Over the Holidays, I received a new piece of video equipment that allows me more flexibility to capture video from tight spots. I was vacation at the Everglades National Park, camping, fishing and boating around the tip of Florida. I decided to try it out for the first time by having it dangle of my boat going 35 mph zooming in and out of the mangroves and cruising with the dolphins. It worked out great and I am looking forward to using it more.

Check out the video I created.

This exciting 30 seconds through the streets and monuments of Paris, France.

This assignment took me to 3 continents and 5 different locations. The creative brief was to illustrate the change of day to night at these iconic locations. The client was an eye glass company that manufacturers transitional lenses that changes with the light. Working with the creative team at the advertising agency, I was able to create different angles and perspectives for each location to give the agency options on this project.

These are the five retouched locations I created during this project.

For this recent shoot for Top Ridge Resorts, I created video as well as
still imagery for the ad campaign. This location is in North Creek, NY, in
the beautiful Adirondack State Park. The Creative Director was looking for
imagery that told a story as well as conveying a family friendly atmosphere.

Other motion crews I’ve recently directed include crews for the I LOVE NY
Tourism Campaign and several pharmaceutical companies.

This was location 4 of 5 for this global campaign and the third different time zone this week.  Next week will be the greatest difference in time zones… Rio to Miami for 36 hours then Miami to Paris then back to Miami….then to New York.

Luckily,  I had a great producer in Rio and all the logistics were already  taken care of when the driver picked me up at the airport. Permits, Suntan Lotion and Security personal were on the top of my list.  Derek from Capture Brazil had everything covered and we were able to location scout all the key locations in one day.  A little pre production goes a long way.

On the shoot day it was perfect weather and the only real issue we had came from Mother Nature and the Full moon.  We were shooting on the beach and the tides happen to be a little higher than normal.  We had some fun during the day building a wall of sand around the tripod. The vantage point we wanted was close to the normal high tide level on the beach, but the tide was not normal that day.  As you will see in the photo and video we had our job cut out for us.   My security officer  a Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (Portuguese for Special Police Operations Battalion) had us covered with fanny pack full of toys.

We all had a good time and I was able to get the angle the the client requested, so the shoot was a success.  It was my Birthday (Big 40) during the shoot dates and since we had great weather during the shoot.  I was able to visit some of the historic sites…. All work no play makes James a Dull photographer

Look for the final images after the campaign is launched.

As the New Year starts so did the continuation of this two month photography assignment for Vision Ease Lens based out on Minneapolis.  I always enjoy NOLA and shooting on Bourbon street is always a adventure.  Great people watching and music to listen to while you work.  Other than my luggage going to Milwaukee and the weather in NOLA feeling like I was in Milwaukee  the trip was great.  For the second day shooting I ended up renting a suite at the Royal Sonesta Hotel which is the key balcony that many production companies shoot from.  Thank you to all the people who assisted in obtaining this location. This provided the perfect vantage point to give the client a different point of view. Here is a couple behind the scene pictures from this shoot.

So there is no budget to close down public areas for your photo shoot.  A little pre planning and a little photoshop can keep the photo shoot rolling.  Here’s a couple of samples of before and after from a recent health care shoot.

Retouched before and after sample

Retouched before and after sample

Retouched before and after sample

Retouched before and after sample

No this is not a Hollywood title for the next new summer movie hit, but we did shoot in Hollywood FL    It was 2 full days outside in close to record heat for the month of August.  The assignment was for AvMed health care creating a library of images of active mature adults to be used in Florida market.  With many shoots clients need images that work with a multitude of  sizes from banner ads to print/electronic media.  My style of shooting is lots of different angles and expressions in a library of consistent imagery.

The interesting production tidbit for this assignment was not the normal changes, revisions and complete 180 from original photo brief… which did also happen… But this was the first time working with this agency &  the Art Director was leaving for vacation for two weeks and I was going to be in the middle Adirondack State Park.  I was stuck in the  tradition “Hurry Up & Wait” which in this industry is the norm. It was Friday and we both went on our merry ways North waiting for the Who, What and Where to happen.   Being a Eagle scout, I grabbed my trusty WI-FI card and car power adapter and  off I went to rough it with internet access in kilobytes…I was missing the days of dial up.

The call finally arrived the assignment was confirmed and the check was in the mail.  I have a great producer Margret Alonso Productions in South Florida and she was the first I called. When you have a producer with a great attitude as a team(& budget$)  you can make the craziest Ad agency request happen in even a crazier time line.  As a team we made it happen.

Locations:

1.Hollywood boardwalk with the last minute request for 1950’s car on the boardwalk

2. Broward Preforming Arts Center and waterfront with inter coastal view

3. Putt Putt golf  with palm trees shot at boomers entertainment center

4. Swimming pool and workout/gym with palm trees

5. Walking with dog and picnicking with the inter coastal waterway in the background

At all these locations we mixed and matched talent and activities to give the client a wide range of images to choose from.  The shoot went great and the client sent the crew a email and myself email’s of Thanks

“I just wanted to thank you all for doing such a great job on the AvMed project & it was a pleasure working with you all. I look forward to working together on future projects.” -Senior Art Director

“I heard it went very well and everyone was impressed with your professionalism. Thank you!  I have not seen the shots, but David was very happy.” – Art Buyer

The Client Brief

Today, 28 million Americans experience migraines – and over 21 million of these migraine sufferers are women. These are today’s Migraineurs.

Women today lead more demanding lives than ever before, typically leading a “double life” that requires them to be responsible for both home and work. Responding to the need for a migraine medication that won’t slow women down, AstraZeneca has developed a new migraine medication called Zomig.

The brief presented to photographer James McEntee was to portray strong, active, professional women – the profile of the typical migraine sufferer – who are able to perform under stress and get the job done, with the help of Zomig.

Production Challenges and Client Requests

“The client wanted to portray strong, active women in demanding jobs. Police officers and life guards are under constant stress. And what could be more challenging than working on an emergency medical team?” says McEntee

Key to this concept was finding models that didn’t “look like models” – but instead could convincingly portray the real women who handle these tough jobs. Fortunately, McEntee has extensive casting experience in a variety of cities around the U.S., and was able to pull together an excellent selection of talent in both New York and Miami, where the campaign was shot. Being familiar with the in’s and out’s of shooting on location in multiple states James and the producer were able to produce each shoot quickly to meet the tight deadline.

On location there are always many logistics to manage. When shooting four different highly produced scenarios in three states (FL, NY, NJ) there are many things that can go wrong. “Be Prepared !” is James McEntee’s motto. McEntee, an Eagle Scout knows, how important this is especially when tens of thousands of dollars a day in production are on the line.

McEntee states “What’s most important during the shoot is keeping the momentum going-directing the talent,adjusting for weather, and being flexible & able to respond to unexpected circumstances. A lot of fine tuning can be handled in post production. You don’t want to waste time and break the team’s concentration by stopping and starting unnecessarily.

The End Results

The Migraineurs and the Evolution Campaign began in 2008 and it has evolved into a recognized campaign. The Lifeguard and Police woman were the first shoots, followed recently by the Triathlon Athlete and the E.M.T . “The campaign has been a huge success and everyone is very happy with the results” said Doug Donelan Creative Director . Donelan states “We spent most of the night and this morning choosing selects. It was tough, there were so many outstanding shots, it was hard to choose favorites.” Donelan and McEntee are no strangers when it comes to tight deadlines and even tighter budgets.

The campaign is to inform medical professionals via web, print and trade show about the positive results of the product. The continuation of the Evolution Campaign for 2009 justifies the success of the entire team evolved in all aspects of the production.

To view more images from the shoot visit www.jamesmcentee.com

To see more images from these shoot or many other please visit www.jamesmcentee.com or email us at me@jamesmcentee.com