'2022 Memories - BTS'
‘2022 memories’ • I turned 30 this year and it still baffles me what all can go down in one year. I don’t keep a diary, journal or have one of those cool memory apps but I always find a few hours at the end of the year to manually stitch my ‘memories’ together. For me, 2022 was a year of telling stories with new and old friends alike, growing / learning, chasing trails and experiencing life! As always, I’m Grateful grateful grateful (x3!) for the people and places I’ve spent time with along the way ✌🏼 & ❤️ — catch you all in 2023.
BTS: Jack Stack Barbecue
Today was fun! I received my Jack Stack Barbecue holiday catalog delivered to my front door in Santa Monica. Jack Stack is my favorite dine-in restaurant (& favorite restaurant that ships to my front door) and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to produce and shoot their image library for 2021.
A little about the project (shot in May 2021)
We produced this project over a 6 day period in Kansas City (home of the world’s best BBQ) with an incredible team of collaborators. With COVID still in the air, the production was yet another example of hybrid production where only essential crew members were on set while the rest of the client and agency was remote viewing from their offices in Kansas City and Texas. Travis, our DIT, crushed the live feed.
This project began in back in January 2021 with mostly conversations surrounding Jack Stack needing a completely new image library. Over the past 5 years, they had done about six to seven different photo shoots and their image library was naturally beginning to look inconsistent. From the start, it was clear they wanted a fresh new look and something that would stand out if you compared their images to other BBQ restaurants around the country (think viewing multiple restraints on a Goldbelly or Doordash photo grid).
After a couple months of research and building out our shot list, I decided to use continuous lights versus strobes to light the table tops. Because we were shooting this for their shipping catalog, I wanted each setup to feel like a different kitchen table or countertop but still have similar light characteristics. I’ve found using continuous lights really helps me maintain light consistency especially when we’re having to move fast (we had over 80 setups in the six days). Every setup we lit continuous (shout out LiteGear and Aputure and triggered remotely using Capture One.
It was a truly collaborative experience with stylist Sarah Jane Hunt & Art Director Keaton Dorman. Weeks leading up to the shoot Sarah, Keaton and I dug up magazine covers and other images for inspiration so that by the time the first shoot day came around the three of us really were on the same page with the look and styling. It was a really fluid shoot week and everyone involved walked away very happy.
I can’t thank my friend and collaborator Keaton Dorman for giving Sarah and I creative freedoms while still providing ample amount of art direction. He knew what he wanted. Spending a week shooting for my favorite restaurant will for sure go down as a top memory of 2021.
See more of the images at: ship.jackstackbbq.com/category/barbecue
The Team
Production Company: Lago Studio
Client: Jack Stack Barbecue
Art Director: Keaton Dorman
Photographer: George Mullinix
First Assistant / DIT: Travis Carroll
Stylist: Sarah Jane Hunt
Stylist Assistant: Sarah Thompson Lift
Production Coordinator: Kelsey Glowik
Agency: Agency Of
Agency Producer: Cameron Barbaran
Location: AWStudio
Location Manager: Katy Raggett
Sarah Jane Hunt — friend and stylist — rocking a board of meat!
The Equipment
Canon R5
Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8
LiteGear LiteMat 4 Spectrum
LiteGear LiteMat 2L+
2x Aperture 300 II
4x Aperture MC7
Personal: Fall 2020 memories
It’s been a wild year and a wild past few months with not a lot of time to sit still. Shoots have had me on the go pretty much 24/7 and have had me telling a variety of different stories for a variety of different purposes. It’s been awesome. For the past three years, I’ve had one of my 35mm cameras with me always ready to go, resulting in a relatively large library of life’s scenes. I usually keep them just for me or for the people who are in them — kind of a time capsule of sorts to remember it all. It’s always special to look back and feel it all — something I’ve heard other image makers claim when they look back at their images shot on film. It’s a feeling.
Technical Specifications
Canon 1V w/35mm 1.4 L
Kodak Portra 800
Kodak Ektachrome 100
BTS: Planet fitness COVID commercial
In early May I was the DP on a series of Planet Fitness TVCs that released recently during the coronavirus pandemic. The point of the piece is to show that when one goes to ‘the enemy gyms’ you’ll find yourself crammed in small spaces and unable to social distance. At Planet Fitness they turn off every other machine, allowing customers to social distance.
In an ordinary production environment this would be a pretty straightforward day but as we know, this isn’t an ordinary time. We had to shoot ‘plates’ for every layer of each scene so that we could stack the layers and show talent ‘on top of one another’ even though in real life they were solo in each shot. It was awesome to trouble shoot the creative and be a part of am effective production that prioritize crew and talent safety.
A breakdown of the VFX treatment is below.
Technical Specifications
RED Gemini 5K
Tokina Vista Primes
