New Work Coming Soon...But for now...

We've been traveling for work yesterday, so I apologize for not posting. We were in VA Beach filming a small commercial for social media. My buddy works as a creative director and hired me as a DP (director of photography) and Steph worked as a production assistant. The client was a car wash... it was my first time filming a car wash promotional. 

Steph, while helping out on set, is usually best at engaging the clients while we are filming. Her personality seems to draw attention and she is great with talking to people. They actually ended up asking her to fill in as one of the actors giving a testimonial on the business, they gave her some free car washes. 

This was a low production effort so, just a 3 person crew, and simple gear. Here's a look:

I know this is not my usual type of post, but I want to show case a little more of what Steph and I do for business. Her creativity in modeling, also spills over into commercial production work. 

Ive also gotten questions on how to run a small business and the type of work I do full time. 

Here is a quick breakdown of this job and how it went for those of you looking to expand on your own production efforts.

A job comes in, big or small, and you break it down:

Preproduction- planning, shot list, timeline, phone calls, budget, contract etc.

Production- filming and photography, client engagement.

Post- editing and delivery, archiving and showcasing.

Client reached out to the creative director Rodrigo based on a word of mouth reference.  Rodrigo specializes in directing, sound design and editing. 

He reached out to me 2 years ago on IG, saying he loved my creative eye for lighting. At the time he worked for an Ad agency. He hired me to assist in filming a TV commercial for a tire company in Virginia in 2019. We maintained a relationship ever since, and have worked on several creative and commercial jobs. He's actually one of the few other photographers to have photographed Steph.

Steph and Rodrigo in Norfolk for a photoshoot in 2021.

He's now freelance creator, and we have the luxury of taking contract jobs. I specialize in DP work 5 minutes or less. Primally music videos, weddings, events, and social media ads, so teaming up makes sense.

The client in this case wanted a 30 second social media video, 2 social media reels/tiktoks, a small gallery of commercial photos and access to all raw footage. 

Rodigo as the director handles the business and editing and the deliverable. Steph and I handle the filming and transfer of the footage to Rodrigo. 

We worked 7 hours, not including the 1 hour preproduction phone call, and the 2 hour drive. 

The 7 hour day included, final scouting ensuring we are finding the best spots to film, a walk through with the client to ensure we are showcasing everything they want showcased. We look at angles, colors, perspectives we want to showcase.  The tunnel, as they call it, is the drive in car wash, they can control the color of the lights, so we made them blue and yellow, the company colors. 

Here's the timeline:

As I mentioned the client really took an appreciation to Steph so we used her as the actor and dedicated around 10 seconds of the 30 second ad to show the car cleaning process from start to finish... vacuuming the car, interacting with staff, selecting the car wash, going through the tunnel, then wiping down, and polishing the car. We had a couple other actors, for another 10 seconds, then lastly showcasing the venue and it's amenities for a total of 30 seconds.

For the job, I made $750 and Steph made $250. 

I am not the best with client interaction so Steph and Rodrigo handled most of the social interaction and managed to secure a new contract with the client later on in the year. 

As it normally goes, there are a few hiccups. For example, we had a drone flight scheduled, and normally my drone, a DJI Mavic 2 Pro, takes off in the area, however there were new flight restrictions which disabled the drone from even launching. DJI being a Chinese company... makes me wonder if FAA or US agencies are putting even more restrictions on the already controversial drones.

So that's it. It sounds complicated but it's not once you break it down. I will say it was a long day, but well worth it and a lot of fun.

I know this is outside of what I normally post, but I would like to incorporate once a week, more business tips. There are a variety of expertise and backgrounds in this Patreon community. I'd love to have professional growth conversations from time to time.