Ultimately It would require doubling down on pre-production to figure out how safety and a reliance on technology was going to impact the communications and the storytelling.
But what it took to get this is a production tale I could likely never tell.
So I asked trusted long-time producer, David Safian, to share how it came together and what he learned along the way… “When I got the call for this project, it was still relatively early days in the Covid-19 Pandemic. It had been almost two months since the phone had rung for a shooting project, so I was pretty stoked to get back to work. I also believed it was for a good cause - portraits of the drive-thru workers in several LA metro El Pollo Locos - supporting their efforts to feed the city. Giving back - great!
“Then as I began to think about the details, as in: How to work within the constraints of a lockdown as well as protecting not only ourselves, but anyone that we came in contact with, my producer instincts kicked in and I began to work down a whole new list of what-ifs;
“1. PPE. Peak pandemic, there were no masks, disinfectant wipes, or gloves to be found anywhere. So I found a local distillery making the WHO disinfectant formula and then I bought a very expensive gallon of that to make our own sanitizer. Shawn had mentioned a Korean hardware store in his neighborhood, that also happened to have the rest of our PPE needs. Thankfully our tech, John Shin is also an OCD preparedness kinda dude, and he came with his own sanitizer as well – so in my estimations, we were set.
“2. The Deliverables; What exactly did we need to capture for the project? Head and shoulder portraits through the drive-thru window. Great - this meant we could safely be outside the stores, and the workers would be inside - Shawn could shoot on a portrait lens for safe distancing, and since they were going to wear their uniforms, hats, and masks - we wouldn’t have to worry SO much about wardrobe, hair & makeup (more about this later). Then the agency producer asked, “BTW, could you also capture some BTS (behind the scenes) iPhone video for social, and shoot vertically?” - sure, I could do that easily enough.
“3. Personnel. Who had to be ‘onset’ while we shot? We had been testing out different methods for virtually sharing images and communicating, so we were ahead of the curve. We had worked with VITRO (the Agency) several times prior, and had established a solid level of trust, so they were comfortable with us working without their being with us for the shoot - and the EPL client also agreed this would be best. We pitched using the ZOOM platform to communicate real-time with the Art Director as well as the Agency Producer, and we used a shared DropBox to shoot directly to, so they could also see the images come in real-time. They agreed, and this meant our total ‘onset’ was able to remain extremely sparse; Shawn, John Shin (digi-tech/assistant), and myself (Producer, catch-all support).
“4. Scheduling. Which meant we first had to scout all the potential locations for lighting needs. Since we needed to keep a small footprint, we were going to stick to natural / existing light to avoid the need for bringing additional crew to set. Shawn always scouts his locations personally so the rest was just figuring out the logistics of moving around LA in the given amount of daylight and being able to capture 25 different portraits within that time-frame. Once that was figured out, the agency decided that they wanted to shoot at least one of the setups at night - for creative diversity. So that meant another scouting day in the evening, and at least some small light sources to augment existing lighting. We settled on a couple of battery powered LED panels - which allowed us to maintain working with the small crew.
“5. Risks: Besides our health and the health of others, what about liability ? I started first with our insurance company, and after several conversations with our broker, who spoke directly with the insurance carrier, we were able to ascertain that there would be no issues in coverage. The coverage was not effected by the lockdown. Next I spoke with our payroll company, Media Services - would we be covered with Workman’s Comp, and were there any preclusions to shooting during the lockdown - No, same as the production insurance carrier - no issues.
“Great - now the big question…should we?
“We discussed the nature of the shoot, the benefit in supporting the “essential” workers, who although were concerned for themselves, still came to work daily, and how this project would elevate them. We knew that we had a very small footprint, and with following the guidelines set forth, would be able to work safely.
“In the end, we decided it was a worthwhile project.
“While it was a very long day due to; the logistical moves to 4 different stores around the LA Metro area, a relatively high number of portraits (25), of course some wireless connection difficulties that occurred during lunchtime in the drive-thru (the busiest time of the day with lots of traffic) - we all agreed it came off really well.
“More about the styling and props; We received some very last minute requests which required a bit of scrambling. EPL was about to roll out new hats, shirts, and badges, and they wanted to include them in our shoot! There were concerns that the shirts would be wrinkled and un-organized, thus requiring more handling, and although the name tags were created with a Brother P-touch at each branch, there was no way to insure that the font style and size would be consistent among the different stores. We were also a bit concerned that everything would look brand new, and not authentic to actually working folks. I had no stylist, or prop person budgeted – and less than 48 hours to shoot time. Fortunately, my go to stylist, Megan Kelley was available to run to the south bay to pickup the shirts, wash, steam, and organize all by size. Johny Long, my prop man picked up the hats to age them mildly. They both delivered them to set in the morning, and then left. I was then tasked with getting everyone dressed, and printing all the individual name tags – it was a bit of race to get it done, but fortunately I had a P-touch at home, and the correct label materials, and I was able to make and mount all the labels sitting in my car before each of the 4 sessions!
“The El Pollo Loco teams were fantastic to work with, and although some were not used to having shoots done in their branches, they were flexible, and supportive - and they fed us!
“The Vitro team as always, flexible and supportive, and overall, we were very happy to be involved.”
Credits:
Client: El Pollo Loco
Agency: Vitro
Creative Director: Joel Guidry
Agency Producer: Brianna Adams
Retoucher: Brad Palm
DigiTech/First Assistant: John Shin
Shoot Producer: David Safian, Saf Productions