Rock Your Retirement | Freedom in Retirement Campaign

Director Jonathan Millard and I have had the opportunity to work together on countless projects together from Sci-Fi feature narratives to commercial documentaries and even live TV over a healthy couple of years. As the kids say "We go back,". Jon and I found ourselves working together at Magellan Financial, a company that had recently expanded its media department to their clients, allowing them to buy paid programming airtime and air a 30-minute live-to-tape segment to promote their businesses. Once the company heard about Jon's extensive experience with writing and directing commercials they enlisted him to write and direct (and edit!) some no-budget spec-type commercials for one of their clients. Jon got me involved as we enjoy a fantastic working relationship as director/DP.

The concept was for an in-your-face retirement company called "Rock Your Retirement" and involved an office worker living through the same mundane day at work, getting more and more exasperated by the annoying situations of a corporate workplace. One day, his retirement advisor reaches out to him, reminding him of the rock band he always wanted to start and this encourages him to finally break out of his rut and (literally) get the band back together. For the visuals, we knew we wanted to create an oppressive, corporate environment for the majority of the commercial, but we always also want to make sure our talent looks good - especially in the world of corporate commercial films.

Equipment used on this shoot consisted of a Blackmagic Ursa 12k camera, which we had extensive issues with. We were able to force it to do its job by allowing it to work in only 4k, reseating the SSD a few times, and speaking a little nicer to it as the day went on. This camera was one of many compromises to fit the day into the budget provided, but we were able to supplement the package with a nice kit of vintage primes that I own and maintain. We of course ran into image issues shooting at 4k, but I'd rather not go into a manifesto on why you shouldn't be shooting outside of 12k on that camera - just trust me that if you have to use the camera, keep it in 12k at base ISO to yank out the full potential of this sensor and software.

Another less-than-desirable piece of kit was our electric package consisting of the Aputure 120d, 300d, and Nanlite 300b. We also had an Astra 6x panel. We try to stay tungsten as often as we can, but to keep on track we needed lightweight, non-fussy, tunable fixtures. These lights actually impressed me a bit (especially the Nanlite) and did everything we needed them to. This package was supplemented by my personal grip package.

The actual lighting setup was a bit tough as we were low on fixtures and space shooting in an actively working office with little to no recce/setup time. In each space we had to get creative, but our main goals were to create a toppy, fluorescent feel while not using the actual overhead lights which would be inconsistent, desaturate the skin, and cause everything to skew towards grey instead of using the full potential of the camera's sensor.

Lighting overhead diagrams can be viewed towards the bottom of the page.

Jon is always gracious enough to try to make sure I can get my hands on the footage for color once he (or someone else) finishes the cut. In this instance, I was really hoping to get a shot at it as I knew we had camera issues and scheduling issues that meant we had to compromise in certain situations, but I knew I could bring everything back in the color suite. This footage was processed in Resolve Studio using a DaVinci color managed space as well as a very slight film conversion I believe to mostly Fujifilm, then to Kodak when he breaks out of the corporate office. This process allowed me to create an oppressive color grade while making sure the talent's skin looked great. Our lighting setup made everything look really nice and fully saturated, which allowed me to pull some out of everything but the skin to create the "gross" fluorescent look without going overboard.

Overall this was a very fun shoot despite the breakneck pace, low-budget, and semi-functional camera package. Jon and I have a great rapport and working relationship which allows us to essentially execute whatever the plan is using whatever is afforded to us. Through planning, communication, and smart prep-work Jon and I are able to consistently create commercials and other narrative work that does the concept, brand, and talent justice.