SPOTLIGHT - Redding 3D Shoot Part 1
One thing we will start writing about here on the blog will be “Spotlight” Features. These will be inside looks at actual projects we were paid to shoot whether photo, video or both. To start the series off I’d like to talk about a shoot I just got back on last night. My good friend, and fellow photographer Brett Seng pitched a project to Mathews to document a road trip to the Redding 3D shoot in North Central California. It was greenlighted and after talking with their content manager my job was going to be a part of the crew while also shooting still images and helping Brett create an Instagram story for the Mathews Instagram during the trip.
The timeline was short, we had only about a week to plan our shoot and get our bows setup and ready. That meant everything we would need to do to ensure this trip would be a success would need to be fit in among our already busy schedules. As is the case in this industry, you’re often juggling about 20 different things and staying organized, on track, and efficient makes a world of difference in getting it all done. This would be a big trip and a test for future jobs so we needed to crush. The first order of business was for Brett and I to sit down and start creating a schedule, shot list, and objectives/goals for the trip. We scheduled a dinner and shortly after eating took to the whiteboard to begin brainstorming. Three hours later we had a plan of attack for the trip and some awesome ideas to make sure our content was unique, engaging and most importantly on brand. For those of you who don’t know what “on brand” means, it’s basically saying that what we would create would fit with existing branding and messaging that Mathews had been putting out. Mathews is a juggernaut in the hunting space and they have been very careful in how they have crafted and promote their business. Staying within those boundaries on projects like this is key, especially when they’re handing you the access to their Instagram. Soon enough it was time to load the truck up and hit the road. Of course the second the trip starts so does the content creation. The first big hurdle of this trip would be creating a hook at the start of the Instagram story that would keep people interested and wanting to watch more. We had a few ideas in mind but they included a drone and working with drones and drone shots is never a sure bet so creating other shots on the fly is key. The first shot of the story was actually a sticker being placed on the back of the camper, something I shot as I saw it happening without too much thought but ended up being perfect for the start of the story. I knew we wanted to incorporate the Mathews logo in the beginning and doing that through a product of theirs, albeit a sticker, ended up being perfect.
Brett eying up the sticker placement
At this point I should backtrack slightly. To get a little awareness started before the actual story launched on Mathews, we created individual “hooks” to give some awareness to our upcoming project. These plant the seed in people’s heads and help give the project a bit of momentum.
This was a short hype up video I shot and posted to my social media page to get the engagement rolling for our upcoming shoot and story through Mathews Archery. I shot this in a few hours at Extreme Performance Archery and then a quick ending shot while out shooting my bow.
Soon we were on the road and again filming more of the road trip to kick off the story. Now this part would be crucial to get and keep people interested. Fortunately we had a great team consisting of Brett, Buck and myself and we work well together both with coming up with ideas and executing. The plan was to shoot a bunch of video on Day 1 and have an edited, polished story uploaded the next day to lead into arriving at Redding. We basically had to make a 2 minute film and turn it in less than 24 hours. A stop at the grocery store, many gas stations, a taco truck, and an old man’s junkyard allowed for some awesome imagery on day one and great footage as well.
Buck sending an arrow at the small elk 3D in a junkyard in Southern Idaho.
Now once dinner was ate we were back on the road and night was quickly approaching. Time to switch gears and get to editing. For the next 2-3 hours I dumped footage to harddrives, ingested clips to Premiere Pro, and started resizing and sorting footage. Now since this was all for an Instagram story all the video had been shot in a vertical orientation in 4K so each clip that I could potentially use had to be sized and rotated 90 degrees. A time consuming process but by the time midnight rolled around everything was sorted and ready to be edited come morning. Before turning in I got the camera setup one last time for a night timelapse, which would be a great way to transition the story to day 2.
A still image from the 191 images shot to piece together a timelapse video
Day 2 we were up early and I was back on the computer starting to piece an edit together to kick this project off with a bang. It took a solid 4 hours to piece together a great 2:22 of video for the story kickoff.
Unfortunately once that was done we had some trouble getting it sent out for review and also for final upload. We were in the middle of nowhere with horrible service. Only by using a hot spot off Brett’s phone were we able to finally email the final version off to Mathews. Little did we know we’d be fighting poor cell service all week.
Brett searching for service in Southern Oregon.
Finally around 5pm we rolled into Redding and made it to the shoot. We quickly setup camp, met some of the event staff and went down and shot our bows. Again cameras in hand shooting, documenting, and planning a story at every step of the way. We also found out that service was only super reliable on top of a small hill on the property and we would be making trips there dozens of times in the next three days.
Buck cooking up a killer meal on night one at our campspot
Brett searching for service on the first night. We had a story to upload and lots of time was spent looking at our service and watching/waiting for posts to upload
Road Trip takeaways…..
Having a script and idea, even if it was a loose one, helped immensely in focusing our shooting on day 1 and 2. Shot lists and pre-production always add value to any shoot. For this project with a crazy short timeline to turn content, it helped immensely.
Shoot, shoot, and shoot. We shot 5-6 times the amount of clips that we ended up using for the social story but it allowed us to make sure we had all of what we needed. I shot about a 1000 stills in the first two days and enough video clips for 2+ minutes of film. That’s a lot and doesn’t include all of what Brett shot.
Shoot when the light is good. Our junkyard shoot was in late afternoon and made for great images and stills.
Don’t hesitate to pull over or turn the truck around if you saw a shot you want. No one is going to be mad you’re trying to do the best job you can by creating great images.
Shooting on the camera versus on our phone always is worth it “if” you have the time. The added production value is great and you can still catch candid moments with the camera. Be conscious of the tool you use and how it fits the project. Later in the trip we used the phone more as we didn’t have access to a computer and time to edit.
Knowing we would need music I grabbed a handful of tracks before we left town even though I had almost zero time to search for a “perfect” track. Fortunately one of the 11 I picked worked, otherwise this would have set us back a few hours on Day 2 and added extra stress to the trip.
Don’t be afraid to switch lenses when you see a great shot. Even if that means telling someone to stop what their doing. The goal is to get great content, not to adhere perfectly to the schedule.
Use your damn gear. Field work involves dust, dirt, water, drops, spills and more. I know people who won’t work to their full potential because they want to keep their gear in “pretty” condition. We didn’t break anything this trip but there were plenty of drops, bangs, and dust getting on sensors and lenses.
Ask for input but don’t open the door to too much input or it will slow down getting things done. When making the edit I had about 3-4 discussion and reviews with Brett on how we wanted the piece to look and then just got stuff done. This is where experience is key. Being able to know what will work, how to put the pieces together quickly, export, upload and more is KEY.
Problems will arise, stay calm, explore your options and do your best. The service issue that made our uploading of content a nightmare was a problem we didn’t think about going in. We did what we could with what we could and made it all happen, it just involved 3x the work to accomplish what we could have with good service.
I hope this was a valuable look inside a recent shoot. Take a look at the initial video we launched for our story below, leave us a comment, and be looking for Part 2 to drop soon!