Location, Location, Location

This project was a fun one! The idea of the campaign was to create a ‘That 70’s Show’ vibe where the camera is set in the middle of the talent and pans around to reveal each actor. We were tasked with completing 4 spots, each including 4 actors, in 4 different locations. Totaling 16 setups. All in one day.

This project was completed in August of 2022.

This project was done for the United Dairy Industry of Michigan in collaboration with S/B Strategic Marketing.

The locations were a board room, a kitchen table, a school library and a stage for a theater rehearsal. To do all this in one day seemed like a big ask. Daniel Kinney, the director, immediately brought up the idea to do rear screen projection to accommodate the schedule.

You may be asking yourself, “Why didn’t you just use green screen?” We certainly could have and gotten a similar product. But felt this gave us a better feeling of being in the space and allowed us to use real props in the scene. It also allowed me to light with instant feedback since I was seeing the final frame in camera. That becomes so important when lighting 16 different actors on 16 different backgrounds in one day.

I spent half a day filming background plates before the shoot day with a 14mm lens on a Canon C300iii. When at those locations it became apparent how difficult doing this practically with 4 people sitting around a table and precisely timing the camera pan would have been. Having one location where we can load in at the beginning of the day and have everything we need, all in one place, was the only way the project became possible. Within the given timeframe and budget.

We rented at 16 ft. x 9 ft. projection screen, placed it behind the actor and then setup the projector behind the screen. This way we had one spot where we could cycle through each setup. And prop and light the foreground. It also gave us a lot more time for Daniel Kinney and the agency to get the performances out of the talent that they envisioned.

During the process I ended up shooting everything on a 24mm lens to let the background fall off as well as keeping that wider lens look and the feel of rotating around the table. With the projector being rear screen we were able to move props like a lighting cart or table right up to the screen to help sell the effect a little more.