MS Awareness Month
Treatment for
Hello!
Thank you so much for being in touch about this potential project. I’m a huge fan of the creative concept you’ve developed. The environmental portraiture component is very much up my alley, and as a long time fan of Humans of New York, I love seeing that as a creative reference.
The video podcast element feels so well suited for my experience as well. Since early in the pandemic I’ve been collaborating with brands and agencies on remote shoots. I have a lot of personal experience, as well as a great tech team for shoots like this, and we have a lot of insight from our previous shoots that will help make sure this project is a success.
Sean Darko shot remotely. See more from the shoot here
Overview
The core of this project is about creating an intimate connection.
Not only will we be telling the story of their relationship with MS, but also we want to bring their humanity and unique story to the forefront.
As a photographer with a background in journalism, this is the kind of project that I get particularly excited about. From shooting stories for the New York Times, to shooting real patients for pharmaceutical companies, I’ve found that one of the big building blocks for a successful shoot like this is a real connection with our subjects.
I’ll be excited to collaborate and strategize with your team about how we can best position ourselves—both leading up to the shoot day, and on the shoot itself—to create content that shares a compelling, intimate look at our subjects.
How I work
One of my favorite things about photography is its collaborative nature. I love working with a brand and creative team to discover how their message can be translated through my lens.
As I dove deeper into thinking about this shoot, I’ve come up with some suggestions that diverge a bit from the initial brief. While I feel that these are ways that we can further elevate the project, they are by no means the only way we can do this. I’ll be excited to keep this conversation going, and to continue to refine our approach to this project.
Vlog-Cast
For the vlog-cast portion of the shoot, we’ll collaborate with our subjects to create in home setups that tell the story of doing a vlog-cast without being overly tech driven. The images shown here are some examples of real life YouTube podcasts/shows that I would use as a production design reference.
We’ll make sure to have our subjects well lit. A microphone front and center, and perhaps a few other minimal queues like headphones will help to tell the podcasting story.
While we have discussed the possibility of doing a green screen backdrop, I would actually recommend against this. Rather, I think shooting the subject in their home helps bring their personality to the piece, and also helps to make the setup easy and simple.
Assuming we’re able to schedule our subjects accordingly, we should have a seperate prep/set up day, where we walk them through setting up equipment and lighting, styling the space etc. Then, when we circle back for our shoot, they’ll be fresh and able to focus on our conversation.
Screenshots from others channels on youtube. I would use these as references as we build our setup in our subjects homes.
Portraits
As a very long time fan of Humans of New York, I loved seeing it being used as one of the creative references for this project. I think that one of the reasons this body of work is so compelling is how they tell the story of people in their environments.
We discussed this briefly on our call, but as a recap: While we’ve discussed doing the portraits in studio, I think a strong option to consider would be to shoot environmental portraits.
We’re showing real-life people, who are talking about their real lives, and I think that bringing them to a studio with props is not in the best service of this concept. Additionally, considering that the diverse locations of our subjects, I feel that we can get a better bang for our buck by avoiding the cost of studio and prop rentals all over the city.
The portrait locations will be based upon discussion with our subject. They may be as simple as just shooting outside their home, but could also include other places that are important and relevant to our subjects. If the portrait shoots take place after the video shoots, we can use the content of the video shoot to help guide our locations for the potrait shoot.
Remote Shooting
We are currently bidding the shoot based on two potentials scenarios. In one scenario, I will visit the subjects for an in person shoot with a very small footprint. In the other, I will do the stills shoot remotely. In both scenarios the vlog-cast portion of the shoot will be done remotely.
Since early in the pandemic, I have been conducting remote shoots, and the learnings from these shoots will be a valuable element for us as we prepare for these shoots. Everything from equipment and technology, to even things like scheduling logistics will come into play for the remote portions of our shoot.
Video Edit
The video we’re creating is a unique form of content:
It’s not exactly a vlog-cast—in which a show might run an hour or more, and often has very simple editing, just cutting from person to person. Rather, it’s a short clip.
For most viewing this story, it will be their introduction to these people, so we really need to grab their attention, and use all the story telling elements at our disposal. Cutting in still images and B-roll will be a way that we can really make these stories stand out.
We’ll coordinate with our subjects to get personal imagery and video that will help tell their story, and will also collaborate with them to create additional imagery to help tell the story.
If we end up doing the portrait shoots in person, we can also use those shoot days to capture video that can be integrated with the interviews. I’d recommend we shoot this work on the latest iPhone, for a balance of quality, but still with the feel of being user generated content.
If the entire shoot is to take place remotely, we can coordinate with the subjects to shoot B-Roll remotely as well. We have the technology to connect and direct the capture of this B-Roll remotely, which would be the ideal scenario. But depending on constraints and logistics, we can also coordinate with our subjects to give them a sort of “shot list” as well as some coaching on how to best capture this B-Roll.
Shot April 15, 2020 with Jess2Sick on webcam and iphone
Thank You
I’ve really enjoyed the process of thinking through this shoot, as well as going through my archives and putting together a portolio of work that would be relevant.
I’m so grateful for you considering me for this project and taking the time to review what I put together. I’m very excited at the prospect of this creative collaboration, and to keep the conversation going! 🙏🙏🙏
About Me
I studied journalism at the University of Colorado, and after graduating I moved to New York where I got started working as a photo assistant. Today I shoot for publications like the New York Times and brands like Cadillac, YouTube, Google and Adidas.
I live with my wife and five year old daughter in Bed-stuy, Brooklyn. When I'm not hanging with the family I can be found scouring used book shops for the next addition to my photo book collection, or on a surfboard at Rockaway beach.