Small Stuff:

“Enjoy the simple things.” It’s a cliché. The kind of unwanted advice you get when you’re fighting with the big things. However once you realize that something small gives you a tickle of pleasure, like a warm welcome home from your cat or dog, it can be amazingly satisfying to pay that little moment an undue amount of attention. This concept grew into the film project I’m debuting here. No spoilers, but this is the first in a series of shorts called Life’s Small Pleasures. It’s about one of the little things we enjoy in our home. Please take 2 minutes to watch, we had a great time making this and learned a lot on the way. If you like it I hope you’ll share this link with your friends.

 

 

For me making new work isn’t just a small pleasure. It’s where my energy and happiness come from. As a result I’m always looking for my next project. Life’s Small Pleasures came to me one day while I was watching the structure of broadcast commercials. Isn’t that a great way of saying I was “working” when I was really watching TV? From that moment I started figuring out how to execute it. Like most photographers I’m always pushing myself creatively and technically. Lately that means exploring motion and learning the tools and techniques of that media.

This short film was a personal project. I was the producer, director, editor and chief instigator but I didn’t do it alone.

Film-making requires a team. We keep our crew small, tight and nimble. For this project I had help from the start from my friends at Artist Untied. Artist Representative Samantha Sommatino and I talked about the idea and she suggested stylists I could work with. Then CEO and Creative Director Jon Lucca got involved, he provided invaluable support. Artist Untied put Ken Baldwin on the project, he not only worked on props and wardrobe but he took the lead on casting. Renee Rael provided hair and makeup styling.  I brought in my usual crew including Mike Blumenfeld (gaffer / assistant) and Chrysta Giffen (retoucher / colorist). This is partly because I love working with them and also because I want my motion production to run hand in hand with my still productions. I want my crew to be as comfortable changing production hats as I am.

The shoot:

By the time we had the video production moving forward and knew what location and talent would be required it was clear that we would be well-served to combine a still lifestyle project with the film production. This is what clients are requesting so why not do the same for ourselves. What we didn’t do was try to shoot still and video at the same time. Each art-form has its own creative and technical needs. By breaking the shoot into two distinct days we allowed each its own physical and mental space. Though camera and lighting tools are merging in ways that allow still and motion to come from the same teams and the same equipment each has a different kind of storytelling and directing needs.

We only had one day for the motion project and one for the lifestyle shoot, everyone worked exceptionally hard the results speak for their professionalism and talent.

Creating a film and body of images out of a single stream-lined production exemplifies what I love to do for clients. We are already working on the next “Small Pleasure”

Stay tuned.

Tags: Winokur Photography

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Behind the Scenes, Collaborations, Filmmaking, The Foundry Studio, Winokur Photography. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.