Colle + McVoy + Me

A couple of weeks ago, I shot a fairly large production (relatively speaking) advertising job, right here in sunny Sausalito, CA and San Francisco. This job was a new adventure for me. My work has primarily consisted of about 75% editorial and 25% commercial, meaning flying around and producing jobs at the last minute, working with mid- to large-size design firms, great magazine editors, and the occasional corporate client.

My work has evolved greatly since I quit assisting and began shooting on my own in February 2005. I've been very happy with the magazine work I do, but I began seriously courting the eye of larger agencies a little over a year ago. I've had the occasional nugget, a book called in for this or that, even told I was one of the final two or three up for some of them, keeping me and my reps slightly on edge.

Finally, this one landed.

I kept a loose diary during the production and through the shoot that I can now share to shed some light on how the process went for me. I'll take a couple of posts, hopefully over the next week or two, and work through some of the lessons learned (catering is king) and wisdom gained (hire a good producer). Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions you'd like answered, such as:

Why does it take 3 assistants to hold up a scrim?
Why do you need to hire a teacher?
What does Tibet have to do with catering?
When's the right time to leave the bar after a shoot (don't worry Chris)?
Why "copy that" became a catch phrase by the end of the shoot.

All in all, it was a great experience. As soon as this job was done I couldn't wait to get on with the next one.