Late last year, I had the great fortune to revisit a wonderful chapter of my life. Many years ago, I made my living as a furniture designer/maker. During those years, I collaborated with Evan Shively, the owner of Arborica – a company that sells gorgeous, massive, salvaged wood. One of my favorite rituals was taking my furniture clients to visit Evan to pick out the wood for their projects. It gave me such pleasure to watch my clients soak it in, and the experience rarely failed to leave them awestruck.
When Arborica called and asked me if I would create a brand positioning video, two things went through my mind. First, “Hell yes! It would be an honor to help tell that story.” Second, “How are we going to create a video that even gets close to the experience of visiting Arborica?”
We had an excellent starting point with Evan’s clear sense of Arborica’s market position and his laser focus on the audience with which he wants to connect. As we dug into pre-production, a conversation emerged that went something like this:
Tyler: Who is the audience? What is the message?
Evan: Architects and designers. What sets us apart is our scale and our capacity. We can handle the big projects.
Tyler: How do you think we should tell this story?
Evan: Well, I have a crazy idea that probably won’t work. One big fly-through that shows everything.
Tyler: I love that idea! It would be challenging to shoot. But I think we can pull it off. This isn’t usually how these videos are done these days…this could fail. But if it works, it would be powerful. What do you think?
Evan: I’m in.
Tyler: I know a great drone pilot…
Collaborating with the team at Arborica was a joy. Evan, Carly, Nic, and the rest of the crew worked heroically before and during production. Each of the shots in this video required multiple people to do their parts in coordination with a complex drone flight path, often in wind. Long shots like these are tough, with so many moving parts a lot can, and does go wrong. Predictably we did many takes. Through it all, the Arborica Team was professional, positive and fun!
A big thank you to Duncan Clark, our drone pilot extraordinaire. Duncan’s creative input during pre-production, outstanding technical skills, and his positive “can do” attitude throughout were critical to making this project successful. Also, Holly Dubkoff for a wonderful job with video editing and sound design. Special thanks to Jung Fitzpatrick, who assisted on this shoot and captured our behind the scenes story – including the photo above!
Behind the scenes video:
Tyler’s Tips
Tyler’s Tips is a video series where I share ideas to improve your photography! I thought it appropriate to share this tip about defining your audience, and connecting with them, like our collaboration with Arborica.
Tyler’s Tips Episode 35: Define Your Audience