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Creative Briefs

We're going to dive right back into our production I was just I when we're standing out at lunch a neighbor walked by and he was telling me that they just restocked this lake with fish and of course we have like the fishing whisper coming we have like the michael jordan of fishing who's going to be with us and so I have a feeling tomorrow when we're like trying to just create these like mock fishing shots he's going to be just reeling in fish one of the other because he's like the host of the tv show so one of the things that we do before a shoot is actually look at inspiration images and this is whether or not on ad agency gives them to me or a client does this all actually go to stock agency websites, photo agency websites and look at images certainly when its subject matter that I don't know a lot about and you know I told you this with jim jim is a superstar he's an expert he's a sponsored fisherman with jackson kayak so he's going to be our expert? I'm going to continue toe levera...

ge jim's knowledge on location to ask what's authentic and what's not so but anyhow so all going and actually start doing google searches I use aurora photos a lot photo agency out of portland, maine, and I happened to be one of the partners in this agency but so all going and just start doing searches for fishing, kayak, fishing, kayaking and really I'm looking at this more just for inspiration, you know? Oftentimes by looking at the work of other photographers and other filmmakers, you get inspired and that's why we call them inspiration boards sometimes we'll even pull the images just his compass it's only something and I'm going to look at with clients were just man it's just for inspiration. Like, what are we going to do? How do you brainstorm images? Pete mcbride who's in aurora photos contributor and a good friend shot this image and I remember him telling me the story about this photograph he was in I forgot if it was like antarctica and he was on a sailboat that may be shooting for national geographic, and he climbed the mast of a sailboat in order to make this cool picture of a kayaker and of course we're not going to a sailboat. We have sean haverstock in his rc helicopter, so it just gives you a feel for like, what could be shots look like in real life, not just in and drawing, but what can it look like in real life when we start breaking them down? You know, I love this this image caught my eye, I'll just do screenshots of anything that catches my eye this is andrew cornel ac another good buddy of mine it's even more fun when you know the photographers that shot the pictures but what I love about this photograph is that backlight you know, the water spraying out of the net you know, dark background maybe we can get something like that that backlit look so I'm just looking at these images more for inspiration this of course you know the water is not quite as turquoise and beaver lake close but not exactly the same but it's more about just inspiration it's like I love the idea that we're half in the water half out of the water it's more about shapes and colors this is super moody I'm crossing my fingers actually I would rather it's not doing this tomorrow because we won't get to fly on a lot of it like really elektronik equipment that sensitive we won't get outside if it's raining like that but the moody sky caught my eye just that you know, it's thinking about how can we show this scene in his many ways as possible and I'm shelling still images for inspiration but it's not just about shooting the stills it's actually this inspiration really is more for the video sequences he's with other people on your crew with the clients almost just keep them from yourself and kind of asking depends with a big shoot where there's a client, an agency yeah, we'll share him like they might get passed around a little bit, but you also need to be really careful about you show inspiration sometimes and then a client because they're not that's not what they think about every day is how to create content they get married to a certain image and it's impossible to recreate like we're not going to get icebergs like pete shut floating in the water around us some always really cautious about how much I'll share agencies you know, that's up to them if they want to share a bunch of inspiration great, but for me it's all always shared with the crew if we're going after a certain look and it's really helpful for may to have like a cheat sheet that I can look at and sort of say like wow, you know running at one hundred miles an hour what's next I need some inspiration you can look at a little pdf of content to just get you inspired and back up and running do you ever undersell expectation? Just if you know something always challenging teo over always, you know, under promise over deliver a hundred percent of the time like, you know when you do the opposite you're setting yourself up for failure so it's you know, even when we bring in our seal helicopter all always set it up and it's true the conditions have to be perfect for example I mean if it's chong will get into it it's too windy if it's raining you're just not going to fly and so you know or even with the really helicopter dane and I shoot a lot of skiing together and if it's really windy like the helicopter just won't fly because we're asking anything close to the mountains and you know the last thing you want is to crash in a helicopter so yeah, always under promise over deliver I liked this image a super simple reflection you know, there it is dragging dragging an image of the kayak into the water and again like we haven't made a decision yet are we actually gonna drag the kayak into the water via the like that tiny beach? Are we going to do it on the dock and some of that is once jim is here you know he's the pro all asking what's realistic like how would you actually do this? And then there's always that balance of what's realistic versus what's gonna look the coolest and we're going to try to do what looks the coolest probably again you can tell this is the same sequence that andrew corner like shot of the guy pulling the fish out within that but again that cool ball of sun in the background like that it's compressed cleaned it up this is this is an often times I'm not pulling the inspiration if an ad agency pulls it you know there's always like if they show me twenty five images twenty of them are super legitimate you think okay can I see the connection and then you see a picture like this re thing okay kind of it's like one of the shots were going to do where jim's holding his fish but I'm not sure it's that authentic and it's just a bet and then they'll show me something like this anything wave what does this have to do with the fishing shooting jim I get it it's like half in the water half out of the water but jim is not wearing a bikini on dh cuda boat is a lot smaller but nonetheless it's like ok if it's the idea of half in the water half out of the water you know great I see the inspiration yeah good question so let's say the client gives you a set of images how do you manage? Like if you know what I want this type of imagery but you know it's going to be physically impossible to write ok how do you manage that it's physically impossible for people just say that pleasantly impossible then I'm seizing absolutely at that point, for example, if we're shooting a beaver lake and they said they wanted this shot with a fish underwater and you know the code above water I would look out there, and I would say, you know, I don't think this water is clear enough just say physically, this isn't gonna be possible without compositing the shot so it's building realistic expectations and explaining, trying to understand what would it take to make this shot? Not with a woman swimming underwater but the fish underwater? Could we do it here? Well, we could do it with some compositing, we could shoot the top plate, probably of the frame, which is jim won his kayak fishing and then the bottom plate of fish on your water. I mean, we'd have to explore like you turn into a much larger dialogue, some wouldn't you wouldn't shoot it down for us, you'll find a solution. No, I know, absolutely. I mean, I'll just explain it. It's a dialogue like a lot of these images air for just having dialogue, it's said that were, you know, getting everybody on the same page about what we're trying to do. You know this again? You know, jim is going to explain all of this to us, but I have no idea if this is like an authentic fishing rod or if it's a deep sea fishing rod or fly fishing rod, I'm I'm not a fishing expert. But the reality is what I take away from this is cool we should sue some details and in fact I see this photograph and it makes me realize in these storyboards we don't have a great detail like we might actually want to depending on how our timing goes this were a real shoot we would probably add a detail of, like, you know, tying a hook like that that serves the purpose of well, I wasn't thinking about details, you know, that's helpful it's like this authentic here's a woman she's holding on to get cool, big fish. Obviously we're not gonna be on a power boat, but it's just that idea of, like, showing off the fish that you just caught that's exactly what this is and I would actually say to a client in this case is well known that feels like it's just so I can see it is a cleaner shot like a little more composed, better lit, probably engaging the camera and then that's a great dialogue point for they say, yeah, I totally agree with you cor it's they're engaging camera but at least generates that dialogue and that's fun like right, you pull this inspiration image robert benson based in southern california I mean it's a fun, goofy picture of like a woman kissing a fish and that would spawn that same question of like okay, so you're okay with cracking a bureau opened at the end of the shooting saying I love beer and that prompts that dialogue by seeing this inspiration image that's a little goofy is jim going to kiss the fish? Probably not like I don't I don't see that in our storyboard or part of our story. Yeah, how many opportunities do you have to talk to the client have these conversations? You know, from the time that you initiate contact? It depends I mean, boys, some clients you wish they'd get off the phone because they don't think about everything and other clients, you know, the reality is you only get to talk to them once because one conference call with an ad agency right before the shoot or you might never get to talk to them until you're at on location and, you know, you meet them for the first time, you know, agencies do a really good job of keeping you away from the client because that's what the clients hiring them to do solve our creative problem we don't want to get and we don't want to get in the weeds about the details, just solve the problem and then a nuts and bolts question are you having that conversation on your phone? Are you sitting down to like a go to meeting most of the time I would say more and more it's like a skype style meeting or a cisco style meeting where you can see everyone in the room you know, everyone's at their own desk or in a conference room and it's it's pretty valuable I have to say to like, see someone's face on one share screens if you need to but still most of its telephone calls been still a lot of it is just sitting there on the phone and having in dialogue and then you know this again nothing to do with what we're going to shoot this is flats fishing in florida by my business partner jose's l but the reality is it's just inspiration it's you know, if we happen to get an incredible sunset which ain't gonna happen you know, I like that compressed long lens idea that's where one of these inspiration or one of the storyboards came from was clean long lens compressed shot from jose's image there again, another detail this is justin bailey he usedto work actually in my office great fishing photographer hey that's my picture that I found on but again it's details it's just finding images online that and I'm not licensing these pictures this isn't we're not going to publish them it's just inspiration is like opening a book it's like listening to music you know anyone that believes they've created photography or it's their specific look that's not true what came from somewhere? I think you saw something influence the way you then see later on in life you know again, just a different point of view. It looks like this camera's on the boat looking and in fact I'm going I think we should do a shot similar to this. We don't have any p o v or point of view shots. Why don't we mount a camera the front of jim's kayak and actually have him paddling out into the lake while he's fishing? You know, that's it we should try to sketch one of those. Add that to the storyboard even if it's at the expense of losing another shot again, that just comes from inspiration. It's like thinking about what are all the ways that we can shoot this, you know again guy having fun while fishing in kind of a cool angle I mean, I love the life you know this was to address this is selene service. Selene shot this image. He was to get it shut them eyes to spot with me that I should earlier I always thought this photo is funny. I saw it on his web page years ago, but when I searched beer and fishing, this popped up and and I had to throw it in because it's just funny it's right it's like we're poking fun like we all like to drink here are we going to shoot this photograph? Absolutely not like that's not his style on what we're doing but at least if the client laughs or if it makes me laugh it's getting us in the right direction you know, same thing here it's just like a fun fun visual you know there is eric jackson, the ceo of the company you can tell from this photograph eric's a fun guy standing in his environment and again it's more about let's put jim in his environment like when we do the portrait it's lit trevor clark must have used a strobe to shoot this photograph you know he's in his environment that's one of the portrait shot number one that I want to do a gym for the still side of things so just again inspiration and this image dated obviously and I mean I'm not sure this is the photograph were trying to make but it's what I like is that the guy used to stroke he actually lit the image you know, he's in his environment you know, that's that's starting to look a little like this storyboard of jim standing with the kayak in the background we're going to light it with pro photos so we're going in the right direction again environmental portrait this image, I just pulled exactly out of us. Funny. How dated it, wass. This must be shot him, like nineteen, sixty five with that helmet on my butt. But what I did like is, again, there are other using a reflector to bounce light in, or maybe a strobe. So the dark background, they're controlling the light in the foreground. And I think that applies to this portrait of jim specifically for the still images.