Book Rush

Tuesday January 31st, 2012

Several months ago, Intermark Group called James Quantz Jr to see if he’d be interested in shooting a project for the University of Alabama’s bookstore: SUPe Store. James had worked with Intermark in the past, and their creatives thought he was the perfect shooter for their new quirky project. They knew they needed someone who could not only bring their vision to life, but someone who was proficient in post production as well. After hearing their pitch and the shoot’s concept, James was on board.

Intermark’s SUPe Store print ad concepts revolved around promoting what’s called the “Book Rush.” To do this, they came up with the idea to have students chasing a giant book mascot around the campus. In September, James and his team made their way to the University’s campus to scout and photograph locations. Then they hit the drawing boards, creating three scenarios. Soon after, it was time for the actual shoot, which they had to accomplish at first without the mascot (who was still being built!),

With roughed out concepts, we hit the studio on campus in mid-November where we proceeded to photograph the students. When photographing and building composite imagery, the students (models) really had to engage their imaginations in order to pull off what we needed in camera. With not much else to go on but instruction from Jason, Noah, and myself they actually did a fantastic job! We had fun trying to verbally describe the scenes to the students prior to taking their pictures. These kids were game and we had them flying onto mattresses, jumping off chairs, rolling on the floor, simulating repelling of a building, catching invisible books, etc..

As the day progressed, I was able to show the later groups some samples of our work on the computer screens to help demonstrate what we were after, but they really didn’t need it—except to maybe reassure them we weren’t completely crazy.

After a very full day of shooting, James headed back to the office to begin the laborious task of compositing the many images together,

We ended up have a very tight deadline so sorting, selecting and rough assembly was all completed in a matter of days. Another couple of days were needed for the final touches and changes that had to be made due to the thirty plus layouts that were needed for the full campaign. One challenge was creating images that could fit into nearly thirty different layouts. So I was tasked with delivering a few different options of each scenario.

An animation of one of the images coming together—it’s probably 16+ hours of work condensed into a few seconds!

All of his hard work paid off though, with the final ads recently being rolled out. Intermark was very pleased with the images, but nothing can compare to how happy the SUPe Store and UA students were with their new campaign,

This concept and execution—and budget!—was something they had never come close to using previously.  I think their earlier campaigns consisted mainly of clip art and maybe some stock imagery. So they really trusted us to deliver and they’ve been real happy with the response.  The cool thing is we used students that get a chance to see themselves all over campus now.  I actually got this message from the client on my Facebook page: “Hey you! Everyone LOVES the photos/ads with our book. :) They are so awesome! Thank you so much for everything. Good times. (and Roll Tide!)”

View more of James’ work on his website, quantzphoto.com.

- Maria Luci

Seeing Red

Monday January 30th, 2012

Two and a half years ago, Kenneth Johansson approached a Los Angeles building owner with an idea. That building—well, more like three buildings—was the Pacific Design Center. The idea? For Kenneth to document the construction and completion of the Center’s threesome: The Red Building.

The Pacific Design Center is a 1,200,000 square foot triad of buildings that houses a multitude of creative businesses, restaurants and showrooms. What it’s most known for though, is the three building’s bright colors. One blue, one green, and lastly, a final red building—Center Red.

Drawn to the unique architecture and vivid colors (the vision of famed architect Cesar Pelli), he knew he wanted to document Center Red, from beginning to end. He saw the history and future in the building and knew it was something special. So, he took his idea to photograph the building to it’s owner, Charles Cohen, who, after seeing Kenneth’s accomplished portfolio, agreed to give him the job of shooting the site for a book.

Soon after, he found himself dodging steel bars and riding up on cranes. He had to learn fast how to photograph in such a hectic environment,

As I walk the site and see potential shots, I instinctively shoot them, then and there if I can. The next minute, it could be gone. You find it, shoot it, and get out of the way before you get run over.

Kenneth was excited by the challenge though, and ready for anything. He even jumped in a crane to hang 10 stories high. He recalls,

I was strapped into a man-basket on the crane—I was following the crane’s hook as it went back and forth, working and spinning. I was up there for more than an hour and loving every minute.

Now, thousands of shots later, he’s very happy to have been able to be a part of the Red Building’s history. According to Kenneth, the project is very special to him. He states, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder.”

What’s next for Kenneth now that the Red Building project is complete? Maybe a trip to Paris where he hopes to photograph the Chartres Catherdral or another of the many buildings on his photography “wish list.”

View more of Kenneth’s work on his website, kennethjohanssonphotography.com. You can also check out more of his Red images on redgallerysite.com.

- Maria Luci

Sunday Spotlight: 1/29/12

Sunday January 29th, 2012