A while back one of my GGP teams went to do some Architectural video of a really beautiful building. We were out to produce a commercial for a large firm on Long Island and there was not a whole heck of a lot to shoot since floor after floor was pretty much the same. The team I brought was 'green' when it came to Architectural shoots but we had the whole day and I assigned them the duties of taping three conference rooms, the lobby and the front of the building. This team had already worked on full feature movies so it wasn't like they were working in the dark. How hard could shooting non-moving objects be? We had the full light kits and so it was 'get creative' time. My team was about to get a hard lesson on shooting inanimate objects. They were used to working with living breathing 'talent'. I was willing to pay them the full day when it should have taken a few hours. I wanted them to get 'seasoned' and you have to start somewhere. Their assignment... make the building come alive!
I had already spent a whole day on site the week before and shot some very nice stills and I was prepared to make the first commercial from those stills only. The client had already approved those shots. The only downside to the day was that we were shooting on the weekend and the building was shut down. No air conditioning and it was about 95 degrees out with 95% humidity! My client didn't know how to work anything in the building and that was my fault for assuming the guy with the master key knew anything more than how to open a door and turn off the burglar alarm.
I talked up a storm with the client most of the day as he is one of the nicest and most generous people I know. I also prepared a room to shoot green-screen where the client was going to videotape some inspirational messages to his television audience. This was really 'B-roll' as we didn't know if the video would be used or not. We had a full day and as always, when you love what you do, time flies!
Near the end of the day, we all grouped together, shot the green screen shots and finished 15 minutes late for the day. Not bad! I had about 90 minutes of 'Architectural' video and some green screen head shots of our client which I knew immediately would never be used. My client was as stiff as a board on camera although he has movie star looks. Most people should never even think of performing their own commercials and fortunately I had emphasized this at length with my client ahead of time so he knew that it was only a test. Why not? We had the whole day to kill! I will only say that talking frankly with the client is part of the service that should never be overlooked.
We had a really great time. The client had food prepared for us and he had the building onsite chef cook us up a modest hot lunch. What more can you ask for? We packed up and I took the video tapes back to home base to log and edit. I was shocked! I could not find a worthy piece of video in the whole lot of tapes. An experienced team had botched three conference rooms, a lobby and the front of a building. How could that be? Believe it or not, I anticipated the whole scenario. I had already cut a rough draft of the first commercial and as I said, I was prepared to have it done creatively from my stills. I did stick about 10 seconds of video in a rough draft of the commercial but this was later cut out entirely.
At first I think some folks on the crew thought I was being too critical. Not that I gave them a hard time. The fact that I omitted all of the video had some wondering. My hat is always off to what looks simple but simply is not. The Architectural photographer and videographer has just a big a challenge as any other 'shooter' and my team learned a hard lesson. I still put myself on 'assignment' on a regular basis and try to shoot whatever I can that is not moving. It's a chance to explore lighting, angles, exposure and a whole lot more. I would like to think that all of us are not so complacent as to just sit back and think there is nothing more to learn about the way a table or chair looks. There is always more. Thank goodness!
Some great places to shoot in New York - the famous Chelsea Market where the well known 'Food Network' shoots Rachel Ray and a lot of other famous chefs and food experts. Another place in New York on Long Island is the Bethpage Restoration Village. A conglomerate of old houses from various era's past relocated to create a truly wonderful almost old west looking town that never existed. Click on some of the shots to the right to see the full slide shows.
-GGP