Earlier this week, HTC revealed some new products at their Double Exposure event in NYC. http://blog.htc.com/2014/10/double-exposure/ I'm honored to again create many of the images for their newest product the HTC RE, a small handheld camera.
The New HTC One - Pre Production
As I’m sure you noticed in the last post, the crew list was pretty extensive. This project was no small feat.
The pre-production process took about a month, and even if we had wanted more time, it would not have been possible to get it. The phone was shipped from Taiwan under lock and key and was on a very tight schedule to make all of its appearances as there where only 4 in existence at that time.
After reviewing the production notes, there were obviously 2 things I needed to do right away. I had to build my team and I had to start location scouting. The idea for the shoot was to follow 5 young people through their weekend in a metropolitan area, specifically San Francisco. I quickly realized the scenes that HTC wanted were also available here is Sacramento. There was also the issue that the original schedule had us shooting in December which meant most of San Francisco was decorated for Christmas.
Kody, Christine and I went out and shot location images of our city to send to HTC and they agreed Sacramento was the perfect backdrop for the project.
Upon the decision being made that we would be working in Sacramento I was able to confirm the rest of the team and get to work reaching out to local businesses and resources. From city agencies, to restaurants, to casting agencies we had everything we needed to start building the schedule and the storyboard.
Even though California was having a beautifully sunny winter, there was concern that some of the outdoor shots would be disrupted with bad weather, so we also had to put in place backup plans for all the outdoor shots that could be implemented the day of shooting.
The next step was to cast the models. We had the pleasure of working with Amber Collins of Cast Images. There were 5 characters we had to cast in this project. Amber built some galleries for HTC to look through based on their descriptions and we had our models selected in no time at all! Sacramento has some amazing talent!
Now that we had our models I could send the wardrobe details and measurements to Simone to start pulling wardrobe for the project. We were given very specific requests for each model based on the character that was created for each of them. We scheduled a fitting and sent some images to HTC for final approvals.
So that was it, I had my team, my locations, the models and wardrobe, I had the storyboard and shot list on repeat in my brain. It almost felt like planning a wedding, all the pieces were in place and the last few days were spent waiting in anticipation of putting it all to work.
Next up, a behind the scenes look of our week long photo shoot!
HTC Gluuv
I'm so excited to be able to announce some new technology that I received to play with recently. The amazing HTC Gluuv! With the trend toward wearable devices, this is a very interesting new direction. The prototype I played with has lots of features with still more to come. I'm definitely interested in getting one when it goes into production.
I've got to say, it's pretty cool to be able to try this technology before the world gets to see it.
The New HTC One (M8)
Some of you may have noticed that I have been missing in action the last few months. This is why http://www.htc.com/us I had the opportunity to work with HTC, one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in the world and their new cutting edge top secret phone. I was part of the team that created all the images and web video for the launch of the HTC New One (M8).
The project started in November of last year with planning and pre production. We shot for a full week in January and have spent the last 2 months editing and assembling the final products.
There is no way I could have accomplished such a huge project without a team that had my back, extremely talented models that worked hard during the consecutive days of shooting and a great client. The HTC team had great vision, they conveyed it to me clearly and allowed me to craft a plan that we executed and lead to a final product that everyone was happy with.
In my next few blog pots I will go into greater detail about what it took to get this done. For now I am just excited to finally be able to share this great news with you! It’s been so difficult to keep it quite for the last 4 months!
I am so grateful to have such an amazing team! If not for them and their efforts none of this would have been possible! Thank you all!
Team -
Photographer - Tim Engle
Videographer - Kody Pickern
Production - Christine Alward
Makeup Artist - Jenifer Haupt
Hair Stylist - Mikel Sessions
Wardrobe Stylist - Simone Vianna
1st Assistant - Gene Wang
2nd Assistant - Dave Harlan
Video Assistant - Todd Beighley
Catering - Libby Carew
Security - Bill Thiry & Mike Claypool
Electrician - Wade Barton
Models - Cast Images
