Producing on Location
Producing On Location
Although I’ve been a photographer, filmmaker, writer, and have worked for newspapers, magazines, events, I’ve always maintained that the essential thread that connects everything I’ve done is “Productions.”
The ability to organize, predict, anticipate, prepare, book, direct, and articulate goals and priorities, IS “Production,” and determines whether a story or film, ever is released, and exceeds expectations.
The “Creative” side of any project is our dream. But whether that dream comes to exist, is the nuts and bolts of “Production.”
Here, I want to touch on some of the challenges and successes of producing on Location.
Whether a location needs to be dressed, built, lit, or is weather-sensitive, the amount of time is urgent for every crew.
For talent who have to be dressed, made-up, styled, the space and lighting, and temperature controls have to be monitored.
Who is the audience and what is their first impression? Is that controlled by geography or camera angles?
What we see here, are directors and producers walking through camera and cast movements, lighting specific to scenes, and taking advantage of location qualities.
Creating image, and production on location demands foresight. We walk-through locations both with the creative and production aspects in mind.
What shots are needed, desired, or tell the story? How does the audience feel, and see, the story?
The Location loses value, without evaluating and balancing both the creative AND pragmatic aspects. Whether a winter snowstorm, a wrapped palm tree, a vineyard created on a New York hotel rooftop, a collapsed structure on a Montauk pier following a hurricane, or a stage built at a yacht club, we’ve produced events, films and editorial stories.
Production challenges are broken down into basic areas: Natural issues: weather, terrain, time of day, time of year.
Societal issues: permits, approvals, laws, rules, regulations.
Content issues: models, children, animals, style, look.
Working with the “content” issues means thinking from the perspective of what we are trying to say, and then finding the way to say it. With the cooperation and understanding of the team, our flexibility allows us to produce. Working with the “natural” and “societal” issues, is a quick understanding of limitations and acceptance of reality. Refusal to do so can cost a production valuable time and resources.
Intersections: Artists working with Artists - Collaborations
Phillip Wong Productions
Non-Profit/Political/Portrait
INTERSECTIONS:
Artists Working with Artists – Collaborations
In our world, we interpret “political,” or “non-profit,” or “for-profit” in very specific ways. The fact is, our world is fluid, evolving, and our own work, has the ability to influence the world, to be closer to something that is fair, logical, equal, just, and gives us a viable future.
Many people believe that the world is too big, too vast, for US to have an impact on it, but we always believe that the world, has an impact on US. These ideas have elements of truth.
In a capitalist and commercial world, there are many artists who are extremely talented and accomplished, but might not be known. In a capitalist and commercial world, getting “known” is expensive and often difficult. I have always known this.
This is not a criticism of commercialism, but an understanding that there is more than what is marketed, and what is “hot” or “big” at this time. As any artist learns, greatness, is not always achieved in a lifetime. And as the world learns, what is “hot” today, may not always be great.
But using photography to draw attention to those who deserve a little more scrutiny, and trying to show “WHY” they deserve more, has been a passion of mine.
Working with artists, is understanding their art, their personalities, and collaborating with them to create visual images that complement and reflect the emotions and passions within them.
I realized that I was successful in fashion, not solely because of MY talent, but because I understood what designing was, and what mattered to fashion designers. I understood what mattered to editors and models.
But I came back from Europe, because in the fashion centers, they didn’t have a vast array of OTHER creative fields. I wanted to feel the energy of collaborating with passionate and driven people.
My production work is wide-ranging, because the artists and characters and people are wide-ranging. Who people ARE, are often, what people DO. And what they Think, and what they Feel.
The collaboration works because the GOAL, is what we work for – and to be part of that success – is what we can take pride in.
Tuu Ra – Extraordinary
https://song.link/Extraordinary
Steve Coleman – Drop Kick
https://youtu.be/ZnH7z1Ek-P4
Steve Coleman – The Tao of Mad Phat
Steve Coleman – Def Trance Beat
(The Modalities of Rhythm)
M-Base Collective- An Anatomy of A Groove
https://youtu.be/ol8acY0QpVY
Tuu-Ra – Cycles
Tamara Nekola
Steve Coleman And the Metrics – Tale of 3 Cities
Creating a Story in Motion
Phillip Wong Productions
Film/BTS/Production
Creating A Story in Motion
I worked a number of film productions with involvement stemming from my photography and my work with story-telling.
Film production has a completely different timeline than photography or special events. The success or failure of a film project hinges on whether it is finished, how it is edited, what the visual qualities are, and how well a story is told. The challenges of film production range from talent and crew availability, to weather, to budget, and the professionalism and timing of production crew and management.
My involvement into these projects ranged from knowing the subject and story, scouting locations, shooting stills that both defined angles for the video to follow, lighting locations and green screens.
Entry into one project was my background in fashion, an interest and knowledge of race in media, while another project called for me to shoot stills that would shape and echo the feel of a “video as film” production.
Involvement - Non-Profit + Political - Leave No Footprint
Phillip Wong Productions
Non-Profit/Political
Involvement – Non-Profit+Political – Leave No Footprint
As fundraisers have become more and more important to the various issues and causes, the need for bringing people together, crafting messages, and raising money has become integral in society.
I have believed that we are fortunate to be able to do the jobs we do, and we should all use the opportunities we have to try to make more of an impact, lend our skills, and use our deep knowledge and experience to help worthwhile contributions at every level.
I have taken jobs that have budgets that are too small and ideas that are too big, but the projects can do much, much more, with knowledge, thought, experience, a cross-pollination of production platforms and unique perspective.
I worked on the Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012 in Pennsylvania, setting up field offices and helping to organize ground games – and while I thought Barack Obama was talented and intelligent, I chose that involvement because I understood Chicago politics, and what their priorities were. Unlike corporate or government programs – we had to work with motivating people who were not being paid. Getting consistency, clarity, simplicity, and visible success while only having patience and calm as tools, was a different production form.
My attending and shooting the 2008 inauguration was a vindication of my belief that “process” can often overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
The Guggenheim’s annual gala, was an opportunity in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown. They had to continue raising money, but had to cut costs and still bring in contributions.
They had chosen to have Peter Hoffman, the owner of Soho’s Savoy restaurant , cater the event and Savoy’s had never produced an event of over 400 before.
We closed all gaps, melding staff, for both service and kitchen, while producing with numerous constraints, and on the fly. Working on a loading dock was a different experience for Savoy, but a normal one for our team.
A friend had been working with New York Times publishing as they launched a book tour for two books: The Essential NYTimes Cookbook, and In the Kitchen with Food You Love, with both Amanda Hesser and Melissa Clark.
An event was planned at Chelsea Market with a tasting that would highlight a program to feed children at New York City schools. Amanda Hesser’s book had interviewed and published the recipes of dozens of chefs and 20 of them offered to do a tasting.
But their budget was FAR off. I agreed to helping with this project because of the School Food Program aspect, but accepted helping them, only if I could re-design the entire structure of the event.
It became an unusual event, but highly successful for both the chefs, the authors, the program directors, and the audience.
Food and Wine Magazine bestowed annual awards to new and emerging chefs, that was part of an overall program to support the restaurant industry’s growth. At this event, established restauranteurs provided tasting tables that I covered with photographed food elements that the restaurants were reknown for.
Another jewelry designer from London was launching a line in New York. The launch was sponsored and calculated to draw attention to new focus in the mining industry on responsible and sustainable mining techniques.
We pulled everything together including the security service and designing and constructing the design cases to showcase and internally light the jewels.
Working seamlessly with countless other companies on the launching of films, awarding Elton John for his service to fundraising to combat HIV/AIDS at iconic New York buildings as varied as the Public Library and the cathedral of St. John The Divine, we have sought to utilize our experience with the need to raise funds for worthwhile causes.
Faces - Emerging, Evolving, Establishing
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography
Faces – Emerging, Evolving, Establishing
Faces reflect the perceptions and experiences behind eyes. Without knowing it, we read character, heart, thought, memories and spirit, as well as emptiness, behind every expression.
I’ve photographed people for various reasons, some for myself, some for them, some because of a magazine and a project . . . often, people want to “look like . . . ” but because they have their own journey, their own experiences and the thoughts they’ve learned, merge with experiences they’ve had, the camera captures each face differently.
I am intrigued by the urgency of today, but the timelessness of where we exist. We believe that we are different than anyone else, and we are . . . . but we are also very much the same, as others who came before us. I look for that in faces.
A History of Event Production
Phillip Wong Productions
Events
A History In Events
My interest in production has always been the creation of an idea into something real. I had worked with some production of fashion shows, lighting and stage build outs, and some film productions before 9/11, but after we began to recover, I worked on thousands of productions and began to see events as a way, in a changing, splintered world, that people connect.
An event is a multi-layered process that weaves visual, audio, oratorical, historical, gastronomical, social, aspects of human connectivity together into short-form messaging.
The great event productions, like every other production, seeks to control everything.It funnels the senses into positions of awareness of gratitude, celebration, adulation and appreciation. It notifies and satiates and piques the interest of a captive audience at multiple levels.
Caushun
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Caushun
Caushun is a gay rapper who wanted to come out, when the Hip Hop community wasn’t receptive to gay rappers.
He was as bold and brash and “in-your-face” and talented, and this was his voice was black, street and gay.
Red Shoes Diary - Brigitte Bako
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Red Shoes Diary
Brigitte Bako
Brigitte Bako was in Red Shoes Diary which was being directed by Zalman King. I was being asked to shoot with some of the female stars by their publicity unit and get them into multiple publications. I met her at one of New York’s boutique hotels as she was doing a promotional tour.
Our team of stylist, makeup artist and hair stylist prepped her so that we would be able to release multiple sets for multiple publications – but the look had to be cool, sexy, elegant, and reflect the character she had been playing in this new series.
Javier Bardem
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Javier Bardem
I worked for a number of small independent publications that were writing about films and music that were new, ambitious, under-explored.Their focus converged with my own interest in newly discovered or emerging artists.
Javier Bardem was in Before Night Falls when I was asked to photograph him to support the interview which was being written.
Charlize Theron
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Charlize Theron
When I originally photographed Charlize Theron in Milan, I was introduced to her by the make-up artist I was working and traveling with at that time Christan Burran, who wanted me to meet and shoot with Charlize.
We spent the next day shooting, and when I got back to New York, Gear Magazine recognized her as an emerging artist.
I later was asked to produce a short book based on that shoot which I designed, laid out, and produced.
