A Day Behind the Lens: new campaign for the Mia Four
As a photographer and videographer, I pride myself on being a one-man show. From capturing stills and videos to piloting drones, I can handle multiple aspects of a shooting day by myself.
I recently had the chance to use those skills on another successful collaboration with Yair Younger, the VP of sales at Mayer Group, that have recently begun selling the phenomenal Mia Four quadboard. We wanted to capture its essence in two distinct and captivating locations: the awe-inspiring Ramon Crater, renowned for its striking desert landscapes; and amidst the lush embrace of the Ella Valley’s thick pine forest. The contrast between the barrenness of the desert and the verdant beauty of the forest helped us create two very different bodies of work in one day.
After carefully planning out the shoot, the script, the shot list and the itinerary long in advance, we left Tel Aviv at 2 am and headed south. We got to the heart of the Ramon Crater before sunrise, just in time for the “blue hour”. Recognizing that the light was initially too low for video, I decided to start by capturing still shots. The magical blue light falling on the surrounding hills inside the crater, paired with the yellowish hue of speedlight used as a key light, created a perfect combination of colors and tonalities. I got totally caught up in shooting when in addition to that, the sun came up right behind the models as they were posing.
I had to remind myself to keep moving so I keep following my shot list diligently, as we had to also film the story we planned out. As I was rushing to keep shooting and making sure everybody is on the same page, I also had to make sure I remained flexible, adapting to the spontaneous moments that arose from the models’ interactions and Yair’s suggestions. Balancing both structure and spontaneity was essential to ensure we got the outcome we were aiming for, while embracing the unexpected.
Throughout the shoot, my focus extended beyond merely capturing the vehicle: we had a story to tell. This was the hardest part of the day: to keep wearing both my director’s hat, while keeping the DP hat on (and having postproduction in mind).
Once we were done with the crater, we headed an hour north for a whole different scene. At that point, we were more relaxed since we knew that the media we’ve created early in the morning was a winner. So, we played around, which led to completely different shots than before. It also left us time to make the video’s storyline more about the MIA Four’s compactness, agility and ease of use.
In the realm of creative projects, collaboration is key. Yair is the visionary without which the shoot wouldn’t be possible. Additionally, he picked two champs to model for the shoot: Gal Rubin (who also participated in the Israeli version of “Survivor”) and Roie Nitzan- real fearless pros, who made the MIA Four look even more awesome.
So, there you have it: in one day of shooting (and many days of prep) we managed to produce enough media to last for an entire campaign and boost sales with quality content. Until next time!
