Telling the story of telling a story…
When we started brainstorming a new Lincoln Motor Co. project, we wanted to challenge ourselves in a new way and explore storytelling through video. It’s important as a creative to always be moving forward, pushing yourself and your abilities. Unlike past videos which have been more free form organic vignettes or allowing the subject to narrate the story themselves, this one was totally new for us (PS – This is what Kevin was talking about in Question #20!). We wanted to create a micro film, a little story and a fun way to unveil a new car as it was being unveiled for the whole world.
We started with just that thought – unveiling. So how can you uncover or discover a car creatively? …why though fun trickery, of course! How cute would it be to create a fantasy where the designer of this new car was a young, handsome creative living in New York and his date stole the plans to his work with the coordinates of the car’s secret location so that she could steal it as her own?! A calculated date, a thief, a chase through Manhattan, she’s got it!… but wait! a twist! He had her all along…
We had never gone to this place before but we had to try… we had to know if we could make our dreams a reality. Here is how it played out and all the funny tidbits you did not see in “The Lincoln Job“…
Fittings ~ The day before the shoot the stylist tried on the clothing options with our two stars. In our pre-production meetings Kelly thought based on the storyboards it would be cool to style them inspired by “The Thomas Crown Affair“, which we all loved.
Above: Kelly plays around with the idea of suspenders for the “at home scenes” before he throws on his suit jacket on the way out the door in the chase.
Below: The creative director Maury Postal and I watch on as we go through all the styling options.
Finishing touches… above Kelly thinks about that last something to complete the look and asks our creative director to borrow his Warby Parkers which got instant cheers once Amadeo put them on and it was done!
All in agreement on the final looks.
He wears:
Club Monaco suit, Nordstrom white shirt, Warby Parker glasses, Florsheim shoes, Kevin’s suspenders from our wedding
She wears:
Robert Rodriguez dress, Orla Kiely coat, Christian Louboutin heels, Karen Walker sunglasses, Plukka Earrings, Plukka + Phillips House Rings
Setting the game plan ~ Kevin began to explain to our two models Amadeo & Michelle the storyboards for what we would be filming the next two days. We are all laughing in this photograph because Kevin, being distracted by our starlet’s dress, said “So it starts in the bedroom”, when he meant to say it starts in the living room!
~ The apartment scenes ~
It’s all in the details. We wanted his apartment to be classic, design-oriented and masculine. Above lamp we had made from here, one of my favorite black and white essays on America, the table is our own we bought in Rhinebeck from this trip and throughout the space, we placed a collection of cars rented from a prop house as well as the painting over the couch.
The chalkboard that lines the back of his desk we found on a trip to Lancaster, PA which was a fun way to tell parts of the story about who this character is and foreshadow what would take place in the micro film.
Our friend Ana Sicat joined our crew…one of the best parts about being a photographer is hiring people you like to work with. We have been collaborating with Ana on so many of our magical shoots.
The Set~ We made a bank of Kino Flo lights bounced off of white photo flats to softly illuminate the scene as if the apartment had a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows flooded with late afternoon light.
My photoshoot uniform: DKNY pants / Banana Republic boots / MAIYET blazer / Ralph Lauren button up / PAULE KA coat (outside shots)
The idea was that our designer would have his date over for a glass of wine…which she purposely finished in order to get him out of the room (to refill, of course!) and give her the opportunity to look for the plans and coordinates of this top secret car. Our model had to “endure” finishing that glass of wine 20 times at ten in the morning while we filmed the scene over and over from multiple angles. I was so jealous of her job.
Above: Keeping with the car theme we had a collection of books on automobiles around his staged apartment including THIS, which I was happy to bring into our studio space permanently.
Above: Kevin puts finishing touches on the designer’s sketch by adding coordinates to the warehouse the car would be for our shoot and notes on the final design. The sketchs were actually sent from the real designer in Dearborn, MI for our shoot.
Below: Kevin finishes the designer’s chalk board leaving “Easter eggs” pertaining to the entire film.
We wanted all the props to mean something. All the photographs in our character’s apartment were printed from our shoot last year with Lincoln. I made Polaroids of the models to pin up and most of the little props came from our actual studio offices.
If you want them:
The lamp, desk pad, pencil holder, pencils, desk fan, polaroid camera, embossers
One of my favorite parts of this is walking the models through the next scene, where they will go and stand, how they feel, what we want them to do. It’s my favorite part of directing.
Kevin’s gear: RED Epic and shoulder mount / Lenses: 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 300mm
~ The Warehouse Scenes ~
We rented the space Villain in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Just hours after Lincoln unveiled the new MKC to the press in Manhattan, they loaded it up on a truck and brought it to us to shoot.
Photoshoot uniform part II: Barneys Cashmere sweater / Kenneth Cole men’s button up / J. Crew pixie pant / Banana Republic boots / PAULE KA coat (outside shots)
Above: Practicing the reveal. We added a smoke machine to the scene so when the headlights appeared from the silk removal, the beams of light would illuminate in a dramatic way.
Special thanks to the entire crew ~ our creative director Maury Postal, models Amadeo & Michelle, stylists Kelly Framel & Erin Framel, our assistants Russ Heller & Chris LaPointe, hair and makeup artist Ana Sicat and our in house assistant Carly Piersol who took all these behind the scenes images for our memories! Couldn’t have done this without you guys, thank you. Xx
