In 2019, I had the opportunity to DP this social spot for
@fisherprice , which was produced by
@HouseSpecial via W&K. At that point, I’d been lucky to work at
@HouseSpecial for several years as the in-house gaffer / grip (thanks to
@johnnolan9 and
@portlanderica & Kirk Kelley) but, understandably I never had an opportunity to lead camera–After all, House had a top notch dude (John Nolan) in that role already. However, at that moment, Nolan was in full swing DPing season 2 of The Shivering Truth
@catsolen . Initially, in-house jack of all trades, Clay Connely was asked to do the group of social spots for
@fisherprice with director, Gee Stoughton. When it was realized that all camera gear (motion control and cameras and lenses) was already in use for the TV series being shot at the studio, I offered up my own little stop mo set up: A Canon 5D mark II, Nikon primes, DitoGear track, pan, tilt & focus. It was because I provided the gear that Clay tipped his hat and suggested I should just DP the thing.
Being a low budget spot, director
@helloitsgee and I worked until the wee hours a few nights to set dress and light. Animator Gabe Sprenger
@gobblesmac worked the sawed off toy puppet perfectly as rigged to the bowl in real mashed potatoes. After the shoot was complete, we left things in place for a couple of days, as we traditionally do in setups (in case there needs to be something additional shot or something reshot)... no surprise that in a few days there was a notable stench emanating from the 421 stage–Appropriate subject matter feedback for the comedic, gory, dark production that was being shot in the next stage over.
When the client arrived on set before animation began, one of the lead creatives walked in and immediately said, “The lighting looks amazing”. HS Creative Director, Kirk Kelley was witness to it and that felt pretty darn good 😊
Sara Neiman cooked and food styled and
@phylumobscura helped a tad as well as
@mello_kt Yodel at me if anyone reading this remembers somebody else who helped out!
