Phoenix Zoo Spots

The Crux 
I always like to define the crux of a concept because the crux is the one thing I absolutely have to get right for the spots to succeed. The crux of these concepts are the talents’ interpretations of the animals. I have to nail the interpretations so that audiences think. “whoa, that’s guys acting like an otter.” In other words, I want to see great imitations of an otter, meerkats, a parrot and a turtle.

Real People Performances 
I can’t stress the idea of FUN enough. In order to get good performances from our real people talent, simply put, we have to have a good time on set. The creative lends itself to that. Shooting HD will give us plenty of takes to discover the best performances and allow our talent used to being in front of the camera. I will have videos of the animals prepared to watch with the talent. We’ll have a fun time working to mimic the animals.

The otter will be particularly fun to imitate because I’d like our talent to swim underwater for a length of time. That will require him to hold his breath and swim underwater as long as he can. It will be important to practice. In post, we can speed up the footage so that it appears the talent is swimming fast like an otter. We’ll make sure he goes underwater slowly to avoid wavelets which make the sped up footage look less realistic.

I will be important to have rehearsal time with the talent prior to the shoot days.
Humor I imagine subtle humor for these spots similar to my work for the New York Times and Monster.com. In these spots, I played the humor very realistically rather than give the characters an over-the-top comedic tone. Similarly, on the zoo spots I will ask the talent to deliver the most realistic portrayal of the animals they can. The casual observer included in the concepts are great because they add that “what tha?” humor that adds another layer to the spots.

Camera Techniques 
I imagine the camerawork to be simple and deliberate allowing the talent and their performances to be the star of the show. I’d like to frame the subjects with an eye for composition rather than shoot as if the camera fell off the truck. This will give the spot a more subjective, surreal and cinematic feel. Prior to shooting, I will spend time on location to pre-visualize the shots. This will help move the shoot along quickly and allow me the time to find shots that work really well.

For the Otter spot, I will use a jib to get the camera high above the pool for a high angle view of the otter swimming. I will also use the jib to free up the camera to work above and around the pool to find the best shot.

Lighting 
All of our shots are exterior, except for the shot of the mom buttoning up the child for school. We will plan accordingly. Inspired by Bonnie Holland’s, Jamie Kripke’s as well as some of my photography work, I’d like to keep the lighting high key, flat and soft. When I say flat, I mean I want to avoid deep, high contrast shadows on our subjects. To reduce shadows, I will use a twelve-by silk over our talent and fill them in with reflectors.
Colors While the lighting won’t be contrasty, conversely I’d like to have color contrast. I imagine the surroundings will take on muted earth tones while the talent’s wardrobe will be brighter in color and will create some pop.

Locations
 I understand that that the locations will most likely come from friends or friends of friends, but I hope to pay special attention to finding locations that have a graphic quality. I like to use the term “designed-reality” to describe how I will take existing, real-world locations and photograph them in such a way to give them artistic form.

Art  
There are a lot of important details that are required for the success of these spots such as the turtles back pack and the Parrot’s drive thru attire. We’ll also need to create a prop to allow the otter to float effortlessly so that we can move quickly through the shoot. I will pay special attention to these details and bring on an Art Key to manage this department.