PROJECTS
DAHON COLLAPSIBLE BIKES
A complete team collaboration on this full commercial production photoshoot in the Southbay of Los Angeles.
Advertising Photography Production With Many Challenges.
We were asked by cycling company Dahon to produce, cast and art direct a new stock image library for their website, advertising and photography collateral use. Prep and pre production were all done in-house with free lancers handling art direction and wardrobe. The company wanted a lifestyle campaign for everyday ordinary people who could utilize the convenience of a foldable bicycle for commuting and recreation.
Our normal productions usually involve and ad agency or design firm with a Creative Director or Art Director. This one was quite different and outside the box of our usual production flow. Understanding the connection between creative direction and our production side was certainly an eye opener. Certainly many of us in the product advertising photography business often feel that complete creative control is our ideal. However when there is absolutely no backstop to give you that second opinion, stress levels definitely rise.
Fortunately our experience with large scale production has given us the confidence to understand that not al aspects of advertising photography productionl will work smoothly especially communicating with various officials and vendors. On this production the police were of tremendous help while the location officials were less than accommodating. Resources such as Casting Networks and Production Hub were invaluable in finding actor talent as well as production talent.
In the end a smooth production was achieved. We let things flow and trusted the production people and actors as well as the officials in Long Beach. This led to serendipitous moments such as finding a boat in the Marina on the fly and a restaurant that would accommodate our entire crew in exchange for shooting there!