The Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards in late July recognized achievements from local news stations – and one of USC’s newest graduates.
Sanay Saboo and his team won in the short promo sports category for their video “War Time,” the official season trailer for USC Football that played before every home football game during the 2025 season.
“When we were making the video, my main pressure was delivering something memorable and that I could be proud of and the football team could be proud of,” Saboo said. “When we got the nomination, in my head I thought, ‘This is enough,’ but naturally, it was very nice to win.”
Saboo, who graduated from USC this spring with a degree in cinematic arts, film and television production, served as director of the video.
The trailer features USC football players preparing for a game while wielding swords, Traveler leading the team onto the field and even the defeat of a fictional colossal figure in the Coliseum surrounded by cheering fans.
“War Time, a lot of people don’t know, is the chant that the players always do right before they run out,” Saboo said. “It’s been part of the theme of USC Football for years and years. So when I first met with them, it really stuck with me that I wanted to create something that tied in with the legacy of the Coliseum and [USC’s] mythic symbols, like the Trojan horse.”
The video, which has amassed more than 20,000 views on USC Football’s official YouTube page, was a culmination of years of work in USC Athletics videography for Saboo.
“In the Galen Center and in other places around campus, I met a lot of creatives who I ended up working with who introduced me to basketball and football,” Saboo said. “I [started with] swimming, soccer, tennis, everything, and as I met more people I slowly transitioned to basketball my sophomore year.”
This marks the second consecutive year that a USC student production has won first place in the category. In 2025, Flint Tanquary and his team won the award for “Arrival of the Trojan.”
Saboo credits Tanquary for encouraging him to pitch his ideas to the football program – a strategy Tanquary developed while working on “Arrival of the Trojan.”
“I would sit outside the USC Football office door, waiting for the head of video marketing guy to come in every single day, and I would pitch it to him on the spot,” Tanquary said. “It was a hard sell. It took three months to four months for him to say yes but I knew that I wanted to do it really badly.”
Tanquary and Saboo became friends during their time at USC. When Tanquary graduated and USC Football needed a new season trailer, he saw an opportunity to pass the project along to another creative.
“I remember he took some of my grad photos, so after we got pizza and he was showing me the ideas for his vision,” Tanquary said. “I think Eric, who’s a part of the USC football program came to Sanay being like, ‘we have this idea, “War Time,” what do you think about it?’ And so Sanay came up with his ideas in a pitch deck, and he’s so creative and talented.”
Two USC Thornton alumni also contributed to both years’ award-winning productions. Mic Ferrante composed the score for both videos, while George Tyler Heffley contributed to the musical arrangement. Both graduated in 2024. The arrangement for “War Time” incorporated remixes of songs by Playboi Carti and Kendrick Lamar.
USC’s Division I athletic programs and creative academic opportunities have allowed students like Tanquary, Saboo, Ferrante and Heffley to build careers at the intersection of sports and storytelling.
“Having such an incredible sports program at your disposal is something students should definitely take advantage of,” Saboo said. “You get access to incredible equipment in the sports department, and there’s so many great skills that are transferable across many creative disciplines.”
The Emmy win has opened new opportunities for both Tanquary and Saboo.
Tanquary signed with London Alley production company after winning the award and recently directed a music video project tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“I got this opportunity to direct the music video for the [World Cup] which was really fun,” Tanquary said. “This was the first year the World Cup had an entire album, they always had just one song, so being involved with that was exciting.”
Saboo recently returned from directing a project in Arizona and continues to pursue new creative opportunities.
“I’ve been pretty busy directing, editing my projects,” Saboo said. “I just got back from directing something in Arizona – I left the day after the Emmys for it. Besides that, I’m just trying to expand more. I’ve never been one to want to do the same thing over and over.”