well. Beatriz Canals, a Miami television veteran with more than 15 years as an anchor and investigative reporter at CBS4 and UPN33, was on camera for all hosted segments and conducted the on-location interviews. Alongside her was Ivonne Yee-Amor, a three-time Emmy Award-winning writer and producer with two decades of experience in news, medical, and special projects production, who coordinated the interview subjects, developed the questions, managed the shoot schedule, and logged footage throughout — tracking in real time which answers and soundbites were working.

That division was deliberate. Ivonne and Beatriz owned the journalism. n2 owned the production. Wherever the camera pointed, it was our job to make sure it looked like it belonged on broadcast television.

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Eight Days. Three Types of Locations.

Three of the shoot days were in the families' homes — interviews with parents and siblings, and observational footage of the children in their natural environment. Four days were at Nicklaus Children's Hospital, covering physician interviews and extensive B-roll throughout the facility. The eighth day was a dedicated studio day where we worked with the studio's existing news sets for all of Beatriz's hosted segments.

The crew was medium-sized: a gaffer, key grip, sound recordist, two camera operators including our director of photography, production assistants, and a makeup artist. We shot on two cameras — a Panasonic Varicam LT as our A-camera and a Panasonic EVA-1 as our B-camera.

A split-screen field monitor running both feeds kept the AB&A team in the picture at all times. When we moved to handheld B-roll, Teradek Bolt wireless systems kept that feed live without tethering the cameras to a cart.

The Right Light for Every Environment

We carried a one-ton grip package to every location — a full LED package plus an 1800-watt HMI. Not every piece of gear came off the truck at every stop, but having it available meant we could meet whatever each location required.

Inside the hospital, the approach was deliberately minimal. Clinical operations could not be disrupted, so B-roll was handled with a camera operator and a single battery-powered LED with a softbox. No cables to manage, no power outlets to chase, no footprint that got in anyone's way.

At the family homes, we had full control and used it. Beatriz's lighting was always flattering — soft, diffused, and consistent — whether she was seated for a formal interview or standing outdoors.

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What Simple Looks Like When It Isn't

At one of the family properties, we needed to shoot a short hosted intro beside a lake. The problem: it was midday, full overhead sun, and Beatriz was standing directly in it. In the finished piece, she looks like she's lit for a portrait session.

What you don't see: an overhead diffusion frame killing the direct sunlight, and an 1800-watt HMI positioned just off frame — filling the shadows and bringing her exposure up to compete with the bright background behind her.

It took time to set up correctly. That's the standard we hold ourselves to regardless of how brief the shot.

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Production Value Comes From Preparation

At Olivia's family home, there was a pool. We rigged an underwater housing for a Canon 5D and got in the water with them — Olivia and her father playing together, captured from below the surface. For a child who had survived multiple open-heart surgeries, it was exactly the kind of image the story needed. Production value comes from recognizing those opportunities and being equipped to take them.

The studio day centered on a Jimmy Jib, which gave us camera movement a tripod can't replicate — long, sweeping moves that transitioned into slow pushes into Beatriz's delivery across the different news sets. Maintaining sharp focus across those moves was a real technical challenge. Our camera assistant executed it cleanly throughout.

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Finished to Broadcast Standard

Shooting across eight days, three types of locations, and two cameras creates a color challenge that doesn't fully reveal itself until you're in the edit. Every interview had to match its B-roll. Every Camera A shot had to match its Camera B counterpart. Every story block — Lucky's, Daniella's, Olivia's — had to read as part of the same visual world. And all of it had to hold up to broadcast standards: black levels that weren't crushed into noise, highlights that weren't blown out, color values that read correctly on a broadcast monitor. That process was painstaking, handled in-house, and it's one of the things that separates a piece that looks like television from one that doesn't.

Original Music

The score was composed by Rob Morales, known professionally as Rob More. This was not a stock music library job. Rob wrote original themes for the show's intros and outros, distinct pieces for the family segments and the physician segments, and bumper music timed to the show's structure. Once composition was complete, he handled the full audio mix — ensuring levels matched from scene to scene, that the music never competed with the interviews, and that every spoken word came through clean and intelligible.

Animation and Graphics

The full graphics package was created by Alex Enciso, a longtime collaborator. That included animated bumpers, title sequences, and all the motion graphic elements that gave the production the feel of an actual television program. Every on-screen subject — all three families, all the physicians — was identified with a custom-animated lower third designed to fit the show's look and feel. These were not static cards. They were motion graphics built specifically for this project. Alex also designed the background content that played on the studio monitors behind Beatriz during her hosted segments.

What Was Delivered

A 30-minute broadcast special produced to network quality. 8 shoot days across 3 location types. Original score by Rob More. Full custom graphics package and animated lower thirds for every on-screen subject by Alex Enciso. Broadcast-compliant color grade. 2 rounds of client review. Delivered to air.

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When the Format Changes, the Standard Doesn't

AB&A Advertising didn't call n2 Productions for "A Child's Journey" because we had experience in news production. They called us because after years of producing NCH's campaigns together, they trusted us to protect the visual quality of the hospital's brand in any format.

Eight shoot days across family homes, a working hospital, and a broadcast studio. A format we hadn't worked in before. A team that knew how to divide the labor and stay in their lane. A finished piece that looked exactly the way it was supposed to look.

That's what a 16-year agency relationship is built on.

Olivia interview monitor o 30-Minute Broadcast Special Case Study
Miami Video Production Studio News Station Set

Why Teams Work With n2

n2 Productions is Neil Nunez — a Miami-based director, producer, and editor with more than 30 years of experience in broadcast commercial production. Neil leads every project personally, from the first production call through the final edit, which means the person you hire is the person on set.

Clients work with n2 because production runs better when the team on set is experienced, prepared, and easy to work with. Neil brings deep local knowledge of South Florida — locations, crews, permits, and logistics — along with a long track record of delivering for agencies and healthcare brands when the brief is complicated and the timeline is tight.

  • Serving South Florida since 1998
  • Trusted by agencies and healthcare brands
  • English and Spanish productions
  • Crew, gear, permits, and post
  • Teleprompter service available
  • n2 Grip Van — one-ton grip package
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