My View: Behind the scenes of the free agency set

Many people only see the final project on social media, but I want to break down the process of our free agency photo and video set for this year.

Throughout my career, I've wanted to create a set with mirrors and light, and this was a chance to bring this vision to life. I worked with Ryan Maloney from Carolina Theatrical to build the set. Overall, the platform and footprint of the set is an eight-by-eight-foot square. Each of the side walls is 6-feet in length, with the front edge at 8-foot-3 tall, angling down to 4-foot-3. Since this wall is sitting on a platform, the total height from floor to top is approximately 8-foot-8. The small back wall is 2-foot-6 wide and 4-foot-3 tall. The set is made of wood, while the ceiling and floor are covered with mirror plexiglass.

The reason we went with mirrors and an angled ceiling is so it would make the space look bigger than it is. We had to make sure the set was strong enough to handle large men. We also had a plexiglass mirror box made for players to sit on. Lastly, we used a silver ball so that the light would reflect off it.

Many people probably saw the reddish-orange color in photos and thought it was random, but there was a purpose behind it. I wanted our photos to be a showstopper on people's social media feed which is partly why I wanted to play with an additional color. Orange is complimentary to blue, but unfortunately, after doing a few test shots with the orange, it looked off on the different skin tones, so I changed it to more of a reddish-orange color.

Also, during the test shoot, I noticed I needed additional light on the front of the face of guys with a darker complexion so it didn't make them too dark. I tested the light coming from different angles, but I ended up having the white light coming from below them.

We had Ryan and his team build the set two weeks in advance so I could practice posing and editing the photos because I knew the turnaround time would need to be quick.

Overall, I was really proud of how the project turned out and hope players and fans enjoyed it as well.

View photos of Donte Jackson as he re-signed with the Panthers on Saturday at Bank of America Stadium.