Chicago is on my top list of cities to visit. I’ve been there for a wedding, a week-long vacation, and last year to celebrate the 2012 New Year!.. but this time I’m armed with a camera, my hand-selected crew (Linhbergh and Jeremy Cliff), and a few lights for STA-BIL and their new product 360 Protection.
This was a unique photoshoot where the creative agency Marc USA scheduled all of the work during a 2-day period. No big deal usually, however I had to share the time with film crews named Boxer Films and KILT Studios. Less emphasis on “little”, and more emphasis on “mega”. It was impressive to watch such a substantial film crew do their magic. As expected, the advertising spots came out extremely well (see videos at end of blog post).
My job as the stills photographer was to jump in at a moment’s notice to knock out pictures as fast as I could to give the film crew as much precious time possible. 2 working days to produce 3 TV commercials is a tall order. The less time I was behind my camera, the happier the film crew, agency, and ultimately the clients were. Personally this is what separates professionals from amateurs; being able to work in time constraining circumstances. Total, I had maybe 30 minutes over 2 days of live action time behind the camera. Ensuring that the photos are pin-sharp, well lite, and meet the specific approval of the client is a tough task considering you only get one chance to get it right after weeks of meetings and preparation… all of this while shooting tethered to an iPad for instant client feedback. If the focus is a little off, or a certain part of the composition isn’t lite well, then tough shit… no mulligans allowed.
These images were shot vertically considering their main use would be in print ads. Having ample vertical space was important for words and products. SO! All said and done, these are the fruits of our labor:
Of course I couldn’t of made this happen without my bombtastic assistants Linhbergh and Jeremy who are amazing behind the camera as well. It really pays off having assistants that understand exactly what’s going through my brain when time is of the essence…. not to mention it’s always nice to have a local that knows how to navigate a huge city! Essentially, STA-BIL only needed 3 staged pictures, but that didn’t stop me from shooting all day while the film crew does their thing. The first day I shot the boat and blue Viper. The second day was a long drive to the countryside for the red GTO. During our downtime, Linhbergh, Jeremy and I took a few Behind-The-Scenes pics:
Needless to say this was a fun assignment… The 3 happier-than-a-bird-with-a-french-fry dogs made it that much better. Props again to Marc USA for orchestrating such a complex creative schedule over such a small time frame and churn out brilliant video and stills. Hopefully I’ll be heading up to Chicago for more work in 2014!