Question The Client: A Client Blog Q&A.

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In any Creative endeavor, one of the biggest goals we all have is to try new things, and not to repeat what has been done before. So, to that end this post will be a little different from previous ones. Over the past few months, from time to time I’ve gotten emails and tweets asking some questions about some of the projects and takeaways I’ve written about, so I thought it might be a good time to do a Q&A post. I asked followers on Twitter and the Client Blog Facebook page to submit questions and I’d pick some out for discussion on the blog.  I should also give this caveat: these answers are my own personal opinion, and how we like to work at Nat Geo’s Creative Team. How we like to work isn’t necessarily industry “standard” – but it works for us, even though it may work totally differently somewhere else.  So, in no particular order, here goes!

I think there are sort of two most common mistakes that production companies make when starting work with new clients. The first is not doing their homework. It’s really important for agencies to really understand their client, not only what drives their business, but also things like who their competition is. Fully understanding that can really set you up for success when working with a new client, because trust me – they’ll see it. Whether you demonstrate that understanding by knowing about Nat Geo content, or even something as simple as checking out previous promo work, it’s important to have a good understanding of what’s been done or aired before. It’s no different than any field, whether in TV or packaged goods: understand your client. They’ll appreciate it and it will save time along the way. The other mistake production companies can make is not really paying attention to parameters set out by the client. We had a situation once where we had given a company a budget for a project and asked for some concepts and ideas based on the assumption that any idea they pitched would fall within that budget. We loved the ideas, got approval from my clients at Nat Geo, greenlit the project, then got an estimate that was about 25% higher than the budget we’d given them – and when we pushed back, they sent revised concepts for that original budget that were not as strong. Of course there was the disappointment of not being able to execute the approved concept, but also I then had to go to MY clients (internal execs) and tell them that the idea they loved actually couldn’t happen. Not a good place to be, and we ended up having to start over with a different agency.

Note: Killing your underwater Phantom operator with a harpoon would also be considered a big mistake. Luckily, that didn’t happen here.

I assume you mean “do production companies ever ask me for feedback” – usually I like to do sort of a post-mortem on shoots that had challenges or things that could have gone better.  I’ve done those sorts of calls sometimes when the entire project is wrapped up and we’re debriefing about the whole job…or, if I’ve hired them for another gig, but want them to know that one particular aspect could have gone better, so that they can improve on the next round.  If the shoot goes perfectly, everyone pretty much knows it, and many hi-fives and such are exchanged. As I am a big believer in transparency DURING a shoot, if either I or the production company is having any issues, usually we’re discussing them as we go to course-correct along the way, which is exactly what I would recommend to both clients and pro-co’s alike.  There should be no surprises, so by the time a shoot is over, everyone is up to speed on challenges and things that went well…or not.

Evolve sent us these frame grabs as a nice follow-up after the Wicked Tuna Season 3 shoot to show some of what we’d captured.

(This question came from photographer Mike Stog via Twitter)

One’s social media FOLLOWING plays zero role in landing a job.  While it’s nice for your agency to help spread the word for a show or campaign, it’s certainly not a deciding factor whatsoever. But I always recommend to photographers and filmmakers that you have a social media PRESENCE. Be active, share your work, interact with those in the community and get your name out there.  Those social media impressions do matter – and whenever I’m looking at a new collaborative partner, I will check out not only their website but also their social media accounts – because just like they hopefully do their homework, so am I. Seeing who they interact with, what content they’re sharing/posting, and their creative ‘footprint’ is important.

This question is sort of posed with the assumption that we’re often having multiple companies pitch us – which is actually quite rare. When we do have a pitch process, it is almost never the case that budget is a factor. The way it more often works is that we determine a budget for a project, and then give that budget to a production company. They then allocate resources based on that number. Even when we go to a company and we don’t tell them a budget, we still have a general idea of what we can spend – and if we don’t tell them a budget it’s because we don’t want to limit their thinking before coming back to us with ideas and concepts. In 99% of the projects, we just go to one company that we think will be a good fit for a project. Going through a pitch process can be expensive (paying fees to 4 companies can take from your project budget), time consuming (briefing, meeting, and selling ideas across the board for 4 takes 4 times as long), and ultimately I feel like for most projects it’s a loss-leader for the industry. If we pay a company, say $3,000 for ideas and a pitch, they will likely spend a few weeks boarding up ideas and preparing, and if they lose the bid, they lose money.  It just doesn’t seem like a great practice for them or us in most cases. The exceptions are when we have a huge show and we want to get lots of ideas, or something more long-term like a network redesign or rebrand. And in all of those cases, the budget is determined in advance.

This is sort of a tricky one to answer – I think that experience is one thing…knowing when you see a shot that it’s well lit, the subject is captured in an arresting pose, and there is just an intangible quality to the image that makes you want to look at it longer are all things I look for. Having seen so many portfolios and sites for photographers over the years, you tend to see work by the great photographers that feels truly unique – something special. There are so many clues that will also help – their website, for example. Does it look professionally created? Updated often? Are there a wide variety of clients?  The other truth of the matter for me, also, is that we are only doing still photography shoots a 10-12 times a year at the most. We generally do still photo shoots for only our very biggest priorities, and the priorities that will need billboards or print ads – and that have no existing production photography. Since there are fewer shoots we have needs for, that means there might be a little more money available for that project, and that enables us to work with photographers like Michael Muller, Joey L., and Miller Mobley.  Guys who are at or near the top of their field, and their work is clearly exemplary.

My years of experience tell me that this photo is ridiculous.

I think the two sort of go hand-in-hand, actually. Working with a company that has really good technical capabilities can mean that their general quality of work is better. I would say that the first thing we look at when looking at production companies is their work – is it well shot, lit and executed are near the top of the list of priorities. Then we’ll talk to them and see if their company is a good fit from a collaborative/attitude perspective – does it seem like we’d vibe well? And we tend to find that the companies that are very good at delivering quality are good because they understand their gear, new technology, and industry trends. On the Wicked Tuna campaign, there was some gear on that set that Evolve had not worked extensively with before (Techno Dolly for instance) but their passion for cinematography and cutting edge tools, plus hiring great partners to work with, led to us getting some incredible visuals. It’s also worth mentioning, as I did in that Wicked Tuna post, that working with those who understand that the technical toys and tools are just a vehicle – the idea is everything, and even the coolest toys in the world can’t overcome a weak idea.

Insane tools and toys.

As I mentioned earlier, we do set the number (generally) for projects, because we generally know about what the cost of doing business is, and what the dollar can get for us.  I definitely don’t see it as a weakness to say that they can make it work in my budget – it’s sort of my expected response, actually. I think where it gets dangerous is when they say they can make it work in our budget, but they internally agree that the only way that they can make it work is if they cut corners or put their “B” team on a job. I’d rather them say “you know, we just can’t make it work for this number, I’m sorry” than saying they can do it, but then not delivering on our creative expectations. Be transparent, let us know why it might not work for the number we have, and then we can decide from there if we need to change the number, or just walk away.

Props to Samuel, thanks for so many questions!  There is no real format for creative treatments that is preferred. In some ways, I look at those first treatments from a production company as their first opportunity to show me what their style is, and how they’re approaching the project. We get a lot of varieties of treatments, and generally they use imagery and inspirational textures and themes. Here are some examples:

Treatment from Evolve for “Wicked Tuna” Season 3.

Style frame treatments for “Killing Kennedy” from Mill+ and Variable.

Treatment for illustration concept from Sam Spratt for “Killing Kennedy.”

And just recently, THIS presentation was put online from the makers of the opening title sequence of “True Detective” on HBO. It’s always cool to see how agencies are pitching other clients, and this comprehensive deck really walks you through their concept and thinking behind every frame of that incredible open. Worth a read for sure.

Frames from “True Detective” title sequence pitch doc by Elastic and Antibody.

I would give them this advice: read THIS blog post!

I learned a long time ago to have thick skin.  What we do in TV marketing is certainly creative and subjective, and in any creative/artistic endeavor, we’ve all invested a little bit of ourselves into the work, so it’s natural to feel sensitive. However, this is still a commercial business – we want people to watch our shows, and there are lots of dollars, time and resources on the line to help make that happen. Of course, I want my clients to love everything I do – but if they don’t, that’s ok – I’d rather they tell me before it airs than blame the spot later with the old “I never liked that promo anyway.”  Ultimately, I’m the luckiest guy in the world – I get paid to do something that I love, and every day is pretty darn fun. I can’t really complain if someone doesn’t like a spot – I may disagree with them but I’m not going to spend time sulking about it, that doesn’t really accomplish anything!  So I’ve learned to just listen, hear the issues, and figure out what we can do to change it and preserve the original intention of those creative choices. And I also understand one truism: that client hates giving negative feedback more than you hate hearing it.  Nobody likes to criticize someone else’s work, so if they are criticizing it, it’s because they really feel strongly, and if they feel strongly, I want to listen and change it and put any ego or hurt feelings on the back burner.  I also try to remember the way getting that sort of feedback feels when I’m giving feedback to an internal staff member, an external partner or production company. Ultimately, whether giving or receiving feedback, it’s all with the common goal of making the work better, and I can’t complain with that.  It’s also important that you listen carefully and understand the concerns – you might be able to find a fix that satisfies the concern and still retains your core idea and creative.

Rob-Lowe-as-JFK says: “Don’t be so sensitive about your creative! It’s not worth crying about your client’s seemingly inane feedback!” (Photo by Joey L.)

As with many questions, one easy answer is “it depends.” For our smaller priorities on the channel – shows that might only get a day of promotion or a week, the process is a little looser. After all, we’re promoting 5-8 shows at any one time on our own air, but only a dozen or so are given heavy promotion through a larger media buy in a given year. For those smaller shows, we will have internal discussions with the programming team and our internal group and come up with concepts and ideas, and we’re all of course screening the shows and checking in with key stakeholders along the way. But for our bigger priorities, we work very closely with our internal Consumer Strategy team on briefs, and talk through them across programming, research and strategy.  We all agree on a singular selling proposition – what’s the reason someone will watch this show? And that serves a very important function creatively…it essentially defines the walls of the sandbox we can play in. Without parameters, the creative process can be way too open, and the possibilities too large. But defining what message we want to convey in the creative helps narrow the field, in a very good way. Someone once said this to me about the benefit of briefs, which I still believe in: “A great brief gives you the freedom of a tightly defined focus.”   Then as we develop ideas and scripts and boards, we’re always remembering that singular idea and ensuring we don’t stray from it, even when reviewing final cuts and spots.

John Wilkes Booth says: “Follow that brief, good sir, or you shall suffer the consequences!” Photo by Joey L.

What Scott is talking about here is the pre-production process, and also reaching out to clients before there is an actual job that you are partnering up on.  To answer the proposal part of the question, for us, we do get proposals, but usually in the form of emails from Business Development folks, or a company’s Rep.  We also get DVD’s from time to time, or jump drives with the Agency’s work on them. Generally, I would not recommend those sorts of tactics to get a client’s attention. The jump drives usually get erased and then end up being used for other purposes (just trying to be honest here, people) and nobody really looks at the work on them in many cases. DVD’s get thrown right into the trash, and cold calls are usually answered by voice mail.  There are a million clients out there, and two million agencies vying for their attention. You simply have to be more creative in how you get on the radar, as well as doing great work. It’s not easy and I don’t envy those that have to hunt down clients for work.  But don’t let that discourage you – there are ways to get that client’s attention.  In terms of pre-production, the previous answer about treatments might be what you’re looking for. There are no set and locked-in ways of doing anything, at least not for us. Proposals, bids, treatments all look different for each agency, and that’s how I like it. Those proposals and treatments are reflections of the agency, and shows me how much work they’ve done in advance, how plugged in they are to photography and filmmaking references, and how passionate they are about the project.  I can generally tell based on those treatments and pre-production documents if the project is going to go well, or not. I would also recommend reading the post just before this one, The Art of Pre-Production which covered our huge project on “Wicked Tuna” Season 3 – a case study in the beauty of an effective pre-production process.

Treatment for “Are You Tougher Than A Boy Scout” by Variable. Note: George Clooney and Harry Potter did not make it into the final promo.

CONCLUSION.

There were several other questions that came through, but they tended to overlap with those covered already – budget, production process, etc. I hope this was helpful, and please let me know if it was, or if you have other questions. I’d love to cover in future blog posts questions from a broader POV – creativity, inspiration, or even why I love lemonade so much. The answers might surprise you.  Look for another new Client Blog post coming soon, and thank you for  reading and supporting the blog!

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On-set, desperately wishing I had a glass of Crystal Light lemonade.

The Art of Pre-Production: A Wicked TV And Photo Campaign.

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This next post centers around the most recent campaign for “Wicked Tuna” on Nat Geo, one of the most complex and technically-exciting shoots I’ve been a part of, and as with all Client Blog posts, there’s a deeper theme in play. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did being a part of it. One final note before diving in – I cannot overstate how fortunate I am to work with the talented people on my team every day.  My fellow members of the NGC Creative Team have truly brought this campaign to life, so a big thank you to Erin Newsome (Writer & Executive Producer on the TV spots), Tyler Korba (Creative Director on the TV spots) and Brian Everett (Creative Director of Design on the TV spots, and lead creative on the print/key art) who have worked so tirelessly on this entire project.

Captain Tyler McLaughlin on the F.V. Pinwheel. Photo by Michael Muller.

THE JOB.

“Wicked Tuna” is one of Nat Geo’s more popular series. It’s a show about Bluefin Tuna Fishermen in one of the nation’s oldest seaports – Gloucester, Massachusetts. These fishermen have been fishing for these giants of the sea all of their lives, and for good reason: each one of these rare, huge fish can bring home $10,000 or more at the market. “Wicked Tuna” follows a group of the best of the best boats struggling to make ends meet, and hopefully hook onto a big payday. This is the third season for the show, and each season we’ve done original shooting with the Captains for our promo campaign. But more on that later…

Captain Dave Marciano, owner of the F.V. Hard Merchandise. Photo by Michael Muller

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS.

In Season 2 last year, we worked with Evolve out of Chicago for the TV spots and they did some incredible work on that entire campaign.  Evolve is set up a little uniquely from other production teams – the driving force behind their creative is the teamwork between Joel and Jesse Edwards, brothers and Director/DP/editors. They both do pretty much everything in a production, and that can have huge advantages for large jobs such as this. Going into Season 3, we booked Evolve again because we knew that they knew what to expect, and what they learned from Season 2 would be huge in order to improve our on-screen product in Season 3.  An added benefit of working with Evolve is that they handle shoot, edit and design – one stop shopping. As a client, it’s always very beneficial when you can package multiple aspects of the production with one partner agency. It’s more streamlined and creatively cohesive. The big difference this year was that I asked them to take the necessary time before the shoot to focus solely on this project. We have a great relationship and history, and we both knew the creative would benefit from it…and it did. We also partnered up with Radium Sound – to not only build the sound design, but also to compose our tracks. One of the other big learnings from Season 2 was putting an even bigger focus on our print photography needs. We knew that we wanted to shoot the captains in a new way, and capture that same level of cinematographic quality we’d accomplished in our TV campaigns. We hired Michael Muller, as we loved his experience with underwater shooting and his ability to capture stunning, rugged portraits in a real, unvarnished style.

Photo by Michael Muller.

Photo of Michael Muller in action by Tyler Korba.

Final shot by Michael Muller.

CHALLENGES AND MARKETING.

So we’ve shot with the captains for the last 2 years, and we’re preparing for our third…another reason we brought in Evolve – they know what’s been done before. So, one of our big challenges was how to evolve the campaign in the new season. There were a few brand new aspects to the show (a new Captain, TJ, joined the cast) but many of the promotable story beats remained the same: 1. The action – showing them fighting with fish. 2. The competition – watching them try to beat each other and become the #1 captain. 3. These are real, authentic characters – bringing their story to life is important, and making sure that soul of “they’d be doing this whether or not the cameras were even here” comes across.  Our final challenge was to help grow the series – to reach people who haven’t seen it or heard about it before…to build a new audience to add to the existing one. To us, one of the best ways to do that was to make a campaign that looked stunning, and would turn your head.

Initial mood board for season 3 compiled by Evolve.

BIG TAKEAWAY #1: PLAN, MEET, PLAN, TALK, PLAN, THEN PLAN SOME MORE.

Evolve was excited to build on season 2’s great work, and they had the idea to fly down to DC to meet with us face to face for a day of brainstorming, creative discussions, briefings, and tech-talk to get the ball rolling. “This was an important part of the creative process because it brought the whole team together early on.” says Joel Edwards of Evolve.  “We were able to be apart of important strategy conversions that gave us valuable information about the show and the networks research, feedback and needs. At the same time we’d be discussing ideas & thoughts, getting opinions on things that resonate and things that don’t…which is crucial to planning and being on the same page.”  I’ve talked before about creative partners over-delivering for their clients, and this was a great example – it was their idea to come down, and they showed up with mood boards, concepts and possible camera packages to capture the action like we’d never done before.  We’ve all done pre-production meetings but personally I’d never done something quite this far in advance. It was a month and a half before the shoot (which hadn’t even been formally scheduled), before a script and even a budget had been determined.

“Premonitions” concept board which evolved into the final :30 “Macro” promo. Swipe by Evolve.

One of the very first concepts they brought to the table, initially titled “Premonitions” really got us excited about a new way to tell the fishing story. Focusing on macro-shots of the key elements of fishing (gears, engines, rotors) as a way to make the viewer feel the visceral energy and mechanics of fishing, this spot was one we all saw a lot of potential in. A commercial for Acura provided further inspiration and ideas for how this spot could be executed. Pay particular attention to the last :30 or so of this :60 commercial and you’ll see some parallels to the final spot we created.

Even though we haven’t even talked about the shoot itself yet, this is a good time to show the final :30 “Macro” promo. Finding a balance between the macro elements and the captains/fishing was critical. Erin and Evolve worked collaboratively to tweak the cut and find that right amount of both. Here’s the final spot.

Sketch for a back-to-back 360 degree idea by Evolve.

Now, back to pre-pro…we walked away from that full day of brainstorming and concepting with tons of ideas and toys we wanted to use to shoot these spots. Our main takeaway from the day was that we had to ensure that this campaign captured the action of the show, but more than ever we wanted to inject a little more soul into the marketing.

Portrait inspiration swipe pulled by Evolve.

Captain Marciano. Photo by Michael Muller.

The final (and perhaps most critical) piece of pre-production was that we budgeted for a full day of scouting on location for Evolve. They went down about two weeks before our shoot was scheduled to look for locations for each of our many setups.  This shoot was quickly turning into one of the most ambitious I’d ever been a part of, and we wanted to make sure we were going to be in the right places. Joel and Jesse went down and scouted, making contacts on the ground.  The people of Gloucester couldn’t have been more helpful, and I want to give a big thank you to the entire community who helped us pull this together. Joel and Jesse also brought a Red Epic with them during the scout and even started shooting! They shot some scenics and sunsets and got a great sense of where the light would be at each location they picked. Everyone knows the importance of pre-production. But this shoot established just HOW critical it can be for a massively complex shoot with many moving parts. In this case, it was the most important thing we did to ensure success for the entire campaign.

Reference boards for Cineflex shooting.

TAKEAWAY #2: DO PRE-PRO FOR  PRINT AND KEY ART, TOO.

Early on, after we’d hired Michael Muller, we all got on the phone. I’ve said it many times before, how important it is that your video and stills teams are on the same page. Getting on the same phone call to make sure there would be no surprises was important early on. We’d hired Arsonal design to help with initial sketches and concepting, so we had several big calls to discuss the concepts we’d narrowed in on, as well as for Evolve to tell Michael about the locations and what he’d need. We had scheduled a 5 day shoot (plus the first scout day, and a Cineflex helicopter day) and from that we carved out 2 full days for still photography. One benefit of having an insanely complex, multi-location shoot was that we could rotate Michael around to different captains, so we would always be shooting both video and stills.

Michael Muller in action. Photo by Tyler Korba.

“We were in Gloucester for 2 days shooting, and we took several thousand shots, but probably the most important aspect of this job were the multiple calls beforehand with Nat Geo and Evolve.” says Muller. “Knowing the location and logistics beforehand plus having the sketches gave us a tight schedule, so tight that we knocked out the sketch images quickly which left time for us to get even more than we’d planned to. We like to bring a fair amount a gear to a shoot like this, and with scuba equipment it’s even more – but we still work pretty quick and nimble and like to shoot as much as possible!”  And boy is that true – I don’t know that I’ve worked with a photographer that moved quite as fast as Muller, it was a true rip-fest!

Initial key art sketch by Arsonal Design.

Final key art. Design by Arsonal, photo by Michael Muller.

TAKEAWAY #3: IT TAKES MORE THAN COOL TOYS TO TELL A STORY. (BUT THEY SURE DO HELP)

We were all set to shoot, after an exhaustive pre-production process. We worked very closely with the team from Pilgrim, the production team for the show, to get a full week of shooting. A big thanks to Mike Nichols and everyone from Pilgrim who knew how important it was that we have time with the Captains for this shoot.  Tyler, Erin, Brian, Production Manager Kevin Lahr and I headed up to the shoot. I can’t remember having 5 people from my team on a set, but in this case, it made perfect sense.  For several of those days, we might not spend any time together, the goal being to divide and conquer, helping in different locations with shot suggestions, directing talent, bouncing light, shooting BTS, interviewing talent (Erin spent a full day interviewing 5 captains) and collaborating with Evolve on shots.

Interviewing Captain Tyler of the F/V Pinwheel. Photo by Tyler Korba.

I should also mention how much I like working with all of the Captains.  They get it, and know how much this could help the show, and they couldn’t be nicer and more willing to do what we need to get the shot.  And once they saw a few Phantom Flex shots on the playback monitor, they’re definitely even more into it! And speaking of gear…wow, did we have it.  I’ll let Joel and Jesse lay out the tools we had: “We got to use some of the coolest cinematography toys available; The Techno Dolly- (a fully computer controlled 60ft dolly base with 15ft jib arm & 360 hot/dutch head), the Cineflex Elite w/ Alexa -M system on a boat (the highest end stabilization system that supports Alexa w/ Canon Cinema Zoom lenses), the Phantom Flex and Phantom Miro with an underwater housing, and RED Epics, top of the line 5k cinema cameras. This project was a film nerd bombers play day! These tools enabled us to put the cameras in new perspectives and create new high concept visuals – visuals that have never been seen & done before on a fishing TV show.”  We had the tools – and we were fortunate to have them. But it’s critical to remember this: all the tech in the world doesn’t guarantee success. You still need a story and a message, or else it’s just pretty pictures.

The granddaddy of all toys, the TechnoDolly mounted on rails by the harbor.

Cineflex mounted on the helicopter, ready and waiting to take off. Photo by Jesse Edwards.

Erin and Tyler had scripted multiple spots prior to production, which was critical – the goal being that we could cover multiple scenarios and setups for each line of each script. Knowing we’d want to cover off on multiple angles, we built our shot list around those concepts and scripts. And then we’d cover the preconceived shot and add new shots in there to add to an arsenal of footage we’d have to cut with.

Underwater Phantom Operator Erik Ippel with the Miro rig.

Fearless underwater Phantom operator Erik Ippel shooting up at the harpoon boat FV Lily. (The harpoon actually hit the tip of his flipper after he swam TOWARDS the oncoming spear, and he couldn’t have been happier – “I got the shot!” he said. It’s true, he did, and that was the last shot of the day.)

TAKEAWAY #4:  TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION ON-SET.

On this shoot, it was a combination of a plan and improvisation – with so many variables at play, there were many times when things we’d never have anticipated came up that we had to adjust to. This was certainly the largest production I’d been a part of, and it required an insane amount of teamwork to pull it all together. As with any shoot of this magnitude, we had some bumps along the road.  Issues like making sure Captains showed up at the right docks at the right time, ensuring that the stills team had all the necessary props and assistance, and coordinating between multiple teams and locations simultaneously were all challenges we faced. When issues like that rise up,  suddenly you’re 30 minutes behind schedule, and then schedules quickly have to be compressed and altered. Having such a tight relationship with Evolve meant there was 100% transparency on set when things were working or not. A big shout out to Kevin Lahr, who jumped into the project and worked hand in hand with the talented Producer team from Evolve (Elizabeth Ai and Tracy Chitupatham, who also produced the season 2 production) to keep things running despite so many variables.

4k Light support boat in the Gloucester Harbor.

“This production certainly had its share of challenges – but what was so unique was the way that those situations were handled. It made all the difference to have honest and transparent conversations with the NGC team.” recalls Jesse.  “This helped us address the issues, improve our efficiency , and we were able to get to the goal quicker, as well as have better energy while we were doing it. Transparency and trust in each other are two of the most important ingredients in any production or creative venture.” Having that transparency from the beginning between client and production was the only way to get things working 100% efficiently. And when things needed improvement, transparency back to me to help solve those hiccups was always there.  The bigger the shoot, the more critical it becomes that client and agency can have an open dialogue while in production. And perhaps most importantly, the work that ended up on the screen was beyond incredible – so any bumps were caught early before it could impact the end product.

 

Techno dolly setup with FV Hard Merchandise.

Technodolly Track and Joel & Jesse Edwards. Photo by Tyler Korba.

THE STILLS TEAM ROLLS ON.

As we captured all of the video materials, we continued shooting with Muller on land and in the water. Working with such an experienced photographer, he knew exactly what we were looking for and definitely subscribed to the “shoot more” method, ripping off literally thousands of stills along the way. Muller had not worked with us previously, but I can’t say enough about his collaborative spirit and gusto to shoot. He was always excited and suggesting new concepts and ideas in our setups, and worked with the team from Arsonal (who also attended the shoot) to make sure everything we needed would be captured.

Michael Muller, shooting Captain Marciano from the water. (Underwater visibility ended up being very low.)

Portrait of Captain Dave Carraro of the F/V Tuna.com. Photo by Michael Muller.

Captain Marciano in front of the Gloucester Paint Factory. Photo by Tyler Korba.

TAKEAWAY #5: TECHNOLOGY ALONE CAN’T DELIVER SOUL.

As I said earlier, we had the toys, the technology and gear that was worth salivating over. As a gear-nerd, I was in heaven, but those cool toys alone wouldn’t be enough. You need the words, the story, the soul to bring it all to life.  Erin and Tyler’s scripts and the story they told were huge in building a great new creative product. Here’s a spot that injects a bit more soul into the campaign:

And last but not least, we wanted to nail the competition angle. Hearing from the captains themselves is the best way to understand just how competitive these guys are, and what it means to them to win.  Using that 360 degree dolly track setup, I love how this spot has an anchor point in one location, while showcasing each Captain and their motivation for the season. And while it was one more logistical challenge, having Erin’s interviews with the captains was a huge tool in the arsenal when we were looking for a new way to tell this story…and the ending still gives me goosebumps!

360 Degree Phantom Dolly setup. DP Joel Edwards is under the plastic because of the water sprayer on the left…not good for a Phantom Flex.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES.

As with many NGC productions, we hired a small BTS unit to capture all of the action behind the camera. It’s a great piece that really showcases the passion, energy and creativity on set, and how we brought that initial vision to life.

POSTSCRIPT.

This was without a doubt one of the craziest productions I’ve been a part of. So many variables, so much gear, and such a great collaboration between NGC, Evolve, Michael Muller, and Pilgrim Productions. But what made it work is really simple, and all too often forgotten. “The single best investment you can give a creative project is time. We spent more time on prep & planning on this campaign than we have on any other project we’ve worked on – and we think that it really shows!” says Joel. I couldn’t agree more. We rarely get the gift of time in production – and it’s important that when we DO – that we make the most of it. The meetings, the scouting, the countless phone calls, briefings, re-writes and emails…none of them glamorous, but all critical ingredients so when it comes time to shoot, you’re ready to crush it. I’m very proud of this campaign, and the work that was done.  But I’m even more proud of the way it was done – as a team, a true collaboration from beginning to end. Thank you to each and every person involved.

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Sailing off into the sunset. Photo by me.

Thinking Big: Still Photography for Nat Geo’s Top-Rated Series.

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For this post, I want to re-explore the importance of still photography used in TV campaigns, this time for our most popular show, “Brain Games.”  One of the biggest takeaways in my “Masters in Motion” presentation back in December was about the importance of stills for a TV campaign, and a theme worth revisiting here. No matter what new technologies arise and how mediums change, there will always be big billboards, print ads and posters to promote TV shows. They grab attention, and when you place them in the right location, can send a strong message not only to viewers, but also to ad buyers, executives, and the creative community – which is important when we want those creatives to be pitching their best ideas to us.  On a side note, I’d also like to take this time to thank everyone for the continued support, shout-outs, re-tweets, Facebook Page likes, and generally great feedback I’ve gotten on the blog.  December was the all-time highest trafficked month for the site! Thank you all for reading, and for sharing the content with others.

Photographer Miller Mobley light-tweaking. Photo by Brian Everett.

OVERVIEW.

In my last post, I discussed “keeping the client happy” and connected that to the recent campaign for Brain Games. Because that is a big campaign for Nat Geo since it’s our #1 series, I’m dedicating this post to the print and outdoor campaign behind that show’s re-launch in January.  Click HERE for the content covering the TV spots – and that will give you an overview of the show and marketing goals as well. But enough about video! Let’s get to the stills.

Presenting at Masters in Motion, discussing the importance of collaboration between stills and video. Photo by Philip Bloom.

HOW STILLS AND VIDEO CAN WORK TOGETHER BETTER.

In previous posts, I’ve discussed that it’s critical for print and video teams to collaborate when planning a shoot. In my MIM talk, it was one of my “Big Takeaways” for the filmmakers in attendance, which included 5 critical recommendations for everyone on the video side to consider when it comes to collaborating with still photographers.

1. Partner up with a talented still photographer – it makes your company/agency/you look more diversified to the client if you have an existing relationship with a talented photographer, and can offer their services. Find someone you work well with, develop a similar style/approach, and a client will see you more favorably because you can ‘bundle’ your creative offerings.

2. Understand the goals of the print campaign – it will better help you to anticipate what the client will want, and it’s just good to be aware of the whole campaign, even if it’s doesn’t end up technically being your responsibility. They’re spending big money on the media buy if they have billboards or print ads, so be aware of what they want.

3. Build your schedule with print in mind – don’t assume that they won’t be sharing space and time with you. Make sure you’re clear as to who is producing the print shoot (crafty, props, etc). Understand that it’s a big priority for them, and they will need the appropriate amount of time.

4. Share resources when applicable – lights, stands, even grips. If the client sees that you and the photographer are working together and sharing assets, they’ll feel better about efficiency and cost savings, and then they’ll feel better about hiring you.

5. Co-author the stage setup – if you are sharing locations, collaborating early on in the process may help you make decisions about lighting that could save time and energy. This worked out for us on “Killing Kennedy” and “Killing Lincoln”, having our Photographer and DP and Art Director connected early and often, planning the lighting grid for maximum efficiency and flexibility between crews.

Presenting my 5 big takeaways at Masters in Motion back in December.

PROCESS AND COLLABORATIVE PARTNER.

One decision we made on the Brain Games campaign was having the same agency, Brand New School, that was doing the TV promos also do the print campaign. It made for an easier planning process, and ensured consistency across both platforms. Getting a cohesive look across both mediums (and digital) is key – when you are struggling to get the viewer’s attention, you want the look to feel similar so that all of those impressions you make on them (whether in Times Square, at home on TV, or looking at a print ad in the Times) will add up together.  We knew that Jason Silva the show host, was going to play a big role in the key art, so Brand New School suggested a photographer to shoot our print concept. Luckily, the photographer they selected was one that I have wanted to work with before, Miller Mobley. He is an extremely talented photographer that has done some beautiful celebrity portraits, so I knew he could certainly handle the more straightforward style of our key art concept, and also deliver some more artistic shots of Jason for our other creative needs.

Photo of Tom Hanks by Miller Mobley.

Early on as we started to nail down our production schedule, it became clear that we had a decision to make about timing for still photography. We had a very ambitious schedule for video production, shooting multiple complex TV spots, with many variables that could easily swing the days to go long. One option was to try to maximize our time on each day and have Miller come to the video set, and shoot images of Jason during video setups.  Basically, as soon as he’d wrap a shot he’d run to Miller and shoot stills. We’ve certainly done that before, but there just seemed to be too much potential of either not having enough time for stills due to the complex nature of the video, and also I didn’t want to risk wearing out the talent. Additionally, we knew going in that we were going to have a big billboard in Times Square, and a big print media plan, so this aspect of our campaign was too important to risk not getting everything we needed. So we decided to add a third day of production, and have that entire day just for stills. It would allow us to focus on print, and would give us time to capture a huge variety of new images of Jason for press, digital, and marketing needs.

Miller Mobley.

“One of the other great things about this shoot was that we had plenty of time with our subject and a whole day dedicated to still photography” said Miller.  “My shoots usually last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. That’s barely enough time to connect with a subject. With all that time, Jason and I pretty much got to be friends and it became more like we were just hanging out creating images, as opposed to just another subject on the other side of my lens, who’s in a hurry. With this time it afforded me the ability to come up with ideas on the spot and try them out.”  And that we did.

On-set with Jason Silva and Miller Mobley.

THE SHOOT.

We were lucky that Miller was available two days before the shoot to visit the video set (we were going to shoot the stills at a different location) and meet us, to talk about the plan for the day, as well as to meet Jason.  Miller had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for, and once he’d seen the initial sketches, he’d gotten to work. “I began to draw up some lighting setups that I thought could work well for the comp. It’s always been very important to me to draw out my lighting setups. I might rough sketch out 5-8 ways to light something. Once I get to the shoot, I start to test what I’ve drawn out and see what’s working and what’s not.”

Lighting sketches by Miller Mobley.

We shot the stills after two intense days of video production, and one great thing about working with Jason is that no matter what, you’re never going to be low on energy! Jason’s passion is infectious, and even though we’d moved to a very small studio, the energy didn’t disappear, and he worked great with Miller.  “Miller was awesome because he made you feel comfortable right away.. Super professional and friendly. We got into a relaxed groove within minutes” recalls Jason.  I agree – even though we hadn’t worked together, the vibe was relaxed immediately and Miller created a creative dynamic quickly. “Good photography to me is sometimes not only about the photographer, but it’s about the photographer/subject collaboration” said Mobley. “We cranked some music in the studio and basically played off of each other. I knew that the images were going to be comped into the final key art, so we lit the images in a way that would be easy for the retoucher to assemble in post-production.”  The great thing was that for the key art concept, we would have Jason in a fairly straightforward pose, in a room filled with hidden images of faces – a puzzle that demonstrates the illusions so popular in the show.  We couldn’t get too artsy with that setup, since the concept needed to read clearly and not be too dramatic. So the lighting was more high-key, creating less shadows.

Main key art with Jason Silva, photo by Miller Mobley. Art by Brand New School.

The hidden illusions revealed.

We captured so many different poses of Jason, and made sure that we shot images of him in the same patterned shirt that he’d worn at the video shoot. I had wanted to have a face added in post to that shirt, given the intricate nature of the plaid pattern. In the end, the key art was used for digital banners, a New York Times print ad, and the granddaddy of them all, the 5 panel Times Square Billboard. (Note that the 5th panel is a wrap on the lower left panel, which isn’t apparent in the photos below.)

Times Square Billboards, photos by Miller Mobley.

TIME TO GET ALL ARTSY.

After we knew we had what we needed for the key art, it was time to get some great gallery images of Jason, with the intent of getting some more artistic shots that could potentially used by the PR team. Our challenge was that we were in a very small studio – it was actually a large open office space, with a small white cyc in one corner, and there were no props or sets. I’ll let Miller describe the setup from here: “This is where you just start making good images out of nothing. Jason has a great facial structure, and I really wanted to bring that out by playing with the highlights, shadows, and positioning of the light. We did some really cool stuff using one of the Profoto Reflectors with a grid attached. The light was extremely focused, which left us with great shadows on both sides of the faces. We filled in the light with a 72″ Elinchrom octabank behind camera, just to give a little detail to the shadows. Those were some of my favorite images of the day.”

Jason Silva, shot by Miller Mobley.

“We then loosened up a little bit and used more un-common areas of the studio. For example, the image where Jason is on the floor. That was something that we really just pulled out of the air. I knew that the client would appreciate as much variety as possible. So I asked Jason to sit on the floor and we played with some very hard light using the Profoto Magnum reflector. It’s become one of my favorite lights as of lately because of it’s ability to give a great on-camera flash look.”

Photos by Miller Mobley.

“It’s a pretty common tool for me when I’m doing very quick shots and having the subject move around a lot. My assistant will just hold the light on a boom arm right above camera, so that it creates a small harsh shadow right under the nose. It kind of gives off the feel that you don’t care about the light, but at the same time the lights looks cool. One thing I keep learning the more I light is that it really has nothing to do with what modifier or type of light you use – I think the way you position, feather, cut the light has everything to do with making it work for you. I guess you can say that the details and the magic of light really come out once you start refining what you already have setup.”

Unfortunately, I had to catch a train back to DC, so Miller continued working with Jason and Brian Everett, my Creative Director of Design. As they continued to rip through the setups in the studio, somehow Brian procured a key to get to the rooftop. In another great example of how a little extra time can help you get what you never imagined, the shots from the rooftop are some of my favorites. (At the time of publication, some of the photos were still under embargo. I will post them to the blog when they become available.)

Photo by – yep, you guessed it. Miller Mobley.

Miller continues: “It was freezing cold, but nobody cared because we were all going to the roof. I think everyone was just pumped about a change of location from the studio that we had been in all day. My lighting setup was pretty simple outside. We just threw a 7B pack on my assistants back and we boomed the 53 inch octa out over Jason. Trying to refine the feathering of the light – The octa was barley pointed at him, just a little bit of light spill was enough to create what we thought was good. Jason is pretty natural at looking cool, so other than me suggesting different poses and looks, he just did his thing.”

ART-FOR-ART’S SAKE

I’ve discussed the concept of doing something cool within a campaign just, well, because. Brain Games was no different, and when Brian came to me and wanted to try to do something with some design integrated into Miller’s photos, it was a no-brainer. Brian worked on these with Greg Herman, and they had fun playing with the images and adding some additional design and photography to the shots to demonstrate the idea of how the show is filled with illusions, puzzles and mind-blowing imagery. Here are a few of the results.

Design by Brian Everett and Greg Herman.

Design by Brian Everett and Greg Herman.

POSTSCRIPT.

We wrapped after the third and final day of production, and we came home with tons of assets for the campaign. We asked Miller to help us with the retouching, and a special shout out to finisher/retoucher Nick Leadlay for his incredible work as well. That rooftop surface never looked so good! The billboards turned out great, and the artsier shots of Jason are some of my favorites. We took the proper time to get everything we would need, and I had a blast collaborating with a new photographer I’d not worked with before. Special thanks to Jason Silva, Brian Everett and Production Manager Kevin Lahr from Nat Geo who helped the project run smoothly. And a big thank you to Miller for his killer work and collaborative attitude throughout, in addition to his quotes in this blog post.  On a personal note, I came up on the video side of the business, focusing on :30 promos and :60 trailers – it was my bread and butter for the first half of my career.  Now that I’ve transitioned into also creative directing and overseeing print photography, I’ve learned so much more than I ever imagined about this incredible craft and the talented photographers who do it every day.  I am truly humbled by their talents. Now, if only I could get some lessons so I can stop shooting in ‘auto’ mode on my Canon T3i…

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Photo of you-know-who, shot by you-know-who.

How To Keep Clients Happy in the Video and Photography Industry.

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In my last post, I wrote about my experience at the Masters in Motion (MIM) filmmakers workshop in Austin, TX. I was fortunate to be able to present a look “Inside the Mind of a Client” to the attendees about the client perspective on the creative industry, starting with tips on getting a client’s attention, all the way through the post-production process on a job.  In that post, I covered the “getting their attention” aspect of the client/vendor relationship. For this post I’ve decided to focus on some key things to keep in mind to keep the client happy after you’ve been hired – and answer some common questions about the client/vendor relationship during the creative process. If you’ve ever wondered “What happens if my Client doesn’t give me a brief?” “Should I just do whatever the Client says – or do they want to hear my POV?” “Why does the Client take so long to get back to me with approvals?” and “How should I interact with a new client while on set?”  Well, I’ll answer all of those questions –  and I’ll also connect the themes from my MIM presentation to an active marketing campaign for “Brain Games” season 2, as there are a lot of great parallels and takeaways between the two.

Khalid Mohtaseb, self-confessed light-lover, instructing at a ‘Masters in Motion’ workshop session.

BUT FIRST: BRAIN GAMES!

I’m going to use the recent “Brain Games” campaign as a case study to answer some of those bigger questions about Clients and briefs, communication, approvals and on-set etiquette. If you aren’t already aware of it, “Brain Games” is the National Geographic Channel’s #1 series, returning in January.  You can see how we treated the season 1 campaign HERE, and most of those same takeaways I discussed then also applied to this campaign. We collaborated very closely with our host, Jason Silva, all the way through the process. We used Jason as the conduit to explain the show AND demonstrate the “games” that your brain can play, and perhaps most fun of all, we did a new take on the “Riff” idea – having Jason freestyle a stream-of-consciousness take on what is so great about Brain Games.  So, please read that post if you haven’t – and know that we didn’t change TOO much from season 1 to season 2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?  Jason has gotten much more media attention since season 1, and one of his own “riff” videos has several million YouTube views now, called “Existential Bummer.” If you haven’t had a chance to watch that, here it is – a truly inspiring 3 minutes, and a peek at the storytelling gift that Jason possesses that we wanted to harness in the campaign.

I love that video, and Jason’s ability to take some pretty deep concepts and make them digestible and engaging to his audience. It’s exciting to work with someone with those storytelling and performance gifts when starting a campaign! So, back in August we began the process of tackling Season 2 for Brain Games. What did we want to change? What did we want to keep? And perhaps most importantly (at least from a logistical standpoint) who were we going to partner with creatively to help us get there? We decided on this project to do a Pitch, rather than just instantly award the job to one company. We don’t often do that, but for a series this important it seemed like a sensible route to take. Our budgets vary wildly from project to project and for each case we determine if we have resources to do a big or small shoot, or just do a simple edit using show footage, or custom  music score, etc.  For Brain Games, I decided to carve out from that project budget some money to have several agencies pitch concepts and ideas – to ensure that we would have some good creative choices to pick from before moving forward. For a series this important, it’s good to be thorough as you decide how you want to make the campaign elements.  After a few-week process with several different creative agencies, we selected the team at Brand New School based on their work, their collaborative attitude, and their bid. I had not previously collaborated with them but our Creative Director of Design, Brian Everett, had. And luckily enough, there were a lot of great takeaways to be had that connect nicely to the themes from my Masters In Motion presentation.

YOU’VE BEEN HIRED – BUT WHERE’S THE BRIEF?

Once you’ve been hired by a client, there is a little bit of a dance that goes on. Everyone feels great – the agency is excited no doubt, after all they have a new client, and new possibilities abound.  It is important, in those first few days after the job has been awarded, for the agency/creative to do one thing – prove that they are ON IT to that client, so that the client feels as if they made the right decision, and can begin to trust that new creative partner.  And the first place/stage to do that is with The Brief. Now, briefs can sometimes not be brief at all. Charts, graphs, audience studies, positioning statements, what to do, what not to do…it can be information overload. But information overload always trumps those briefs that are so brief that they don’t actually exist.  If a client doesn’t give a brief at all (or it’s just verbal) it is incumbent on the creative agency/partner/production team to ensure that they are all on the same page. I recommend writing your own brief if you don’t get one from the client – listen, ask questions, then come back with a written mini-brief that encapsulates what you heard. What is great about that is that in many cases, even if you come back with a brief that isn’t at ALL what they wanted, you’ll get more information, and more details and specifics about what that client DOES want. The more communication between both ‘sides’ the better, especially in those early stages where the briefing occurs. In the case of ‘Brain Games’ season 2, we had a great deal of information to share with the agencies involved. We actually conducted a pitch process on this project – something rather rare for us, as we generally don’t do a great deal of pitching due to budget issues, or because we have a pretty good idea of who we want to work with, and what sort of partner will fit the idea we may already have. But in this case, we were fortunately in the position to offer a real creative brief with our goals and objectives for the campaign.

Behind the scenes construction on the “tilted room” set for Brain Games.

During the pitch phase for Brain Games, we briefed all of our potential creative partners, both verbally and with a 1 page outline of what we were looking to accomplish.  We wanted to include Jason prominently in the campaign, showcase games, stay true to the smart, accessible vibe of the show, and turn up the production volume up even more from season 1. After that briefing, then they came back to us with initial ideas and sketches. Which leads to the first big tip for what a Client wants after they hire you…

Clients ultimately always want more, right?  That’s probably why so many people often squirm when they think of clients.  But it’s true – clients want to feel like THEY are the sole focus of your attention. Of course, they know in their heart that they’re not the only one…but it doesn’t stop them from wanting to feel that they are.  When you over-deliver to a client, particularly a new one, you instantly have made them feel more comfortable with you, and your company. They feel reassured – and with their own internal pressures that they deal with, knowing that you have their back is a great way to make them feel that their in good hands.  Whenever we work with new agencies and they over-deliver on our expectations – whether in the form of a detailed brief, shot list, reference or style guide, it has a calming effect on the whole project. Brand New School (BNS) came out of the gate pitching ideas before the deadline, asking for feedback, and then coming back with a robust set of boards, concepts and style frames. And that was BEFORE we hired them. And once we started digging in to the creative logistics and details of the winning concepts, we time and time again noticed how they were striving to over-deliver. “Under promise and over-deliver” is a great mantra to live by in this industry, no matter which side of the table you might sit on.

An early style frame for the “Puppets” concept. This ended up being our “Riff” spot.

DON’T BE SCARED OF THE CLIENT.

Here’s another important takeaway: very often, the creative agency is afraid of the client. Not literally afraid of course, but perhaps they just want to make the client happy at all costs and are afraid to disappoint. Clients like to be happy, but I believe that clients also should want to hear the honest truth from the partner in the project what they think will work – and what won’t work. After all, we’ve hired them because they have a point of view, a strong perspective and creative aesthetic. We rely on them to give that POV, of course in a respectful manner, but after all its in all of our best interest to have open, transparent dialogue about what’s working and what’s not. So don’t be scared of the client – respect them, but give your opinion – that’s why they hired you.  Very early on, there were many times when we went back and forth on particular ideas or games for our “Portals” :30 spot, and some of them worked, and some of them BNS thought might not work.  But what mattered was that we worked through those together, and listened to each other in the process. There were many discussions about what the best way to bring the games to life would be. We arranged and re-arranged the order, and ultimately we listened to BNS’ recommendation for the overall flow of shots based on what they thought could be pulled off most convincingly. Regardless, it’s important to remember – Clients are just regular people, like you. When you can break down the wall of fear or intimidation of them – or even if you can find a way to break down YOUR wall of annoyances with them, at the end of the day most clients want the same thing you do. Fear puts more distance between you, and it hurts the end product.

Sketched out “mirror” game concept.

Final image from the “Portals” Brain Games promo.

It’s always a balance of course – how to insert your POV while being respectful to that client. Just remember that they have their own pressures coming down on them as well in the process. So let yourself be heard, and if the Client continues to press the subject, it might be time to back off – which ties in to our next takeaway.

One of the most often heard complaint about Clients is how long they take to reply or respond back to vendors with feedback or approvals. But what many external agencies may not know is how many clients there are beyond the one that directly hired them involved in the process. Marketing Strategy, Consumer Marketing, Ad Sales Marketing, Press, Digital Marketing, Programming, Scheduling, Research, Legal, the Executives, International Channels, and Production Companies can all be a part of the approval process along the way to get an idea approved. Always remember – just as you (as the external creative partner) have a client to answer to, never forget that the client has his or her own clients to answer to as well. Brain Games was no exception – as the #1 series on the Channel and with a paid media spend behind it, we had many hoops to jump through to walk everyone through our creative plans. We had some very robust materials to help sell that idea, giving us PDFs with embedded quicktimes/links to video references, so when it came time to sell in the idea internally to our many clients, we had all the tools we needed.

Here I am presenting at Masters in Motion, walking through the stages of Client approval.  Photo by Philip Bloom.

GOING INTO PRODUCTION.

After we successfully sold in our concept – we’d use Jason as our narrator, entering and exiting different “Portals” and doorways on a set as he described how the show opens new doors in your mind – and went into production in NYC. It was our first time shooting together, and I was anxious to see how it would all come together. In previous posts, I’ve discussed the quality vs. quantity issue – that we often need volume as well as high-quality visuals when we shoot. But in this case, with precise visual effects and specific shots needed, we were looking to take the sniper approach to this shoot.  We only had 2 days to shoot the “Portals” and “Riff” spots – and this season’s “Riff” would be a complex shoot involving props and puppeteers to bring to life Jason’s stream-of-consciousness riff about the show. So there was a lot to accomplish, and a tight timeline to do it.

A puppeteer on-set, ready for some puppet action.

INTERACTING WITH THE CLIENT WHILE ON SET.

So – what DOES a Client want on set?  Of course, it’s all dependent on that particular Client. Some want to be hyper involved, and some want to just hang out by The Client Monitor.  Usually The Client Monitor sits next to the big soft comfy couch, with a nice big jar of peanut M&Ms and some beef jerky.  It’s been around for a long, long time – most often it’s the place where the Client is parked by the agency to keep them close to the action to feel involved, but just out of reach from doing real damage or from bothering anyone. Let me first say that I can understand and appreciate what role the Client Monitor serves on-set. Having Clients running around on set CAN be dangerous – but I also think its usage is diminishing more and more.  Because a Client Monitor sends a subtle signal to sit away from the action – and it doesn’t loudly proclaim “collaboration” when the Client is so far away.  I would recommend that when starting a new job with a new Client, to find out how they work, and what their expectation is. In this case, Brand New School did a great job understanding how we liked to work – and they did have a nice Client area, but the AD asked me to join the Director closer in to work together with Jason for both days of the intensive shoot. I felt welcomed, and in return I set out to not intervene more than necessary, and to respect the roles on set. Give…and take, establishing trust and a good balance of collaboration and also getting what needs to be shot in a timely manner. Just remember: the Client Monitor DOES have a place on set, but how it’s used can vary from client to client.

Design inspiration for the set of “Portals.”

The “sliding room” set with A-frame to attach to the camera/dolly – low-tech motion control!

THE FINAL PROMOS.

So, after the hiring, briefing, over-delivering, not being scared, remembering that Clients have Clients, and a successful and collaborative production, we moved into the posting and delivery of the spots. There were two main creatives we set out to shoot – the “Portals” :30 spot is really an evolution of the concept from season 1 – Jason interacting in a set with games going on around him. The difference was that HE was the center of the games rather than controlling or manipulating them. Timing was everything, and because we could not shoot one continuous sequential take this time, nailing each section precisely was critical. When we got to post, we collaborated with Clean Cuts Music on the final score, and I love how they were able to bring elements into the song that helped accentuate the gags.  Making the song sound like it was playing backwards during the tilted room was a great touch that helps reinforce the topsy-turvy world we created. Here’s the final “Portals” :30 promo.

Puppeteers on set during the “Riff” promo shoot.

The idea for the season 2 “Riff” promo (called “Puppets”) is one I’m especially excited about. It’s a mix of real and animated CG props with live puppeteers on set and is another wonderful example of collaboration between client and the creative partner – we each had our roles, and went back and forth with Jason to nail the perfect delivery. There were so many things to watch out for – Jason’s performance, the edit continuity, visual effects, props, the puppeteers’ performance, and timings – that having those extra set of eyes helped to nail it. And just like in season 1, we collaborated with Jason on every aspect of this spot. The script, the look, and even the music were all decided on as a group. Jason found a track by the incredible composer Tony Anderson which fit perfectly with the vibe of the promo. Then Tony tweaked and customized the song for our :45 hero spot. Here’s the final version of that ‘Riff’, a product of trust and true creative collaboration.

PRINT AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES.

I’m very proud of the work done on this campaign – there’s actually more to share too, as we teamed up with a great creative partner for the print and outdoor campaign, and I finally got to work with photographer Miller Mobley to shoot lots of great stills of Jason for our billboard, print, and digital portion of the campaign.  At the time of publication, some of those materials hadn’t yet been released, but I plan to share some of that very cool work soon.  One last takeaway before I wrap this up – and that’s creating Behind-The-Scenes video. BTS videos are fantastic content, and of course widely loved within our industry. But I find that more and more often, BTS is extending beyond just gear-porn-for-DPs, or music videos showing how fun the shoot was. The amount of content that is devoured on the web is staggering, and that beast has to be constantly fed unique and entertaining content. The other great thing about BTS beyond the creative result is that I’d also recommend young filmmakers to network with larger production companies and offer their services in this area. It’s a great way to get on a client’s radar for projects – today’s BTS project could lead to bigger, more juicy gigs down the road. For Brain Games, we wanted to do a BTS in a way we hadn’t done before, and that was to use Jason as our guide – walking us through the sets and props and games we used to bring this campaign to life.

CONCLUSION: EVERYONE’S A CLIENT.

So I’ve covered a lot of ground here today – discussing the new campaign for Brain Games, as well as what the Client wants after they’ve hired you.  Chiefly, they want you to listen, to be proactive, to over-deliver, and to be passionate about their project.  And always remember that this industry is extremely competitive – for clients, it’s a buyers market. There are always tons of choices for them to make when hiring new creative partners, so bring your ‘A’ game every single time, no matter how many times you’ve worked with that client before. It’s a sad truth, but it is true: you’re only as good as your last job.  And if you take nothing else away remember this: Everyone is a Client. There are many voices, many cooks in the kitchen, and many boxes to check. It can be challenging for everyone along the way, but if you can make a solid connection with the client so that they feel as if you are their partner, and operate from a place of respect and open communication, that will go a long way towards doing the kind of work that everyone loves to be a part of.  And hey, you might even become friends along the way. Many thanks to everyone involved in the Brain Games campaign, especially BNS, and once more to the team at Shoot/Edit/Learn for inviting me to speak on these themes at Masters in Motion ’13.

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On set, collaborating with Jason Silva. Or, just looking at cool videos on his phone.

How to Get Your Work Seen by Clients in the Video and Photography Industry.

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I’ve just returned from Austin, TX after a whirlwind, post-Thanksgiving half-week at the “Masters in Motion” conference.  I was also fortunate to not only attend the event but also to be a presenter. My presentation, titled “Inside the Mind of a Client” was focused on shedding light on the Client’s perspective.  In this post, I’m going to cover 5 important things that you can do to get your video or photography work in front of those Clients.  So if you did attend Masters in Motion, this will provide a good recap of the opening portion of my presentation – “Getting the Client’s Attention”, and if you didn’t attend – just imagine yourself sitting back in those comfy Alamo Draft House seats and it’ll be like you’re there…sort of…

Starting the presentation. Photo by Dustin Bennett

BUT FIRST – THE EVENT.

Masters in Motion is an annual event held in Austin, organized by the http://www.shooteditlearn founders Cristina Valdivieso and Jon Connor – friends and collaborators from previous shoots covered in this blog previously (Killing Lincoln, and Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?).  You can learn more about Shoot/Edit/Learn from their website, but the short version is that they hold this event/workshop every year in Austin and the first 100 or so people to sign up get to attend an event that features luminaries from the filmmaking community (Shane Hurlbut, Vincent Laforet, Alex Buono, Philip Bloom, Eliot Rausch) as speakers, plus true hands-on workshops with some incredible Directors, DPs, Art Directors and Storytellers (Tom Guilmette, Nick Midwig, Jon Bregel, Joe Sciacca, Khalid Mohtaseb, and Ryan Connolly) that offers attendees an up close opportunity to learn from the best,and interact with the latest gear that we all drool over (this year, the Phantom Flex and Movi were two of the featured guests).

Filmmaker Philip Bloom on stage at Masters in Motion day 3. Photo by Ivan Barra

And this year there were 3 guests that had not attended before that were featured presenters – Tak Fujimoto, the DP behind “Silence of the Lambs” (amongst many other films), Dan Lebental, A.C.E editor for films such as Iron Man 1 and 2, and Elf.  Oh, and then there was me.  Andy Baker?!  It was a humbling experience, and at the same time thrilling for me to be on the same stage as these guys. While I was not able to stay all 3 days due to some work conflicts, I was honored to be a part of it, and took away many things from the time I was there.

The client gets his hands on a Movi. Photo by Khalid Mohtaseb, Movi from Michael N Sutton

IT’S ALL ABOUT COMMUNITY.

One of the things I admire most about the filmmaking community (outside of just the creativity, drive, passion, technical brilliance, and collaborative spirit) is just that – THE COMMUNITY.  And like many aspects of this industry, it’s an incredibly large and diverse group – yet surprisingly small and interconnected.  In many ways, I walked in as a bit of an outsider – after all, I would not say I’m a ‘filmmaker’, as I am generally responsible for hiring and Creative Directing/Collaborating with them rather than being one myself.  But very quickly, I was greeted and welcomed, and that sense of collaboration between everyone – learning and sharing what they knew, and their experiences, was immediate.  Masters in Motion (MIM) is all about learning, sharing, and being inspired – and the eager attendees were ready to soak it in, wherever or from whomever they could.  I’ve always admired how even on Twitter, just how strong of a community filmmakers and photographers are, as they ask for tips, tricks, gear, props or operators from one another, and generally someone is there to help answer their questions or provide a resource.  Being in person, that sense of a close-knit group with a shared goal of learning and absorbing was clear. I’m not sure how many of the attendees knew each other previously but to an outsider it would appear that they all were long lost friends, reuniting in Austin.  All of that is to say that what this community does so well is work as a unit – they learn as a group, they share their knowledge, and they remember what it was like when THEY were learning. So whether it was a one-man-band DP shooting weddings, or a small production company looking for inspiration, or a still photographer looking to make the move to video production, it didn’t matter. Each situation was different, but the result was the same – they left knowing more than when they arrived, got personal advice and tips from the industry’s best, and gained new friends and invaluable contacts in the business. That’s what Community is all about – working together, as a team, learning, sharing and collaborating towards a common goal. And that’s what MIM is all about, too.

Up on stage during the playing of the opening sizzle – my ‘Citizen Kane’ moment. Photo by Evan Bourcier.

I can’t thank Jon and Cristina enough for asking me to speak at Masters in Motion 2013. They thought that my perspective as a client might be a great one for this audience, many of whom are just starting their careers in filmmaking and might need to hear about how to manage the ever-tricky client relationship.  I knew it was a tremendous opportunity for me – and also a daunting one. After all, I really look up to this audience – I admire their creativity and technical know-how, so being thrust into a position of an ‘expert’ at anything to this group somehow felt odd and intimidating to me.  But since one of my goals is to begin to redefine the term ‘client’, this was a huge chance to spread that message to a large audience that not all Clients are from hell – there are some that are just as passionate, collaborative, respectful and creative as everyone in that audience.  So starting in August, I began to sketch out an outline – and yep, I collaborated with Jon on what he thought would resonate best.  Not having been to MIM before, picking his brain was essential for me to zero in on a structure and the objectives of the talk.  The basic outline was to educate attendees on how to get a Client’s attention, sell themselves to close the deal, what to do when hired & when in pre-production & during a shoot, and after it all wrapped. Sprinkled into the presentation were 5 “big takeaways” (hmmm, sounds familiar…) that are universal to the client/creative process no matter what aspect of the industry you might specialize in (corporate videos, web films, weddings, etc). After kicking it all off with a little video sizzle (know your audience, I always like to say) we dove right in to the first goal and the subject of this blog post – “Get The Client’s Attention.”

Slide design by Brian Everett. (All slides in my presentation were designed by Brian)

There are a million clients out there and there are also 2 million potential creative agencies or production companies out there vying for their business. Which means it’s a buyer’s market, and for those of you on the side trying to land a client, it is often asked how you can stand out in a client’s eyes…what can you do to get their attention in the first place, let alone get hired? Well, I believe that there are a couple of ways. The first is pretty obvious: Do Good Work. Essentially, you have to be better than the next guy/girl, and you have to make killer stuff. For most clients, and certainly those in the Cable TV industry, that’s sort of a barrier for entry. Ok, so assuming you’re doing good work – what next? You need to understand the (potential) client’s business. What motivates them? What drives their business? Who is their competition? What is their product all about? You really need to know the answers to all of their questions – and once you do, that should inform how you reach out to that client, or try to get on their radar screen. If you send them a reel or a link to your work – does it include a lot of work from their competition? If “yes” – you might want to re-think that.  Because you likely don’t want them thinking that you’re in their competition’s pocket, right? If you watch their channel, can you talk fluently about their programming? Do you have a favorite series or an episode from that series that resonated with you? Because ultimately, the client is likely passionate about their brand, or their content. And what they want from you is for you to share that passion and then see it translate to the final product.  And if you don’t know the product, or the channel, you simply won’t have the passion for it.

Another way to get on the client’s radar is through social media. 3 or 4 years ago, the only way to get your work in front of a client was to blindly send links to work, or send the dreaded DVD mailer.  I believe the only time I worked with a company that sent me a DVD mailer was when they sent a portable DVD player with a big sticker saying “Andy, open me” and then another sticker telling me to push play, “Mission Impossible” style. When I did, it played a custom DVD with an intro catered to me and my channel’s programming.  And yes, it included a FedEx package to return the player, which I did return, along with my card that said “call me and let’s talk.” We still work together to this day. It was a clever idea, spoke to me personally, demonstrated their creativity, and clearly the company had done their homework.  But today, DVD players and discs are a dinosaur, and social media is the best way to make an impression, and leave your fingerprint in the client’s mind.   Twitter accounts and Vimeo pages are very obvious but all-too-often ignored mediums for production agencies to use to share work. And even if they have work that is proprietary, I know of many agencies that use Twitter, Facebook, Vine or Vimeo to showcase their perspective, their POV, and their own personal projects – all wonderful ways to connect with a client. Which brings us to my first big takeaway.

When Jon first approached me to speak at MIM, one of the topics he specifically wanted me to address was personal projects. He mentioned that there was a bit of a debate in the community about not only whether people should or shouldn’t do personal projects, but also whether they should use them as tools to drive their business, and whether to share them with clients. Well, in my mind the answer is obvious. ABSOLUTELY, without question.

Personal projects are a must for many reasons. Chiefly, they showcase your interests and give the client a better sense of your own personal interests. I am into relationship building with creatives, and understanding what drives and motivates them is important.  In a perfect scenario, I might see someone’s personal work that could tie in nicely with a show or upcoming series on the Channel – knowing their passion helps me understand them as an artist and as just a person.  Personal projects are also entirely YOURS – it says a lot about your own personal aesthetic, and your creative sensibilities. Very often I see work for other channels on a photographer’s reel and I’m not sure how much is theirs and how much is the client’s.  And if it’s not an amazing spot, I may wonder how much was your doing, or your client’s – but I probably won’t immediately assume it’s their fault, which is not a great place to be if you’re trying to impress a potential client. And the last thing I’ll say about personal projects: You’re reading one right now!  This blog is entirely a personal project for me. It’s gotten a little bit of attention which is nice, but most importantly it has been a lot of fun, and something that I do for my own creative happiness. And that’s hugely important for all creatives, to have a place that is theirs to own and control and create.

An oft-repeated mantra on this blog. Do creative for creative’s sake.

And another way to get the client’s attention is having a wide diversity of company offerings.  Being a talented filmmaker or storyteller is a given, but what can separate you is when you have something unique about what you do or bring to the table. Clients love it when they can bundle several creative aspects together. That’s why ad agencies have existed and been so successful because they are true “one-stop-shopping” for clients.  And that can be true even for smaller clients as well. They want to make their lives easier, and the more they can bundle their projects with one or two vendors, the better for them. In our case at least, at Nat Geo, it’s because at any time we probably have more than a dozen or two dozen projects going on at the same time, so having one company handle multiple aspects of a campaign is always going to be preferred. It’s one conference call to handle several deliverables, and there can also be savings by doing that as well. So ask yourself – “what is unique about me or my company?” Do you have strong production support built into the DNA of your organization, an incredible line producer who can make clients’ lives easier on set, and in production?  Do you have strong partnerships with talented still photographers who could be looped into your video production? Or maybe you have in-house designers or compositors who can offer finishing services along with the video you shot. These are all examples of companies we work with a lot – talented specialists in particular areas that can also do much more if given the chance. The goal is not to become ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ – but rather the goal should be to become a ‘jack of all trades and master of more than one.’  Easier said than done, I know, but those little things can help separate you from the pack. Again – the more often you can bundle services for clients to make their lives and logistics easier, the better.

On stage, discussing another “Big Takeaway” late in the presentation. (Spoiler Alert!) Photo by Philip Bloom

CONCLUSION: BE NICE. HAVE FUN.

There are, of course, other ways to get a client’s attention. Networking, and understanding that maybe I’M not your prospective client are essential. Maybe you’re more likely to get hired by a production agency than me (because you’re a solo DP or one-man-band). Being collaborative, and easy to work with, with an impeccable record of not being a jerk – all essentials in today’s highly competitive market. If you reach out to a client, find an original way to do it – and don’t hassle them. They probably know you’re there – let your work speak just as strongly for your brand/services – if not stronger.  If you decide to hire a Rep to sell your company to prospective clients, make sure that Rep represents YOU, and your brand.  They become the defacto face for your company, so making sure they connect with your vision of how you want your company to interact with the Client. The fact is, everyone’s budgets are always challenging, and there are a lot of pressures on projects. Clients often want to have FUN when they team up for larger productions. They don’t need stress in their office and on-set. Shooting is often the most fun part of big projects, so clients want to work with people they enjoy spending time.  Keep that all in mind, and the good work will come to you. In future blog posts, I will cover more from my presentation at Masters in Motion 2013, including what happens once you’re hired, and some thoughts on how to better collaborate with clients on-set.  Once more, thank you to Jon and Cristina for inviting me to be a part of this wonderful and inspiring event, and my team back at Nat Geo who helped me with the presentation.

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Here’s the sizzle reel I played to kick off the presentation, showcasing some of the coolest shots captured for Nat Geo promos over the last few years. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this reel, and to Brannon Shiflett for his edit wizardry.

Producing a Pop Song for Preppers.

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One of my goals for this blog is to find interesting projects or creative experiences that are unlike things I’ve worked on before – or projects that give some new and interesting takeaways. This post covers something new that I had very little experience with – the creative process behind writing an original pop song.

THE JOB.

Returning for its 4th season on the National Geographic Channel, “Doomsday Preppers” is one of the more unique offerings in Non-Fiction television. It’s a show that is all about people who are preparing for the end of the world. They each have a different version of how The End will come – a nuclear war, or cyber attacks, the collapse of the economy, F-5 tornadoes, and so forth.  This is the third season that we were putting a major marketing push behind it, with paid off-channel media to support it.

The previous season’s poster art. Design and execution by Canyon Design Group.

MARKETING THE APOCALYPSE. AGAIN.

The curious thing about “Doomsday Preppers” is that at first glance, these people may seem a little nutty. They’re building bunkers with huge supplies of food, and concocting elaborate escape plans and defenses. But the more you watch it, the more you start to think “well, maybe it WOULD be a good idea to have some extra food on hand…” and the next thing you know, you’re buying a generator, packing a bug-out bag and stockpiling water. It’s a very relatable show, because everyone has stockpiled food and supplies before a big winter storm – but what makes “Doomsday Preppers” unique is that these Preppers all take their preparations way beyond water and food stockpiling – some of them have decoy food supplies, escape tunnels, and yes, even backup wives should things really go bad. The extreme nature of their Preps is fascinating – it’s ultimately great people-watching, and at the same time you get some pretty helpful tips…should the Government ever decide to, say, launch a nuclear strike against its own people and declare martial law for all of its citizens (a topic from this season).  We’ve always tried to ride the line between making it entertaining, and relatable, and also informative – a huge number of the viewers are Preppers themselves and they enjoy seeing these new Preps. So entering this new season, everyone was eager to re-charge the franchise and find a new way to promote this show.

Eager fans at the Texas State Fair wait their turn for the “Doomsday Dash” obstacle course, part of the experiential/guerrilla campaign.

CHALLENGES.

This is season 4, and there was a real possibility of viewer fatigue – the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse is behind us, and perhaps the end of days was no longer in the zeitgeist. The ratings had begun to dip a bit at the end of the last season so the goal was to find new ways to talk about Preppers. They’re just as relatable as ever, but was the topic played out?  And then there’s the age-old question for any returning franchise – how can the creative feel new?  After all, the story hasn’t changed much…or had it? Well – it had changed in one aspect.  It was no longer enough to focus on bunkers and gas masks – the show was tackling bigger builds, more ambitious Preps, and more dynamic Preppers than ever before. The stakes were being raised.

Key art used at the Doomsday Dash event at the Texas State Fair.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS.

We worked with a pretty big variety of partners on this project, and much of the creative concepting and campaign development was driven by our internal team, led by Creative Director Tyler Korba, Creative Director of Design Brian Everett, Senior Producer Nicole Strong, Design Director Carla Daeninckx and Sr. Creative Editor Brannon Shiflett. Early on, they worked together searching for what a good selling idea could be.  We tapped some collaborative partners that had unique and specialized skills for different aspects of the campaign – Anatomy Media for the editorial for the promos, Arsonal Design for the print/digital, Adam Gault for design and graphics for TV, and Jingle Punks for a music concept – the part of the campaign that this post will focus a bit more on.

‘Step up the prep’ graphic from Doomsday Preppers promo. Design by Adam Gault.

CONCEPT AND CREATIVE.

Ultimately, the idea that this season was going to be bigger and more extreme – while still feeling connected to the core idea of Prepping – rose to the top. Nicole conceived the line “Step Up the Prep” as the tagline and rallying cry/theme for the campaign, which was extraordinarily helpful when evaluating every aspect of the campaign. If it felt like a “Step Up” from previous seasons, then we knew we were in the right zone creatively.  There were a lot of ideas for TV, including a comedy concept that would have required a massive original shoot with Preppers and the outlandish lengths they went to prepare for The End (in the end, it was decided to just use the show footage rather than do any original shooting). And as in previous seasons, there was going to be a fun :45 music video to capture the intensity and entertainment that the show provided. In season 1 we licensed “The End of the World as we Know it” by REM, and in season 2, Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.”  And for our key art, there were some strong precedents that’d been set, having parodied the iconic “American Gothic” painting in season 1 and and the famous Norman Rockwell “Freedom From Want” painting in season 2 to great success.  So we set out to build the campaign with a strong concept and some pretty high expectations.

Season 3 horizontal key art, design and execution by Arsonal.

TAKEAWAY #1: DON’T THROW OUT THE BLUEPRINT – JUST STEP IT UP.

We set out from the beginning to build off of what we’d done in previous seasons creatively – but find new ways to freshen it up a bit. Some of what had been done before had worked, so we set out to find new ways to update the blueprint a bit.  The most exciting and noteworthy ‘Step Up’ was the plan for the :45 music video. We’d always licensed a track before, but after last year it was clear that there are a lot of songs that would SEEM to fit the show (Destiny’s Child “Survivor” had been one consideration last season) they don’t always work with the content perfectly.  And after season 1’s “End of the World As We Know it” video, it seemed like the very best possible song had been used, so rather than do an extensive music search that may not result in something fresh or “stepped up” – the idea came up to create our own theme song.  Cue Jingle Punks, a music agency that we’d wanted to work with before that is known for writing original tracks and recording with emerging artists to create real, legit songs, not just promo music.  Their work with Lynyrd Skynyrd for a “Pawn Stars” campaign was a good example of elevating the music beyond just a catchy jingle into a robust event idea.  Just the idea of writing our own pop song that could speak to the new season’s stories felt like a “stepped up” creative idea that really would evolve the campaign.

Jingle Punks’ Jared Gutstadt’s axes in LA, reporting for duty. Photo by Jared Gutstadt.

TAKEAWAY #2: COPY, TRANSFORM, COMBINE. (A FAMILIAR TAKEAWAY)

So we set out with Jingle Punks (JP) to figure out what to create musically. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to make a song that felt like a “real” pop song that people would want to listen to, that just happened to be about Preppers.  But it wasn’t as easy as it seemed to find that perfect sound that captured the entertaining nature of the show that was also catchy.  In the beginning we explored some sounds that were a little more blues-y and Americana, and JP came up with several new song sketches that were inspiration tracks to determine an overall sound.  But after hearing a few examples, and knowing that the footage can look too intense or dark if paired with dramatic music, we asked to look at other possibilities for sounds. There were many different artists used for inspiration, including fun., Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit, and Vampire Weekend.  The Vampire Weekend track that was the inspiration was “Diane Young” which had a real raw energy, and a pop sound that felt like it balanced fun with edge nicely.  It was a good reminder in the process just how much inspiration and borrowing ideas is critical to the creative process. As I wrote about in a previous post, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being inspired by other ideas – copy, transform, combine: steal the idea, change it slightly, combine it with other influences, and voila – a new piece of creative is formed. That was true for both previous seasons’ key art, and we were doing it again, when Brian Everett found this Utah tourism ad that inspired the eventual key art:

And music perhaps more than any other medium is the perfect example of the Copy/Transform/Combine concept, as Kirby Ferguson’s “Everything is a remix” video series captures so perfectly.  In the case of Doomsday Preppers, we looked to other songs for inspiration – then transformed them and combined them with elements from the show’s new episodes.  JP wrote two new sketches based on this new direction, along with a first pass of lyrics and we were underway.

Jeff Peters writes in the main Jingle Punks New York studio. Photo by Conrad Doucette.

TAKEAWAY #3: GIVING MUSIC FEEDBACK IS HARD.

I say this all the time – giving creative feedback on music is one of the hardest parts of my job. We do original compositions fairly frequently, (none with the ambition/scale of this song) and I always struggle a bit because music seems so much more subjective, and saying “well, I just didn’t like it” feels like the least helpful direction ever.  In some of the early cuts, the song just didn’t feel right yet – the hook needed work, and parts of the song needed to feel more fun.  Jingle Punks was extremely responsive and would quickly turn around new options, and since we were going to be recording with the artist as the last step, we had time to play.  So despite our “hmm, can we make it better?” type of classic-client feedback, JP did an awesome job of tweaking and fine tuning the track until we were totally happy. The takeaway here is that it’s always going to be difficult to give music feedback – and you sometimes have to just go with your gut, and your subjective opinion. But perhaps the most important part is choosing a partner to work with that can either interpret your vague client-speak very well (as long as the client has an idea of what they DO want), or will keep pushing forward with new options until you both find something that works. JP did both of those very well, and that attitude was essential for the project’s success in the end.

Luke Silas checks in with other composers while working in one of Jingle Punks’ New York studio rooms. Photo by Conrad Doucette.

TAKEAWAY #4: WRITING LYRICS IS FUN, BUT COLLABORATING ON THEM IS BETTER.

After some back and forth and tweaking the song, JP had successfully captured the fun, intense attitude of the show, and the rough lyrics had some great lines and themes.  But the lyrics were still missing a few classic Doomsday Preppers terms to make sure it cut through as an original song about prepping.  The next phase was a classic case of Jingle Punks trusting the Client.  We’d seen every episode for the previous 2 seasons, and we knew the stories from the new season – we were simply closer to the actual content so we stepped in and took the structure they had laid out and started re-writing some of the lines.  I was a little nervous about their reaction (since it was our first time working with them) and wasn’t sure how they’d take some of our suggestions, and re-writes, but there was no need.  “Collaborating with the client isn’t all that different from collaborating with artists.  In fact, some of the coolest musical collaborations I’ve been a part of have been with non-musicians—it was refreshing to go through the note process with people who had the confidence to decisively say ‘Let’s go with ‘x’ or ‘y’ option’ each step of the way, as opposed to being unsure about their opinion.” says Jared Gutstadt of JP.  “Working with a client that had strong, decisive opinions on the work was refreshing, and that came across in the final work.”  What made that process so fun was that we really owned the final result together, having truly collaborated on a fun piece of music. The lyrics were a hybrid of JP-written lines – “Think they’ve died and gone to heaven, celebrating Armageddon” and what we came up with – “After the first blast, they’ll be laughing last.”  The new lyrics also included callouts to this season’s stepped-up preps, such as:

“Preppers aren’t like you or me, they build fortresses up in trees…”

“They put their preps in steel tubes, the best part is they’re waterproof…”

And of course, the most insightful lyrics came from a different collaborator entirely:

Screengrab from music video. Lyrics by Prepper dog.

So we went back and forth, tweaking the lines and timings along the way, wanting to get the language perfect before we brought in the final recording artist to track the song. Anecdotally, I was fortunate to work on a Dog Whisperer campaign last year that parodied “Hello” by Lionel Ritchie, and what I have learned from both experiences is that writing rhyming parody lyrics and then hearing a real musician sing them is good fun. (Takeaway #5: Have fun, and don’t be too cool to admit it when you’re having fun.)

Final vertical key art by Arsonal Design.

POSTSCRIPT.

The final track was completed, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result. The song felt ‘legit’, and the lyrics connected perfectly with the new season’s storylines. And the final artist who recorded it added that “real” quality to it, giving some new accents and grit to the vocals and lyrics. Anatomy cut a :45 version for our air, and Nat Geo Sr. Creative Editor Brannon Shiflett cut a longer 1:45 music video that was used for some long lead press, online, and social media sharing. Carla and Adam tweaked the graphics and color correct to match the campaign look we’d established, and added in the ‘bouncing ball’ lyric lines to make sure that the lyrics we’d worked so hard on were clear! One of our concerns was that people would not listen close enough and might miss that it was a custom song – perhaps it was overkill, but the design execution was so fun, it seemed like a good move to make. Our internal marketing team jumped on board with the song, putting it on a “Doomsday” Spotify playlist as well as making it available for download.  Combined with a robust TV campaign, we also created a piece of key art that also lived up to the “Step Up The Prep” theme, showcasing a family’s over-the-top preps, which was featured in an extensive digital campaign.  I love the final creative on this campaign – trying to keep the marketing fresh and different on a returning series can be a challenge but everyone truly stepped it up, and a big thanks to Jingle Punks, Anatomy Media, Adam Gault, Arsonal, Brannon Shiflett, and Nicole, Carla, Tyler & Brian from the Nat Geo Creative Team . Thank you!

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Full-length music video:

:45 Cutdown music video:

“Killing Kennedy” – Painting An Icon. (part 2 of 2)

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Working on the campaign for the upcoming movie “Killing Kennedy” on The National Geographic Channel is another great case study of collaboration and creativity. In Part 1 of this post, I covered in great detail the print, key art and video portion of the production. As I’m always looking for new stories and takeaways (and collaborators) to talk about, this entry takes on a whole different aspect of the campaign.

THE JOB.

We’re still talking “Killing Kennedy” (read part 1 if you have not yet) – but as this campaign was planned to be one of the biggest of the year, I wanted to push into new areas of creative beyond the ‘standard’ explorations.  So I reached out to someone I’d been wanting to work with for a while, but never had the right project to collaborate with him on…until now. (That line probably sounded more ‘Michael Bay’ than it is meant to.)

COLLABORATIVE PARTNER – SAM SPRATT.

Before I get to the marketing, challenges, and takeaways, let’s talk about Sam Spratt, who is really the main subject of this post. I first ran across Sam’s work on Twitter, and then Tumblr, and after digging into his portraits and paintings I knew that I would find a project sometime, somehow, that would be perfect for his talents. It didn’t take too long before I discovered that Sam was a good friend and collaborator with Joey L., our photographer on Killing Kennedy. They had partnered together on some projects, and clearly he had a similar creative style and operating principle – “we’re in this together.”  When the creative development for “Killing Kennedy” began to ramp up, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Self-portrait by Sam Spratt.

PSSHAWW…MARKETING.

The goals remained the same for the campaign: make the film feel big, like a Hollywood movie. Sell the dual nature of the story – not only was it the Kennedy story, but also the Oswald story, one not known as well. We had accomplished those goals so far with our more classic elements in TV and print.  However, when it comes to this creative element I’m writing about, I’m going to be pretty honest.  There was not a strategic goal, or an underlying objective that would work with our media plan.  I simply hired Sam because I thought what he could bring to the campaign would be really cool, and I knew that we’d find a place for it in the mix of elements once we finished it. (Spoiler alert: more on this later in my “Takeaways.”) Sure, that can be a risk, but in this case it felt like the perfect match between assignment and creative.

THE ASSIGNMENT.

What I wanted to do was a portrait of JFK and Oswald – something purely creative, unique and memorable, to capture some of the emotion from the film. We also wanted to do a companion poster featuring their two wives, Jackie and Marina. Having seen some examples of portraits that Sam had done, I knew it would work. What I loved was that he could paint well-known figures, but always give a little twist to the image that took it beyond a simple rendering of a familiar person. Here are some examples of Sam’s work that demonstrate that twist that takes it beyond just straight portraits into something more reflective of deeper themes and meanings.

Breaking Bad meth kingpin Walter White, painting by Sam Spratt.

Janelle Monae “The Electric Lady” album cover by Sam Spratt.

James Bond by Sam Spratt. (Note the lipstick stain.)

CHALLENGES.

We (and by ‘we’ I really mean Sam – he did all the work) had a few challenges going into this assignment.  One of them was something that I talked about in Part 1, and that was the balance between making JFK clearly look like JFK, without losing Rob Lowe. To make Ginnifer, Michelle and Will look like their respective characters, but still to retain their attributes as well. We weren’t trying to create a straight painting of JFK – that had been done:

Portrait of JFK by Aaron Shikler.

We wanted to make more of a movie-poster portrait, featuring the two main characters of the film, and adding some more stylistic elements that would speak to the film’s deeper and more resonant themes.  As Rob Lowe has said before about his JFK performance, it is less about imitation and more about inhabitation. The other challenge was just figuring out what elements we could add to the portraits that would serve as the ‘twist’ to imply deeper meaning – and that would also connect the two images so they could work together.

TAKEAWAY #1: STEP AWAY AND LET SAM GO.

Conceptually, most of the groundwork had already been laid by Joey L’s shoot – we had tons and tons of imagery to pull from to determine what that composition would be. Sam’s job was just to translate those ideas into illustrations. Like any painting, he began with sketches. (Please note, from here on out, all quotes in this entry are directly from Sam)  “I explored silhouettes, character hierarchy, and mostly balanced/symmetrical ideas.” So we looked at a range of sketch concepts, and there was one clear winner among them.

The three initial sketch concepts.

We landed on sketch 1 for a couple of reasons:  “Number 1, it allowed a close-up of Rob Lowe which would let me really do my thing and paint the balance of his baseline anatomy and that of JFK. And # 2, the composition informed the concept of the film in a simple and succinct way. It was a quick read even if there were no type to say what the image was about.”  This was clearly the right picture to us, as it showcased the actors, and the inclusion of the flag in concept 1 immediately gave us the symbol we were looking for to explore those deeper themes.  Not to mention that the similarity in layout to the final key art helped tie it in with the rest of the campaign.  The great aspect of working with Sam was how collaborative he was. He truly liked all 3 and was ready to go with any of them, but agreed that #1 allowed us the flexibility and structure we needed.  He also established a strong color palette, and introduced the idea of muting Oswald’s coloring so that JFK would stand out as well as visually giving us a hero and a villain.  “I took into account Kennedy’s higher contrast and detail as a more prominent figure and Oswald’s more sketchy, loose, and clouded appearance. The technique and color (or lack there of) informed the concept.”

Color treatments and brush stroke suggestions from Sam.

TAKEAWAY #2: DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

After our initial briefing, Sam knew that the goal was to ride that line between JFK and Rob Lowe.  At National Geographic, authenticity is clearly a brand hallmark, so Sam did his homework.  “I did basic revisions to the two figures by studying their respective historical counterparts’ anatomies and bringing elements of that in – despite Rob Lowe’s already pretty impressive likeness to JFK, the luxury of painting a portrait instead of shooting one is that we could bring more of Kennedy’s features in – jowls, earlobes, nose, lips, brow, hair line, hair style, baggy eyes, etc. And do so all only so far as to blur the line between the two and hopefully give an instant read of Kennedy from afar and Lowe as Kennedy upon a second glance. I used a color palette and technique that was era appropriate, leaving darker areas with thinner color letting the underlying canvas show through, and the more vibrant highlight being thick and textural. When we later moved on to the female portrait, the same principals applied but with a lighter touch to accommodate their smoother features. In fact, Ginnifer’s skin in particular is so porcelain perfect that I had to paint it far rougher than it actually is.”  Sam studied in great detail the anatomy and look of both our actors and the individuals, and the final result reflects just that.

Initial sketch concept for the ‘female’ portrait by Sam Spratt.

TAKEAWAY #3: COLLABORATION IS AN ARTFORM UNTO ITSELF.

Other than the general revisions we had for positioning and head angles and such for our figures, the real key to the success of the paintings lay in the ‘twist’ I spoke of earlier – and that was the flag.  The American Flag is  an obvious icon to use when creating a Presidential portrait, but we set out to treat it in a new way. Sam had initially sketched it as a solid flag, but after we had done so much thinking previously on the TV and print campaigns, the idea of the assassination “tearing apart America” gave us some ideas on how the flag could be re-interpreted.  We asked for some examinations that would have the flag ripping apart rather than in pristine condition. Sam was of course totally into it, and his first initial sketches and color samples had the flag tattered and torn, almost disintegrating at the edges, as if it had been whipped by wind and beaten down.

Early version of the male illustration with tattered flag.

But when I saw the tattered flag, it didn’t feel right. It felt a little too much like a tattered pirate flag – and while I may have been been guilty of overthinking it, I also felt like the assassination of JFK was a sudden, stark moment. His death wasn’t a long, drawn out, tattered process – it was immediate, and the ‘seams’ pulled apart quickly.  I imagined the flag coming apart at the stripes, more of a bold separation than fibrous distortion.  After a very quick 2 minute phone conversation with Sam (while I was standing at LAX airport searching for a charger) we were on the same page and as always, Sam was totally into it. “I like to be able to reference how things work before I draw them in most instances.  In the case of this painting of the flag I wanted to understand the physics of it. To do so, I tore up a pillow case into several strips, and while perhaps a high-powered fan would’ve done the job, I pranced (literally pranced) around the room waving the cloth around and took note of its behavior. Prancing worked, we got the flag to where we wanted it, and it was smooth sailing from there.” So while takeaway #2 could have easily been “prance around with fabric strips to learn their motion behavior” I think that the collaboration and flexibility on Sam’s part to conceptually deliver what we all wanted was huge. After he nailed the look, we had some of the ‘tendrils’ wrap around the gun barrel to add an extra integrated look.

As we finished out the JFK/Oswald portrait, tweaking and finessing the background treatment and final coloring, I was so grateful that he never once treated the process as “his” artwork and the client would have to “take it or leave it” but rather it was a partnership amongst us to achieve the creative goals and artistic aesthetic.  “The flag shift is in my eyes, a great instance of where creative direction can trust and understand the artists they work with, doing a general job of honing in an idea, but make some very key choices that really bring the final product together.”

Final painted image of JFK and Oswald, by Sam Spratt.

TAKEAWAY #4: LOOK TO YOUR OWN CAMPAIGN FOR INSPIRATION.

As I mentioned earlier, much of the campaign’s heavy lifting had been done with our shoot in June with Variable and the Mill, and as we moved past the JFK/Oswald illustration, we now needed to create the Jackie/Marina portait. Luckily, this part of the process went quite quickly, as we knew we wanted an almost identical pose, but just flip-flopped so that they could be mirror images of one another.  We had the flag, of course, but what we weren’t sure of was what to DO with the flag. We still liked the idea of that “tearing apart” notion from the film, but didn’t want to use the exact same execution.  As we thought about it a little more, the answer became obvious. In our video shoot with the talent, we had used confetti flying along the parade route as a way to A)demonstrate the optimism in America before the assassination and B)As a means to show the reverse path of the bullet – having confetti rise/float helped sell that idea quickly. Turning the flag in the portrait into confetti at the ending tied in perfectly with that same idea already being used in all of the promos, and connected nicely to the rest of the campaign. Additionally, Jackie had a bouquet of red roses in her lap at the moment when JFK was shot, which was something we’d used in the video as well. Having Jackie hold the red roses, while petals were floating around here and merging with the red stripes of the flag was perfect. Being able to tie into those two other elements gave Sam more material to build out the painting, and transform the flag once again.

Final painting of Jackie and Marina, by Sam Spratt.

TAKEAWAY #5: CREATIVE FOR CREATIVE’S SAKE – IS A GOOD THING.

Someone once told me that in TV marketing we should never just do “creative for creative’s sake.”  Meaning that everything should be planned, and meticulously targeted, and done with a distinct purpose or audience in mind.  Well, they were wrong. Yes, much of what we do needs to be all of those things – strategic, targeted, integrated, etc, etc. But sometimes it’s perfectly fine to do something – just because.  To explore a creative path, and get lost in it, and when you come out the other side, you may have something really special. It’s the only way you’ll be able to take risks and discover something that you wouldn’t have if you’d been focusing solely on the brief or the audience profile, or whatever it might be. Sometimes you just create something (or in this case, commission something) because it seems like it’s just going to be cool, and will get attention just for what it is – not for a target it may or may not hit.  That’s something that’s easy to forget sometimes. And this aspect of the Kennedy project was done just because, to try something new and play in a new space creatively that we hadn’t before and to work with an artist who does incredible work. And it proved once again that doing creative for creative’s sake can be a very good thing to do.

POSTSCRIPT.

The Sam Spratt illustrations have been a huge hit internally, and elements from the artwork were used in PR mailers and booklets, as well as used to get some further press coverage on US Weekly. We also are getting our principal actors to sign copies, and posters and signage were used at premiere events around the country. We also have an experiential marketing campaign using the art, here are some pictures of that:

Photos of the period-appropriate Newsstand in NYC.

Overall, the creative process with Sam was not only seamless and collaborative, but also a great creative learning experience for me. Thank you Sam Spratt for all of your incredible work on this project, painting an American Icon.

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Final horizontal JFK/Oswald artwork by Sam Spratt.

Final Jackie/Marina horizontal artwork by Sam Spratt.

“Killing Kennedy” – TV and Print Campaign (Part 1 of 2)

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In previous posts, I’ve been focusing on projects from the past year or so and dissecting and discussing them in hindsight. Well, the next two posts are going to change that up a bit and focus more on a campaign that is out now, and the show hasn’t even aired.  Regardless, the intent of this blog remains the same – not to shamelessly promote an upcoming show, but rather to discuss the process that went into the campaign, and hopefully share some helpful insights.

Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin as JFK and Jackie. Photo by Joey L.

THE JOB.

“Killing Kennedy” is a follow-up, of sorts, to the hugely successful film “Killing Lincoln” (which I discussed in the most recent blog post before this one) on the National Geographic Channel. The book was co-authored by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, telling the story of two men on a collision course to that fateful moment in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas in 1963 – 50 years ago this November. This film is a huge endeavor for NGC for a few reasons.  It has incredible talent in the 4 key roles: Rob Lowe as JFK, Will Rothhaar as Oswald, Ginnifer Goodwin as Jackie and Michelle Trachtenberg as Marina Oswald. It also is the first 100% scripted drama for the Channel, with no narrator or voiceover telling the story. To enter the scripted space, with such an iconic and riveting event from American History, is an exciting challenge.

Rob Lowe as JFK under the enveloping glow of the Briese light.

MARKETING TALK.

We wanted to make it big, showcase our A-list talent, and give it depth and dimension.  While the thrilling and intense ending (spoiler alert!) with the assassination is gripping and surreal, before that happens it’s actually quite an emotional film that takes us inside the lives of the four principal characters’ lives. Similarly to how “Killing Lincoln” was marketed as a dual story of Lincoln and Booth, this film’s uniqueness lies in telling the Oswald story.  Seeing what motivated his actions, and delving into his personal life in greater detail is a story not that well known. The strength of the film is that it is both thrilling and emotional, as it tells this unforgettable story in American history.

Rob Lowe as JFK. Photo by Joey L.

CHALLENGES.

Once again, as with “Killing Lincoln” we had a Hollywood movie to contend with – the release of “Parkland” just one month prior to our premiere was certainly not ignored. We saw their trailer (which is excellent) and thought about what our film had that theirs did not. The Oswald story clearly was an angle that their marketing didn’t embrace, and their key art was graphic and simple, just an illustration of a flag at half-mast. Clearly less is more, but it cannot be mistaken for our film’s marketing materials.

“Parkland” key art/poster.

“Killing Kennedy” final key art. Photo by Joey L.

I have not yet seen “Parkland” at the time of this post, but I am guessing that they took a more graphic key art approach because Paul Giamatti playing 8mm filmmaker Abraham Zapruder doesn’t immediately bring to mind the JFK story since not many people know what Zapruder looked like. The other challenge is that with November being the 50th anniversary of the assassination, the market is bound to be crowded with JFK programs and events, so needing to stand out and feel different is important. A final challenge for this project was that JFK has been portrayed by many different actors in many different films over the years.  With Rob Lowe as JFK, we felt like we had the perfect actor in place – he nailed the famous accent, and he looked very much the part. While we wanted to make sure we had talent who looked like a ringer for the real person, we also wanted to make sure it was clearly Rob Lowe, since he is a very well known actor and on-screen talent.  Balancing those two factors – making sure it was clearly JFK AND Rob Lowe was something that really came into play with print and key art, as we went through hundreds of images to select the ones that felt like the perfect blend.

Variable DP Khalid Mohtaseb lights the client’s son visiting the set on pre-light day.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS.

While I fully admit this may sound like a broken record for this blog, we once again turned to our great friends and co-collaborators Variable and Joey L. for this project. As you will see in the next takeaway, there’s a reason for that. But before we get to that first takeaway, we also added another few partners into the mix for our TV campaign, and those were The Mill and Dan Marks of South District films.  Early on, before we started any creative development, we knew we wanted to use what we had learned on the “Killing Lincoln” campaign – and also step up the production quality even more in the final on-screen product.

Will Rothhaar as Lee Harvey Oswald. Photo by Joey L.

We knew we wanted to include a visual effects partner to help us get to that goal, and since Variable had an existing relationship with The Mill from projects like the “Vikings” open title sequence, it seemed like a perfect fit. We also worked closely with the editor Dan Marks at every stage in the project on the spots that The Mill was not going to be cutting. An additional consideration was finding a way to inject more emotional resonance into this campaign. With new Creative Director Tyler Korba joining the NGC team, we added an incredible writer and storyteller that could help elevate the spot beyond the stunning visuals – and could bring in a new depth to the promos.  Between all of these talented people (and another incredible collaborative partner that I’ll discuss in Part 2 of this series), we had an absolute dream team to help us bring this campaign to life.

Director Jon Bregel capturing personal moments between Jackie and JFK. Photo by Cale Glendening.

Oswald in the window – Red Epic frame grab shot by Jon Bregel.

TAKEAWAY #1: GO WITH WHO GOT YOU THERE.

Almost immediately after we knew that “Killing Kennedy” was going to be on NGC, I had a pretty good feeling that we’d partner up with Variable and Joey again. Here’s just a few of the similarities of the production between “Killing Kennedy” and “Killing Lincoln”:  1) Both were shot in Richmond, VA. 2) Both were filmed and produced by RSA, Ridley Scott’s production company. 3) Many of the film’s crew were the same, including props and art direction, as well as producers and executives. 4) We had only 2 days to get everything we were going to need with talent, which all needed to be coordinated with a crew that was IN production on the film. 5) We needed to shoot a lot of stills and TV elements, requiring intense collaboration between TV and print teams.  6) The films were both rather similar in content, obviously covering assassinations of iconic Presidents with the stories putting just as much emphasis on the assassins as the victims.

Art Director/Set Designer Joe Sciacca putting the finishing touches on the set, with an indoor grassy knoll.

With all of these parallels in terms of creative and logistics, it just made sense to jump into it with partners who understood our objectives and were also very familiar with the production realities of Richmond.  And of course, since “Killing Lincoln” was the Channel’s highest rated two hour special in history, we had a good track record for success. I think sometimes it can be tempting to go with ‘new’ just for the sake of it but sometimes when you go with who got you there the first time, you’ve covered a huge amount of ground without having to say a thing. Early and often, it proved to be a great decision, as those established relationships between teams and even smaller details like knowing contacts at the sound stage where we shot was very beneficial to the production. All of those little bits of knowledge from the Lincoln production added up, and allowed us to devote more time to creative ideation, since so much is already known about the location and players involved. And while there were some unexpected wrinkles that came up, once more the insanely prepared and thorough team at Variable was ready for them. And beyond the logistical component of picking Variable, we also knew that stylistically we need a team that could adapt and change visually. Lincoln, in many ways, felt like a campaign entirely lit by candlelight. Moody, dark, brooding and almost monochromatic worked perfectly for a story set in 1865. For Kennedy, we wanted to introduce more light, and inject that sunny feeling in America that Kennedy’s Presidency embodied. The campaign needed that hint of optimism – before it was turned upside down by the assassination. We knew that the team in place would be able to make those creative adjustments, and reflect this evolution in the lighting and mood.

Pre-light day with the 40-foot softbox light.

TAKEAWAY #2: YOU’RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR IDEA. AND YOUR PITCH.

With a movie event this big, with talent of this caliber, we knew that everyone internally was going to want to know what we had up our sleeve for this campaign.  This is the part of the process that often goes overlooked, and that is the internal sell-in to MY “clients.”  Once we had locked in an idea with Variable and The Mill after many weeks of discussion, revisions, tweaks, re-writes and collaboration, we had a very nice PDF with .mov samples of visual effects, audio files of JFK’s last speech (which we tentatively planned to use as a backbone to the creative), 8mm and time-period appropriate images of JFK and Oswald, and even some schematics for our “bullet in reverse” concept. Rama Allen, the director from The Mill, was incredibly passionate and collaborative, and discovered some incredible ideas we never thought of, such as using the haunting and foreboding final speech by JFK on the day of his death. Rama’s passion for this project never waned and can be seen and felt all the way through to the final product.

Schematic of the bullet’s path and where the camera would pick it up along the way.

There was no doubt that the idea was strong – essentially, we wanted to follow the path backwards of the fateful bullet that took JFK’s life – and go in reverse through the car, the crowd, the trees and into the muzzle of the rifle. At the same time we would be intercutting ‘real’ moments – “snapshot memories” that would be shot in 8mm or treated Red footage that would be tracing the moments before the assassination in the lives of Oswald, Jackie and JFK.

That feeling of going backwards and forwards towards that same moment simultaneously captured the “two paths colliding” notion of the film.  In another recurring theme from The Client Blog, we also entered the shoot with options. One was to have the spot use JFK’s final speech as the VO backbone, and another option was to script something using Oswald as the narrator. Tyler Korba penned 3 incredible scripts, and we were locked and loaded with lots of options to figure out in edit. In addition to capturing materials that would be used on that one specific promo, we’d also overshoot footage of our actors and extras and props with the goal of having coverage for additional promos, sizzle reels, and marketing materials. Now it was my job to ensure that the great idea got through. In the course of 2 weeks, I pitched the concept about 15 times (I lost count) to different teams, whether it was the show runners, the Executive Producer, our CEO, CMO, President, Press, our marketing team, Ad Sales, Research, International Partners, and the list goes on and on. It’s a good reminder that there’s still more work to be done after the creative process between the outside team and my team before I, as “the client” can fully green light the concept and production. The beauty was that The Mill and Variable had armed me with all of the tools to blow people away, and we’d done so much collaboration on every single aspect of the idea that I wasn’t selling in someone else’s idea – it was all of our idea, created and collaborated on together.

Will Rothhaar as Lee Harvey Oswald. Photo by Joey L.

TAKEAWAY #3: PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION.

It’s a very obvious statement to say that preparation is the key for success. But it cannot be emphasized enough that in an endeavor such as this one, you need to over-prepare so that you leave yourself the room to discover great opportunities once you begin. This shoot was also unique in terms of just straight up logistics. We ran 3 or 4 different sets at the same time, all under the same roof, and we had 6 different locations within that space where we were physically shooting any any time. Our creative concept was such that we not only needed straight coverage, shot guerrilla style with the talent, but we also needed to shoot very elaborate visual effects on Phantom Flex cameras with the team from The Mill. So we had 3 units – the Phantom Unit overseen by Rama Allen of The Mill, the Red Unit helmed by Jon Bregel of Variable, and the still photography team led by Joey L.

The entire layout of the sound stage, with multiple locations/crews/shots, using every possible square foot of space.

They were all sharing our 4 key talent, who were coming and going from set to set with a technical precision I still can’t believe ran so smoothly. Since we were working on the crew and talent’s weekend, we worked very hard to fill every moment and minimize downtime to get them in and out quickly. That meant that in one moment, Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin were shooting Phantom portraits in the Limousine on the feature set, while Will Rothhaar was doing gun closeups with Jon and the Red, while Michelle was doing still portraits with Joey…and so on, and so on.  We had a matrix of shots, sets, crews, and time that kept it all in line, and a huge amount of credit goes to Tyler Ginter, Alex Friedman of Variable, Kevin Lahr the Nat Geo production manager on the job, and the entire production team for making that all happen. And it was another classic example of how preparation can set up your entire shoot for success, and I even heard that Rob said it was one of the best shooting experiences of his entire career.

Joey L. on set.  Classic client move: Andy looking-over-the-photographer’s-shoulder. Photo by Cale Glendening.

TAKEAWAY #4: DON’T FORGET ABOUT PRINT – AND LET YOUR TALENT HELP YOU DISCOVER THE SHOT.

As I’ve stated in previous posts, it’s critical when planning a shoot of this size to not forget about the needs of the print and stills team. In this case, we entered the shoot with a detailed shot list and a whole series of concepts that we wanted to capture.  However, unlike with “Killing Lincoln” I entered the shoot with a bit of concern because I had not yet imagined what that key unforgettable image would be. With Lincoln, it was all about the two principal actors looking down the barrel of the lens right before the shot was fired. Simple, and unique and arresting. For this film, we had a few different challenges. We struggled with how to get Oswald and Kennedy in the same frame because they were never close to one another in proximity at the actual event to use a Lincoln-esque juxtaposition. Second, we knew that unlike the Lincoln story, “Killing Kennedy” also told the story from the wives’ POV – Jackie and Marina’s stories and perspectives.  Jackie is such a huge part of the story, it would be difficult to not include her in some way.  So the night before our still shoot, with sketches in hand, Joey and I looked at every angle around the limousine, trying to find a great angle to capture JFK and Jackie. We would of course shoot many gallery portraits of all of the characters – but how would we best capture the moment before the assassination that is so well known – but in a new and fresh way?  We had plenty of sketches and concepts for incredible art, but we weren’t sure which would be ‘the one.’  So on day 2 of the shoot, which was going to be the big day for still photography for Rob and Ginnifer in the car, Joey started shooting. As Joey directed the talent and got them comfortable in the moment, suddenly something magical happened – and Ginnifer put her head on Rob’s shoulder and started to cry.  It was an incredible moment and Joey went with it perfectly – this was The Shot we had been looking for. As JFK was looking into ‘the crowd’, Jackie had her head on her husband’s shoulder, as if she was mourning her husband before he even died.  It was unique, impromptu, and brilliant.  In the end, Ginnifer found that moment we wanted.  And once again, Joey’s ability to pre-prepare and collaborate not just with his client, but his talent and the entire production team gave us the flexibility and time to allow it to happen. The print shoot wasn’t wedged in sideways, around the video team’s priorities. We gave it the time, and the space, and the breathing room to find and shoot exactly what we needed. In the end, it was not the key art – we used a photo of Oswald and JFK – but it was a stunning image that reminded me of what can happen when working with incredible talent.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Rob Lowe. Photo by Joey L.

Behind the scenes of Joey L shooting ‘the shot’ with Rob and Ginnifer.

TAKEAWAY #5: YES, SHOOTING IS HARD. UNLESS IT’S WITH AN 8MM CAMERA.

One of the most fun parts of this production was that we had two 8mm cameras on set to shoot our snapshot memories sequences, and with the crew spread between so many sets, Jon Bregel offered me one of the 8mm cameras and said “shoot!” It was awesome, and refreshingly simple to do. I think one of my shots even made the final spot, or at least I like to think that’s the case!  At one point when we were outside shooting a scene with Will (re-enacting the iconic shot of Oswald with his rifle and papers) Jon asked me to shoot a little footage with the Red Epic. It had a tilt-shift lens on it so that you can shift where the focal point is within the shot, leaving some parts defocused and other parts sharpened. Let’s just say with me shooting that it was a #productionFAIL but I definitely had fun, and newfound respect for Jon’s skills shooting with this setup. But I also appreciated and respected how free they were giving me a camera and not even thinking twice about it. It’s not often that the client can break that wall and not only collaborate – but shoot, too.

“Who gave the client a camera!?”   “Nah, don’t worry – the mag’s empty.”

POSTSCRIPT?

Well, truthfully this story isn’t over yet. (And not because there’s still a Part 2 Kennedy blog to come) The show airs on NGC on November 10th, and hopefully it’s a great success. But no matter what, it was a fantastic campaign to work on. We captured some stunning footage, cut multiple promos, accomplished what we set out to do with the “Bullet” promo with The Mill, and delivered a multitude of incredible stills for our print and outdoor campaign.  Our very first promo piece (a :70 cut by Dan Marks for the Television Critics Association meeting in August) gained a lot of positive feedback, and generated one of my favorite (and proudest) tweets:

And the promo and behind-the-scenes video were both picked up by the Huffington Post in this article.  Below are a smattering of other materials cut from those two days in Richmond. In addition to the promo content, we set out with a slightly different goal for our behind-the-scenes shoot than previously. We wanted to tell a richer story than we had in prior BTS pieces, something that went deeper with full interviews with the people on the team. Cinematographer Cale Glendening shot the entire 3 day shoot and prep, and the video below (edited by Ian Rummer of Crave Media) gives a great feel for the production. Thank you to the many, many talented and creative people who worked so tirelessly and collaboratively on this entire project. And a huge thank you to Rob Lowe, Ginnifer Goodwin, Will Rothhaar and Michelle Trachtenberg for bringing their talents and a collaborative spirit to the set, it made for an incredible production.
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“Bullet” :45 promo:

Behind the Scenes Video:

TCA trailer:

Re-imagining history.

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For this next post, I’ll focus on photography, to showcase some takeaways from the print side of the broadcast business. But no matter whether you’re talking about video or photography, many of the takeaways I talk about on this blog are universal, and apply to whatever medium you might focus on, and this project is no different.

The client, working hard on-set. Photo by Jon Connor.

THE JOB.

“Killing Lincoln” was a hugely successful book, co-authored by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, telling the story about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent manhunt for his killer, John Wilkes Booth. It’s an incredible (and true) story that seems like a Hollywood story due to its intrigue, complexity, and drama. It was the perfect story for The National Geographic Channel’s first foray into scripted entertainment. It was being produced by Ridley Scott, and on the heels of the hugely successful scripted historical drama “Hatfields and McCoys” on the History Channel, the timing was perfect.

Photo of Billy Campbell as Abraham Lincoln by Joey L.

MARKETING, SCHMARKETING.

The marketing goals and objectives were pretty straightforward – sell it as a scripted, epic, cinematic film. Make it feel big, important, and true to the Nat Geo brand – high quality, entertaining authenticity. We had actor Billy Campbell cast as Lincoln, and late in the game we secured Tom Hanks to be the on-screen narrator. Along with Executive Producer Ridley Scott, we had the Hollywood talent we needed to get people’s attention. On the print side, we knew that we’d have a robust print and billboard media plan, especially in NYC and LA. The words “Times Square billboard” were said early, which set the bar high for us creatively. And finally, we wanted to tell this story and show it in a way that hadn’t been seen before, which leads us to our ‘challenges.’

Who gave the client a handgun?! Oh, wait, just a lighting test. Photo by Joey L.

CHALLENGES.

One of the principal challenges facing us was that the story of Lincoln’s assassination has been told before. Countless books, movies and documentaries have been created telling this story – many of the docs aired on our very own Channel. Not to mention that Spielberg was launching “Lincoln” starring Daniel Day Lewis that was in theaters only 3 months prior to our film’s premiere. But we got all Sun Tzu on this project, and we used that disadvantage to our advantage – we were able to clearly differentiate our film from others, both visually and in our story. Focusing so much on the John Wilkes Booth story was one big unique way in – to show him as a co-star of the film immediately signaled to the viewer that this would be a thriller, telling a story that we all know the ending to, but can’t wait to see it on screen. Our print challenges were great too – how do you make the imagery feel contemporary and high-quality, while remaining grounded in history and a degree of authenticity? We didn’t want to reinforce any bad National Geographic brand legacies of being ‘dusty’ or airing sleepy, voice-of-God documentaries.

Photo team tweaking. Photo by Jon Connor.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS.

After pairing with Variable and Joey L. on the Taboo and Boy Scouts campaigns, we knew that they were the perfect fit for the job. In fact, during our Boy Scout shoot, we started talking about “Killing Lincoln” ideas, sets, and even camera tech (this is where the Techno-Crane was first discussed, which we eventually used to great effect on the video side). And I knew that Joey L. would be the perfect still photographer for this job. His collaborative nature (both with Variable and with my team) was perfect, and his incredible ability to capture emotional yet restrained portraits was just what we were looking for. His very close connection to the video team was critical to the success of this job, which I’ll cover in depth later. SPOILER ALERT: Please check out Joey’s blog post HERE about lighting and setups for the Killing Lincoln campaign when you have finished this article – it’s a great read.

Inspirational photo of the real Abe

TAKEAWAY #1: PULL FROM YOUR OWN PERSONAL HISTORY/PASSIONS.

I was a history major in college, and my Senior Thesis was all about the days immediately after the Civil War ended. 1860s history was my favorite time period, and combining my love for history with filmmaking, photography and promos was the most interesting intersection I’d had in my career between my various passions. I had even read “Manhunt” a few years ago which tells basically the same Booth/Lincoln story. Combining that with working with Joey and the Variable team made this a project I’ll always cherish. This project was a great reminder that for any creative project you’re working on, to pull your creative ideas from your own passions, your own history, and your bank of knowledge you’ve built up – it will fuel your work and turn it from being a ‘job’ into more of a passion. For me, having studied so much about Lincoln, and being so familiar with imagery of him, I was intrigued with the notion of re-imagining the singular moment of assassination. So many photos from that time period have a haunting stillness to them, discoloration, and something eerily creepy to them. Being very familiar with that look was a huge help to kickstart the ideation process for what we wanted to capture in photography. In this case, I was lucky to be handed a project that fell right in line with my love of history – but I still pull from that passion all the time for other projects, too.

Joey L with actor Jesse Johnson. Photo by Jon Connor.

TAKEAWAY #2: SOMETIMES THAT FIRST IDEA IS THE BEST.

We’re always told as creatives to push beyond that first idea we have, which I generally agree with. Pushing past the first idea can often develop more imaginative, innovative or unexpected ideas. But in this case, the first idea I had felt distinctive and captured so much of what we needed for the campaign.  From the very beginning of this project, I had a very simple and singular idea that I couldn’t shake from my brain. I credit that idea from my history-background combined with a love for moody/dark imagery. It was simple, it stuck, and I never let it go. I wanted to re-imagine (not re-create) the moment right before Lincoln’s assassination. Build a set that was haunting and unsettling – not in a theater or on a balcony, but stripped of everything except for a floor, a chair, a gun and two men. And the clincher was that they would both be looking right down the barrel of the camera. Of course, that actual moment didn’t really happen the way I envisioned it, and that was the point. It was a new way to see an iconic moment in history. It would be from the simplest profile angle, shot wide, and lit quietly. We had many sketches for many different poses and concepts, and Joey shot hundreds of portraits, poses, and actions – but the singular idea of the gun to Lincoln’s head while they looked straight at you was what I really longed to capture. And I have NEVER had a more creatively gratifying feeling in my career than when Joey nailed it. The lighting was perfect, the angle, the setup, the expression, and the set were dead on. It was an exhilarating moment for me, and when everyone saw it on set with the nuances and direction from Joey, it was incredible. It became the campaign’s key art, and still hangs on my office wall today. Believing in that first idea in this case paid off – so if you believe in the idea strongly, don’t be afraid to make it happen.

Final Key Art. Photo by Joey L. Layout by Canyon Design Group.

Two sketch concepts created by Canyon Design Group.

Sketches brought to life in photos by Joey L.

TAKEAWAY #3: ENSURE COLLABORATION BETWEEN VIDEO AND PHOTO.

This takeaway is probably the most important, or most consistently true. Too often on set, video is given precedence over all else that needs to be captured. What worked so perfectly on this project was how collaboratively Joey and Variable worked to ensure that both video and photo got what they needed. We had a full 2 day shoot, and almost an entire day was devoted to stills. We didn’t try to wedge stills in sideways, or shoot video and ask the photo crew to jump in and use the exact same lights – we dedicated time and people to ensure that stills got their proper time. That took clear communication to make it happen, and that time became a massive benefit. We were able to light for each scene, to capture hundreds of incredible images, and we gave Joey enough time to improvise within each setup. To take it a step further, Joey and Khalid Mohtaseb, Variable’s DP, actually designed the main stage lighting setup together. They created mood boards and lighting references to ensure they were on the same page. And they worked closely with the art director/set designer Joe Sciacca to figure out how they would physically place the lights on set. The fact that so much of that was set before we even got on set was critical to ensure that our 2 days were wisely divided up.  While the main lighting setups varied a bit (bounced sources to light the entire set for video vs. strobes that concentrate light where the action is) the setups to go from one to the other were simple. I cannot recommend this sort of crew collaboration strongly enough though – and it does seem obvious, I’ll admit – ensure that video and stills are in absolute lock-step from the very beginning of the project at every phase. Variable has a unique setup in that when a job needs still photos, Joey jumps right in with them and has a close working relationship with their team. I would urge photographers or DP’s out there to do the same – partner up and establish those connections. As a client, it makes it easier when a video-based crew has that resource to offer up – “one-stop-shopping” as it were – and as a creative it clearly makes the sharing of lights/talent/sets easier when both the Photographer and Director are working from the same page from the very beginning, and work as one team – even sharing lights.  In the end, to do good work you clearly need to work with creative, talented people. But to elevate the work, to make something really great, it sometimes takes the tangible, logistical things being done behind the scenes to free up those same creative people to do even better work. Any great creative has an entire team behind them setting them up for success, which is exactly what happened on this job.

Joey L. shooting actors Billy Campbell and Jesse Johnson on the main stage. Photo by Jon Connor.

TAKEAWAY #4: SHOOT MANY OPTIONS.

We were on the home stretch of the campaign. Our first long-lead teaser had aired in November, the campaign was rolling out and getting ready to hit the streets. In addition to our TV campaign, we had a huge outdoor plan, including a triple-stacked Times Square billboard in Manhattan, and a giant board on the side of a skyscraper on Sunset Blvd in LA. The key art image was planned for both, and then tragedy struck. The massacre at Newtown, CT happened in mid-December, just days before our deadlines for outdoor. Immediately we knew we had to change our art, because of the gun right behind Lincoln’s head – it just felt too intense at a time when sensitivity to gun violence was at an all-time high. In NYC, no images of guns were permitted on billboards, and we knew an adjustment was the right thing to do. Luckily, when we had photographed the key art, we had time for many variations. Not only did we shoot the gun pointed up, we did a variety of poses with the gun in different positions. I was so focused on getting the gun up, I don’t even remember Joey shooting the alternate poses, but thankfully he did. We changed the key art for print and LA, and it didn’t take away from the image’s power. In NYC, we had also a portion of the media spent on wild postings – the posters you see glued to construction sites and abandoned walls and we quickly adapted that same technique to our billboard. Using simple words under solo portraits – “Hero” and “Villain” to capture the dual nature of how people viewed Booth and Lincoln, and how they viewed themselves, it made for an incredibly arresting and powerful billboard. I’d even argue that it turned out better for that location than if we had used the wider key art shot. Tight shots of great portraits are arresting and attention-grabbing, especially on a giant billboard. Here are shots of the final NYC billboards.

Photos by Joey L. Layout by Canyon Design Group.

POSTSCRIPT.

The campaign was extremely successful. “Killing Lincoln” was the highest rated 2 hour special in the Channel’s history. It got great buzz and opened up the possibilities of creating scripted programming on the Network. The materials all stood out as unquestionably different from the “Lincoln” art, which was all over a white background with just Lincoln featured. Having Booth ‘share’ the spotlight, and being inspired by the lighting and poses of original photos of Lincoln all helped it stand out from that ‘other’ Lincoln film. This campaign will always be special not just for the creative product that Joey, Variable and Good Penny (editorial on all promos) delivered. It was a true collaboration across the board, and I even got to collaborate a little with the history geek inside of me. Getting to ‘promote’ one of the most incredible stories in US history felt like an honor and a true joy – and getting to do it alongside so many talented people was an absolute privilege. It reinforced some of my key beliefs: never stop shooting, and give yourself the room to play. Joey has said to me many times that on a photo shoot, you want to give yourself the time, the right plan, and the opportunity so that you can discover things you’d never even thought of when sketching concepts so that you can take your photo from an 8, to a 10. Thank you to everyone involved for helping us get to a campaign that, in many ways, was a perfect 10.

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Below, you’ll find some video elements created for the campaign, including the first long-lead teaser as well as a behind-the-scenes video we cut from the two day shoot bonanza.

KILLING LINCOLN BTS:

TEASE PROMO

Going ‘High’ Concept.

First off, a big thank you to everyone who has commented, tweeted, liked, shared, blogged or emailed about The Client Blog! I cannot thank you all enough for the support and kind words – it’s been extremely gratifying to see the great response and enthusiasm for the content I’ve been sharing. The best part of all of this is that it’s a purely personal creative project that I thought would be an interesting addition to the industry, and it seems like many of you agree. So thank you for reading. A big thank you also to fstoppers.com for their very nice article about the blog. HERE is a link to that post that was recently published.

Concept Photo by Evolve IMG

This post is all about The Concept. I’ve always been a believer in creating The Concept first when coming up with ideas, and have long urged creatives on my team to pitch concepts, not executions. A concept is an idea, and an execution is the tactic to make that idea come to life. Once that concept is approved, THEN you figure out how you want to execute it. And that’s when the real challenges come in. This project demonstrates how important it is to not lose the forest for the trees, and in this job, we had a lot of trees. It’s also a great example of the type of project that is very common for my internal creative team to tackle – not a big budget, a fairly quick turnaround, an on-air only promotable (no print, no digital, no outdoor media). We did end up commissioning a shoot, but alas I was not able to attend it. The concept was written/conceived by Writer/Producer James Introcaso and Creative Director Tyler Korba. And as always, the collaboration between the three of us and our external partners was critical for success.

Photo by Evolve IMG. No drugs were used during the filming of this promo. Other than coffee.

THE JOB.

“Drugs, INC.” was a returning series on the National Geographic Channel. Each episode tells the story about different drugs in different cities, covering every aspect of the drug trade. It features inside access to growers, buyers, dealers, users and law enforcement – every link in the chain. The show treats the drug trade as a billion-dollar business, and looks at not only the effect and impact of drug use, but also at the money and power generated by their distribution.

No, this is not Hank from ‘Breaking Bad.’ We just call him Mr. Smokey. Photo by Evolve IMG

MARKETING STRATEGERY.

In the previous 3 or 4 seasons on-air, the show did well in the ratings, and was promoted and marketed in a fairly straightforward fashion. Show the drugs, interview the players and users, and use the gritty show footage to promote it. Since this was not a big off-channel priority with a media spend against it, it would have been very easy to just knock out a straight-up clip spot – soundbites from the show, a hot edit, and a gritty graphics treatment. After all, we’d done that to great success before. But we wanted to do something totally different this season. We wanted to announce to our audience that there were new episodes coming by creating a campaign with a different approach and visual aesthetic. We had run repeats of Drugs, INC. for the 2 months prior to the new episodes premiere, and were running the old promo for those repeats. Having a new campaign would really help differentiate the new episodes (Plus, it’s just a lot more fun for us, too) and signal “NEW!” to our viewers. Drugs, INC. is, in reality, a thoughtful and in-depth look at the issues surrounding the big business of drugs. So we set our sights a little higher to try something different strategically and creatively.

Mrs. Smokey. Photo by Evolve IMG.

THE CHALLENGES.

Don’t appeal to the lowest-common-denominator factor of the show. Don’t show lots of people using drugs. Don’t overdo or glamorize violence or guns. Come up with something fresh and smart. Oh, and the premiere night is the same night as this other little show about the drug trade called “Breaking Bad.” #NoBiggie.

Meth-lab cubicle.

THE CONCEPT.

The goal of this blog post is not to discuss the shoot as much as to discuss the concept that was conceived and delivered, and to talk about how important it is to stay completely focused on that concept from beginning through edit and delivery. More on that in the takeaways. But first – the concept itself. Drugs, INC. takes the unique approach of showing the drug trade as a BUSINESS. There are buyers, sellers, investors, losses, and gains. Competitors, products, consumers, marketers and makers, just like in a business (It is ‘Drugs, Incorporated‘ after all). So the concept was simple – apply the terminology usually associated with businesses and workplaces and show how the drug trade really isn’t that different from any other industry. Create double entendres for those terms that can mean one thing for the mainstream world, and another for the drug trade. Immediately, it becomes more relevant to people, and is an extremely simple and clear way to talk about the show – without just talking about the show.

Drug-slinging CEO.

THE COLLABORATORS.

We knew that in contrast to the simple, hand-held documentary-style look of the show, we wanted something a little more slick and hyper-real for the campaign spots. To make the point that the concept was trying to demonstrate, we needed to exaggerate reality a bit, and get some scenes that represent the terms in a way that very quickly and easily identified the parallel worlds. It was all going to be custom shot, and with a :30 promo using multiple terms, we knew we needed a lot of footage shot, and it all needed to look really choreographed and stylized to make our point. So we turned to our good friends and collaborators at Evolve IMG to shoot, edit, design, and deliver the promos for this campaign. Since it was just for TV promos to air on NGC, there was no print or still photography needed. We’ve collaborated with Evolve on numerous campaigns, and they always bring incredible cinematography, passion and drive to every single job. We had a pretty quick turnaround, and we chose them because they are able to shoot and post their work quickly and effectively, and they work extremely collaboratively with our team. When it came to shooting and post, we were still the ‘client’ – but that heavy lifting on the front end was done totally internally. Having that full ownership and development of the concept and idea falling on us made it even less of a traditional client/agency situation. We were the agency, and Evolve was our partner in the project to bring it to the screen.

An actor getting thrown out of a van. Because the term “downsizing” wasn’t drug-related enough, we ended up eliminating the shot . How ironic.

TAKEAWAY #1: WRITE THE SCRIPT. TWEAK IT. DISCUSS IT. EDIT IT. TWEAK SOME MORE.

We knew the visuals had to be intense, and clear, and memorable, but nothing was more important to the spot’s success than the script. We needed the perfect choice of words & terms, and each and every one was discussed and refined over and over again. Many, many terms were thrown out that didn’t make the final edit and shot list, including: office supplies, consumers, glass ceiling, research, commute, downsizing, receptionist, and many more. Some felt too office-related, some too big-business (“Market Crash” for example, would’ve used a shot of a crashing meth-user) and didn’t have enough of a correlation to the drug trade. Some were terms that weren’t short and succinct enough (‘Balance the Budget’) and some were terms but not cliche and corporate enough. “Company Perks” for example, was replaced with “Benefits Package.” Each and every term had to really work quickly and cleverly, and be colloquial and corporate. We nit-picked every single term to make sure each one was viable and lived up to the promise. There had to be a balance of terms, too because we wanted to cover all of the stages of the drug trade, including selling, buying, using, making and busting. That back and forth between me and my team felt at times like we (well, maybe me) were overthinking it, (playing the classic role of “The Client”, perhaps?!) but in the end we knew that the spot would live and die by the words, so we had to get them right. We had a final list of about 15-20 terms that we sent to Evolve to start brainstorming shot possibilities and lock down locations. We also asked them to shoot for other terms that weren’t on the ‘official’ list to have as potential backup options.

DP Joel Edwards of Evolve tests out the gun-cam mount for the “Hostile Takeover” term. (Jesse Edwards photo bomb.)

Same 5D gun-mount – different badass Facebook profile pic being taken.

PRODUCTION AND A FAMILIAR TAKEAWAY #2: SHOOT, SHOOT SHOOT.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, unfortunately I was not able to attend this shoot. I really wish I had been able to because it was my favorite kind of shoot – multiple units, multiple cameras (Red Epic, Phantom Flex, 5D gun-mounts) ripping tons and tons of footage. If you’ve read The Client Blog before, you know that’s a pretty consistent theme – constant shooting, quick setups as well as longer, more elaborate setups – the goal being to get footage to cover multiple promos to launch the season, and episodic promos for each week of the campaign. We went into the production knowing that we wanted to cover the 15 or so terms, but not knowing which would be the final 8 or 9 in the :30 spot. Even though from the outset we knew that simple was the way to go – and by simple, I mean that we didn’t want this to be a cut-heavy spot. It needed to have a term and a shot to correlate it. We didn’t envision a huge edit-storm of footage in the final spot. But to ensure that we were covered both ways, Evolve went in with the goal of shooting a lot, and seeing what played best on-screen. James was able to attend the shoot, and spent the next two days in sketchy hallways, factories, hotels, streets, and alleys – shooting, tweaking, and collaborating with Evolve to find the right mix of style and substance for each scenario.

Mike Bove, Evolve DP Joel Edwards and NGC Producer James Introcaso check out the monitor. Not at shoot: Andy, weeping silently at home.

TAKEAWAY #3: WHEN THE CONCEPT IS STRONG, ALL ELSE SHOULD BE SECONDARY.

We loved this concept. It fit the show, and everyone loved it internally when we pitched it up the food chain. We just needed to pick the best terms, and make sure that the concept came through clearly. The ‘problem’ was that we shot for two days and pretty much every single scene looked awesome. We had guys getting thrown out of vans, bottles being broken over heads at 2500fps, sketchy bugged-out drug users, dealers throwing wads of cash on dancing groupies, car chases, meth labs, flames, bats, cash, guns, drugs, and thugs. This was the time when we had to make tough decisions and focus-focus-focus on the concept. It took a lot of restraint and editing to get the sequence right. Evolve gave us lots of options – and the footage was all incredible. Early on, the edit felt like we were trying to force tons of insane footage into the cut – but at the expense of the concept. We kept reminding ourselves: be slaves to our concept – NOT to our shots. Yes, a guy getting thrown out of a van was cool. Especially shot on a FLEX. And damn if I don’t love a slow-mo shot. But does “Downsizing” really feel right when talking about the drug trade? It felt more like a Mafia term. So we started cutting out terms that, despite being strong visuals, just didn’t fit into the build and spirit of the spot. And for the first three terms, we used one single shot – “briefcase” “direct deposit” and “cubicle” had to be simple edits to establish the ‘gag’ early. There was no need for cutting away, or different angles, or edits. Show a bag with cash in it closing, and add the title. Less is more. It’s said all the time, but not often used. Less is more. As the spot ramps up in intensity, we started introducing a few more edits, but still – we stayed true to the concept. The takeaway here is simple – you can’t fall in love with what you shot if it doesn’t lead back to the concept.

Shooting with the Phantom FLEX.

EPILOGUE.

I simply love this spot, it’s one of my favorite that the team has worked on in recent memory. It was featured on Promax/BDA’s “Spot of the Day”, our Execs loved it, and we got a lot of great feedback about the message and visual aesthetic. It was such a perfect blend of a simple idea, matched with a great script and visual style, and it comes together so nicely at the end with the line “Go inside the billion dollar industry” that sums up the show, AND the promo conceit. James and Tyler and Art Director Jeremy Tate on my team worked hard able to pull it off, and Evolve stepped up once again and delivered an insanely tight and restrained edit with top-level visuals. The sound and mix done by Radium was incredible and brought it all together – another reminder of how critical sound is to nail the concept. The ratings were very strong on premiere night, despite going against ‘Breaking Bad.’ And we are still cutting episodic promos now using all of the footage that didn’t make its way into the launch spot. Many of the other terms and visuals were used in cut-down promos as well, again reinforcing my takeaway of shooting more than you need to cover all of the versions you could ever need. Lastly, this project was a great reminder to me about the power of the concept – creating it, refining it, letting the words and pictures serve it, and staying true to it from start to finish. It’s not easy to come up with a simple, clear and effective concept spot – so when you do, stick to it. Don’t fall too in love with the executional elements you shoot – focus on staying true to The Concept. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

Here is the final :30 promo, with the :20 promo below it, using some additional terms.

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