Oren Kaplan

Such a fun one to bring to life! Building on an ongoing collaboration with @trustandwill and Marketing Architects, this campaign scales the comedy with a refined, broadcast-ready finish. Sawhorse led the production approach, combining practical builds, VFX, and end-to-end craft to bring the vision to life. 🎬 Directed by @okaplan

2025 BY THE NUMBERS What a year! The scary beast known as AI transformed almost every part of my process for better or worse. As 2025 progressed I saw more AI-generated storyboards, images, and animatics from agencies which made being creative more challenging. In pitch calls I felt compelled to let folks know that I write my own treatments (not ChatGPT). On the bright side, LA production felt like it's making a comeback. Personally, I think I did a better job of balancing work & family life with @karaluiz this year. I also watched way more movies. Here are my stats for 2025 — JOBS PITCHED: 25 JOBS AWARDED: 14 JOBS SHOT: 15 (13 U.S. / 8 L.A.) SHOOT DAYS: 26 TREATMENTS WRITTEN: 19 TREATMENT-WINNING JOBS: 8 REPEAT CLIENTS: 5 AGENCY BRIEFS w/AI BOARDS: 12 DPs: 12 (7 new) PDs: 12 (8 new) ADs: 8 (5 new) @artclasscontent was the driving force behind my year, but I was lucky to also collaborate with friends at @sawhorse_productions @116pictures @stringlightgroup @wearesocialus There’s an endless list of collaborators (but I can only tag 20) — @kirstenarongino @lsg.me @citizeno @nikkiweissandco @we_are_simpatico @heromgmt @blaker_b @gordonwestman @kellyman @metrockfu @mondaymike76 @katiebeau00 @shadybrady66 @justshootitpod

🐶✨ Director Oren Kaplan captures the cutest lineup for the new @purina benefuls spot. . . . Production Credits Agency: CMS Productions Director: @okaplan MP: @geno_imbriale Managing Director: @kirstenarongino HoP: @sparkjones13 Executive Producer: @lsg.me Staff Producer: @oliviapossino Staff Coordinator: @shaydanmk Line Producer: @metrockfu 1st AD: @julianmaxmetter DP: @bryantjansen Key Grip: @usagrips Gaffer: Braden Barton Production Manager: @hanrolo5 Production Coordinator: @caitlyn_silkey Production Designer: @dustingrabiner Food Stylist: Shellie Anderson Key Costumer: @dianadilllon Post Editor: @jbogr EP, Post: @mickeykeegan Post Producer: @gracerehorn Assistant Editor: @jessethreat CG: Ben Webber & Britta McPherson @ PrePost VFX: Kevin Pierce Color: @dan.swierenga Audio: Ian Sorrentino . . . Sales Rep: @nikkiweissandco

Director Oren Kaplan works his magic on this new spot for @walmart , starring the one and only @nph . ✨🎩 . . . Agency: @omnicom Director: @okaplan MP: @geno_imbriale Managing Director: @kirstenarongino HoP: @sparkjones13 Executive Producer: @lsg.me Staff Producer: @oliviapossino Staff Coordinator: @shaydanmk Line Producer: @willagold 1st AD: Mike Polisano DP: @federico.tamburini Key Grip: @gulabksingh Production Manager: Brooke Filewich Production Coordinator: Kat Tingum Production Designer: @roxymartinezmichaud Celebrity Stylist: @samspector Celebrity Groomer: @amykomorowski 
 Post Production
Editor: @jbogr EP, Post: @mickeykeegan Post Producer: @gracerehorn Assist Editor: Dominique Machain Color: Gregory Reese @royal.muster Audio: @sonicunionnyc Flame Artist: Eric Pascua #ArtClassContent #BoxTops #Walmart #NPH #OrenKaplan #BackToSchool

New work from Dir. Oren Kaplan for @hearst : @bringatrailer • • • Agency: @pmgworldwide Director: @okaplan MP: @geno_imbriale Managing Director: @kirstenarongino HoP: @sparkjones13 Executive Producer: @lsg.me Staff Producer: @oliviapossino Staff Coordinator: @shaydanmk Line Producer: @mzberjord DP: @seanpconaty 1st AD: @augiealcala Key Grip: @justinseyb Production Supervisor: Shane Greb Production Designer: @brain_mark Stylist: @chrissy_p_stylist HMU: Ethan Johnson Editor: @jbogr ECD: @labo.kuriko EP, Post: @mickeykeegan Post Producer: @gracerehorn // @raxxner Design / Animation: Eric Van Buskirk Assist Editor: Dominique Machain, Stephen Deaver, @jessethreat Color: @kaitlynbattistelli @ethos Audio: @iansorrentino @littlebearaudio

THINKING IN LAYERS No matter the size of the shoot, I'm always thinking about how Visual Effects can help to accomplish or improve every shot. To me VFX is just splitting your shot into elements on set and putting them back together in post. For this Capital One shoot the concept was that a dad at his kid’s birthday party is so happy with the Capital One app that he’s oblivious to the chaos around him. This was a SAG shoot and we could only afford one actor, which meant no kids at the kids birthday party 🤔. So we created chaos in other ways — petting zoo animals get loose and a goat rams the cake table, launching it in the air. We couldn’t get the goat to ram the actual table and a CG goat was out of budget. We rigged the cake to blast in the air and filmed the goat running as a separate element. For more chaos I tossed in a chicken, a rabbit, and a bouncy house. It was only a 4-second shot but I wanted to do everything I could to distract from the lack of children. And once I was in After Effects, I fixed a bunch of other things I didn’t like about the shot that you see in my breakdown. In this carousel: 1. VFX Breakdown of Cakesplosion 2. The final “Birthday” spot 3. The “Dinner” spot w/boards 4. My CG render of the goat 5. The Cannon that Flipped the Table 6. Our Technodolly 7. The Goat Running 8. Testing a Chicken Toss 9. Blasting the Blender 10. Positioning the Camera All in all a fun and less-messy-than-you'd-expect day! ProdCo: @artclasscontent Managing Director: @kirstenarongino Executive Producer: @lsg.me  and @citizeno Producer: @kellyman 1st AD: @shadybrady66 DP: @bryantjansen Production Manager: Christina Jurado Production Designer: @andreandrealeigh Stylist: Karen Mann Storyboards: @julietadelapazobercie Cast: @iamstephaune @sabrinajrudolph and @zoleeg

Another great @tropicalsmoothiecafe spot from Dir. Oren Kaplan •
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• Stay tuned for more... Agency: @3headedmonsterdtx Director: @okaplan 
MP: @geno_imbriale Managing Director: @kirstenarongino 
HoP: @sparkjones13 
Executive Producer: @lsg.me 
Staff Producer: @oliviapossino 
Staff Coordinator: @shaydanmk 
Line Producer: @kellyman 
1st AD: @shadybrady66 
DP: @davidvollrath 
Key Grip: @jcoynetoo 
Production Manager: Christina Jurado Production Coordinator: Caitlyn Silkey Production Designer: Dave Corey Food Stylist: Tyna Hoang Stylist: @dianadilllon Key Makeup: @howfastdoesitgo

BRANDING & CROWDED LOCATIONS For this Super Bowl campaign we wanted to tie the Paramount family of networks to this once-a-year humongous sporting event. But how could we make football feel uniquely Paramount? It's such a big brand that spans dramas, sports, kids, reality, news and so much more that it was difficult to identify the unique elements that scream Paramount. So instead we tried to insert as much IP as we could without being ridiculous — except for in the kids’ room. There we decided everything was fair game because kids are crazy. Also, slime. It screams Nickelodeon and is a great example of incredible off-kilter branding that they’ve maintained over decades of being on the air. With that in mind, you can see some of the various IP elements we managed to sneak in. Many more didn't make the cut. LOCATION SIZE & STEADICAMS Originally I wanted a huge house to make life easy for production. But after scouting some I switched to looking for cozier homes to make our cast of 20 featured partygoers fill up three rooms. I was taking a lot of inspiration from The Bear and Scorsese in terms of using a moving camera in tight quarters to artificially generate a feeling of crowded hustle & bustle. I figured if we had a small kitchen 4 people could fill it up, then I took all our kids (6) and spread them out in the play room with our fun uncle character, which left me 8 folks for the living room couch + 2 floaters. I put mom, the daughter, a kid, two party guests, dad, and fun uncle all in motion so that I could rationalize seeing them in multiple rooms. You can see in my board breakdown how early I'm thinking of where everyone goes. Shout out to @julietadelapazobercie for her beautiful boards. ProdCo: @paramountco Producer: @allisondrye HoP: @joshuajpowers Creative: Vincent Arrico Boards: @julietadelapazobercie CD: @dpdcasting DP: @mikesimpsondop PD: John Richards AD: @alexanderarmero Post: @theshoptrailers Music: @wearedelasoul Color: @hey_bt @tbdpost Cast: @angelicaangieang @bruceclifford_ @itsmaurielle @akatonylombard @jomarie_lawrence @isaarojaas @erica.starrparrish @itsayumi.duh @adrianarodriguezburciaga @iamjohnniemack @dylan_r_bel @goldenboycore

PITCHING SLIME Usually commercials come with a script, but on occasion they arrive only with a kernel of an idea. For this “Super Bowl commercial” (not really but kind of) they asked me to pitch the script and include some storyboards, something I’m rarely responsible for at this stage. The prompt was to show the three different ways one could watch the Super Bowl at a house party. In response I made a short 42-page treatment. I’ve included my “story beats” and “storyboards” pages in this post to show what kind of detail I do and don’t go into. As a joke I mentioned that we could maybe slime our kids at the end of the script and the creative director I was pitching to asked, “Why is that a joke? Let’s do it!” At first it felt tonally out-of-left-field to me, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that’s the entire voice of Nickelodeon — you think one kind of normal thing is happening and then out of nowhere, SLIME! It changed the entire approach, but it was by far the highlight of the shoot. An interesting thing about slime is that whatever it touches it destroys. So we had to build an entire kids’ playroom from scratch that could all be thrown into the trash after the slime blast. We also were limited to sliming 3 people and had to capture it in a single take. When we filmed this we had no idea who was going to be playing in the Super Bowl, so we waited until the last minute to insert the 49ers and Chiefs football footage into the screens. We finished just in time for it to air during the Grammy’s. ProdCo: @paramountco Producer: @allisondrye HoP: @joshuajpowers Creative: Vincent Arrico Boards: @bombshell_comics CD: @dpdcasting DP: @mikesimpsondop PD: John Richards AD: @alexanderarmero Post: @theshoptrailers Music: @wearedelasoul Color: @hey_bt @tbdpost Cast: @angelicaangieang @bruceclifford_ @itsmaurielle @akatonylombard @jomarie_lawrence @isaarojaas @erica.starrparrish @itsayumi.duh @adrianarodriguezburciaga @iamjohnniemack @dylan_r_bel @goldenboycorey

FILLING THE FRAME Sometimes you just need to fill the frame. One way to do this is with big vehicles. For the this @dish_outdoors campaign with @martysmithespn , we needed a tailgate scene and a campground scene. Having to film both in one day, we settled on a public park with a small lake and a parking lot to serve as our two backdrops. A tailgate needs lots of vehicles, but you can cheat it with two RVs, a pick-up truck, a few tents, and some crew cars. We only had 3 extras, so we needed to use the cars to make things look busier. For our tailgate we grabbed a couple crew vehicles and placed them both in the background and foreground. Finding other elements to create layers with (like a grill, corn hole area, and tables) helped create the illusion that there was more going on than an empty parking lot. Look carefully and you can see how often I reused the same background folks (aka extras) to fill the frame. For camping I found a part of the lake with some tall grass and a tree next to it. We parked our RV up against the water and our designer @jerrythemovieguy brought some mulch from Home Depot to cover the sidewalk, which helped sell that we weren’t at a city park. Extra kudos to @derekjziegler who plays the guy choosing between the hamburger and the hotdog. He was a listener of @justshootitpod and didn’t mention it at the audition or callback… he politely waited until we were on set. If I were him, I would’ve mentioned it right out of the gate to get an edge on the role. It never hurts to flatter the director! In this carousel: 1. Boards for “It’s All Good” 2. Boards for “Why Choose?” 3. How I reuse actors 4. My ugly boards 5. Planning vehicle placement 6. Looking at the frame 7. Designing our “campsite” 8. Another selfie (with just enough mulch to fill the frame) Cast: @martysmithespn , @derekjziegler , @theactormanessex , @impaigehamilton , @stevenrcrowley Client: @dish Agency: @espn Prodco: @ArtClassContent EP: Geno Imbriale EP: @rebeccaniles PM: @katgarelli Producer: Brian Bennhoff DP: @dougchamberlain PD: @jerrythemovieguy AD: Shawn Thomas Boards: @aopaul_art Stylist: Naty Parodi HMU: Carmen Lopez Locations: Diego Moralas

COMPANY MOVES Moving an entire crew will destroy a production day, so I always try to combine locations. But sometimes it’s not feasible. For this ESPNxDISH campaign we needed to film @chrisfowler at a house and a football stadium in the same day. While the stadium at magic hour would've been great, we couldn’t risk losing our light halfway through, so we committed to filming the stadium at night and making it feel more like an ethereal fantastical place, and also hide our empty stands. To film quickly at the house location, I blocked all the action in the same area and got a variety of angles to mix things up. That allowed cinematographer @dougchamberlain to create one big lighting setup outside that worked for both the patio and the living room. Even though we had limited time, I tried to insert spectacle wherever I could — practical flames at the grill, a confetti canon, t-shirt launchers. Each was easily resettable by our designer @jerrythemovieguy . SOME LESSONS Unfortunately our plan for a football stadium with more built-in architecture didn’t materialize due to last-minute availability issues. To make up for it I tried to fill the air with haze and add light flares to minimize the stark night sky we were shooting against. Ultimately I think we got a pretty cool look and it was a great learning experience filming such a large low-elevation location at night. In this carousel: 1. Boards for “Can’t Recall” 2. Boards for “Too Much” 3. Boards for “Mascots” 4. Mockup of flame size 5. Me with two geniuses 6. Squad 7. Rialto 8. The “TV” shot 9. T-Shirt Cannon 10. Selfie Cast: @chrisfowler , @mnewman68 , @alex_m_bedoya , michipidi, @jevonwhite , Marc Lucia, Shayla Duran Client: @dish Agency: @espn Prodco: @artclasscontent EP: Geno Imbriale EP: @rebeccaniles PM: @katgarelli Producer: Brian Bennhoff DP: @dougchamberlain PD: @jerrythemovieguy AD: Shawn Thomas Boards: @aopaul_art Stylist: Naty Parodi HMU: Carmen Lopez Locations: Diego Moralas