From Marvel to the Super Bowl, VCU alum has worked on the crews of some high-profile productions

By Drew Thompson

As a second camera assistant in Los Angeles, Alex Coyle looks at her time at Virginia Commonwealth University as an exciting chapter in her life. It provided an environment where she could figure out what she wanted to do and pursue her passions.

Coyle came to VCU in 2012 planning to pursue a degree in photography through the VCU School of the Arts, but she was not initially accepted into the program.

She took the rejection in stride and declared mass communications as her major in the Robertson School of Communication. But her passion for photography remained. She reapplied to VCUarts in her second year and got in. Not wanting to waste the advertising classes she had already taken, she decided to double major.

"At that point I was like, 'Well, these are both cool degrees; I'll just do them both,'" Coyle said.

She graduated from VCU in 2017 with a B.F.A. in photography and film, a B.S. in mass communications with a concentration in creative advertising and a baccalaureate certificate in product innovation. Now frequently employed as a second camera assistant, Coyle, a member of IATSE Local 600, works primarily on commercials and films - some of which have been the biggest movies in Hollywood, such as "The Gray Man" and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

She also worked on another type of blockbuster earlier this year: Super Bowl LX's historic halftime show where critically acclaimed Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny drew a record-breaking 4.1 billion viewers globally, making it the most-watched halftime show in history.

Coyle got the call about the opportunity from a former colleague about two months before the actual show. She was assigned to one of the handheld camera operators responsible for filming. "I was there to support him and adjust his camera build for how he needed to operate," she said.

And, in a sign of the breadth of her work in her field, the halftime show was not Coyle's only involvement in the Super Bowl. She also was on the film crew for the making of the Cadillac Formula One advertisement that aired during the game.

Still, the halftime show was a unique experience for Coyle. Getting ready for the production required extensive prep and a week of rehearsal, culminating when they went live during the much-anticipated halftime break of the game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. While Bad Bunny and his guests were in the spotlight with their performances, countless pros such as Coyle played just as integral a part on the production side. In fact, while Bad Bunny was breaking records on the screen, Coyle was helping break them behind the scenes.

"We set the record for most lens swaps during the halftime show -- to anyone's knowledge of recent halftime shows," she said.

It's 14 minutes that will stick with Coyle for the rest of her life.

"My involvement was a very small part, but it was super fun," she said.