This is new for us. We’ve never been selected for an American Photography Award, so this was a real treat this week when we found out this super fun image from our campaign for the Newport Beach Film Fest had been chosen!
It was fantastic collaborating with the amazing creative team at The Garage who came up with this whimsical campaign! Hoping we can work together again down the road!
What?
What?!
I have never picked up an APA Award and out of the blue took First Place in this years Lifestyle category. What a shocker and totally thrilling! Granted it was for this super fun campaign we did for fatherhood.gov. (#DanceLikeADad) Amazing Talent, Amazing Producer. Amazing Crew. Amazing Creative. It’s always a team effort! Thanks APA & Judges!
Okay.. where to begin?
THIS was a shoot! Once again we were on set shooting in tandem with a commercial production. They were shooting MULTIPLE spots and we were doing the print campaign. All in one day.. All on a tight sound stage.. All good! Right?! 😳
Snoop was in his space doin’ his thing…
Martha had some VERY kind words for us when she saw what we had shot on the monitor.
Camera time was minimal.. to be expected. But hey.. Agency and Client were thrilled with what we got considering the very ambitious shot list. All in a days work. Always amazing to work with a commercial production that plays nice, knows how to share, and realizes we are all after the same goal.
Were Bic Lighters used at the end of this production? 🤔
As the pandemic geared up, folks were ending up at home with a lot of time on their hands. Those languishing home improvement projects all of a sudden became a sensible way to fill that time. So as folks started to “dig in” on their maintenance and upgrade tasks, San Diego Gas & Electric had a sudden uptick of emergency calls from people hitting gas and power lines as they starting digging before researching.
In late April of 2020 the creative team at The Shipyard reached out to us to collaborate on a Public Safety Campaign to draw attention to this issue and encourage homeowners to “Call BEFORE you dig!” SDGE‘s 811 line would assist in identifying if it was safe to dig in areas slated for activity.
The original as was for two print ads and a modest amount of motion for web and social media use.
Being the start of COVID, productions were still navigating the safest ways to execute shoots while still delivering much needed visuals, especially in the arena of PSA’s! As we laid the groundwork for remote castings, remote wardrobe fittings, remote make-up tests, and ultimately remote shoot days, the project morphed into a heavier emphasis on motion with the print portion playing a supporting role.
The creative team at The Shipyard was excited about telling the story through stop motion animation… with people!
To keep variables at a minimum we opted to use my home as the location and incorporate ALL of the other “remote” options, so on the day of the production the only bodies on set were, talent, one stylist, 2 assistants, my producer, and a sanitation officer wiping every surface that might be touched. ALL other stakeholders were streamed in via Zoom. May 2020 was early days in COVID production, but we pulled it off.. our first COVID-Safe production.
The shoot itself was a day and a half of meticulous frame by frame capture of the various scenes, and then a whirlwind half day of executing the two print ads.
When all was said and don’t eh motion portion, which was supposed to be for web use only, exceeded the clients expectations and they option to expand the license to include full broadcast rights so as to air on local TV in the San Diego market. The print ads were also licensed for additional use beyond the original scope of work.
We’re thrilled to have been at the forefront and produce this great campaign for SDGE collaborating with the fantastic Creatives at The Shipyard.
