For this film, we were tasked to create the show opener to the ADDY awards show. Although, we wanted to create a film that not only encompassed the AAF theme and message, but something that could be seen as a love letter to Dallas and the extraordinaire creatives that encompass this city, something that would live far beyond the ADDY show, as an anthem per se.
As for our selected background we custom made them on mid-journey and Photoshop to fit the visual story we wanted to be told. In addition, every single Dallas background we had displayed was a custom background we had previously shot in-camera. We knew we wanted Dallas backgrounds, but wanted to be able to control the desired composition and colors, so we went out and physically shot the Dallas images, then color graded and projected on the volume.
Now to be able to achieve all of the 12 entirely different setups we had on schedule required an extensive amount of preparation in pre-production. All of our custom made backgrounds we tested for days before the shoot. We projected each background to perfectly fine tune the composition, exposure, color, etc. We then had a pre light days for this project. Lighting on location during the shoot would’ve been impossible, since each setup required different variables, as well as lighting cues which we had programmed via Bluetooth. On our pre-light day we rigged all of our lights and tested for each background, noting all of the lighting variables on paper, as well as programming our lighting cues. During shoot day, all we had to do was switch the fixtures variables, which we had noted on paper, and knew exactly where to put the lights, what luminance, color, etc. This made knocking 12 setups in a day very easy.
As for camera, we knew we were doing 12-13 setups with maybe 30 minutes to setup for the next scene. Knowing this we had to figure out a way to keep the camera fluid for our desired motion we wanted, while also keeping it manageable and fast paced. We opted to operate the camera on a Steadicam for the entire film. This approach allowed us to have the cameras axis fluid at all ends, which made getting the motion we wanted easy and at a fast pace. This element was key to the film in terms of motion but also having a very tight packed schedule.
We have to take a moment to give Deja a shoutout as she fully trusted us with creating the visual language and story of the film. She provided us the general script and let us run with the visuals and how we turn that script into a visual story. We are super grateful for her trust on this project and for letting us showcase this story in a very curated way.
