Wednesday is Ask an Art Buyer day. Send your questions to heather@heathermorton.ca with the subject line Ask an Art Buyer. I’ll answer as many as I can every Wednesday.
This week’s question and most of the answers were delivered straight to my Inbox courtesy of the Art Producer’s Forum- a fantastic Yahoo group for people like me.
The question:
A photographer I really admire had a click through on his website to his behind the scenes videos. Completely set to music, no dialogue or noise. they were really great, lots of good energy, etc. then he took that down. I asked his rep about it and his response was that he didn’t see value in it and he felt it was probably an annoyance to art buyers. My own opinion is, not at all. I like it when they do this, if they do it well, as this guy did.
What? An annoyance? What was the rep thinking?
The Art Buyer posting the question goes on to ask the rest of us to weigh in with our perspective and it turns out that we were unanimously in favour of these little behind-the-scenes videos.
But each respondent had their own unique call-out. To get us started, here’s a comprehensive little vid from photographer Randal Ford that got special mention:
Randal Ford Photography from Randal Ford on Vimeo.
And here are some of the responses:
I think it’s a great idea.
If anything- I think some of us would get a kick out of it as we could possibly see our friends in the background (I am starting to think we all know each other or with at least within 1 degree), see who the photographer works with and also give insight to their personality.
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More and more photographers are doing this and even clients are jumping on the bandwagon. It’s a great way to showcase another side of the photographer and get a taste for their personality and how they work. If it’s done well, I say go for it. Here’s just a few of my favorites (in addition to the Randal Ford above):
Chase Jarvis
terry richardson for Belvedere Vodka (click on “explore” icon after the intro)
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I agree, it’s a great add-on. We are being asked to produce a lot more behind the scenes footage and even mini documentaries- photographers should broaden their scope as much as possible.
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It’s also good to share with the younger creatives & account people here who don’t necessarily have the experience yet of a shoot like this.
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To sum up, these little behind-the-scenes videos serve a few different and potentially important purposes for you:
1. It gives me an idea of how you work- mostly this will be in the realm of reassurance: “oh great, he can handle a lot of people on set and clearly doesn’t freak out when there are five people loitering around the monitor” rather than technical: “oh, thank god he went for the ring light with a diffused…” I can’t even fake that, I’ll assume you get my point here.
Basically I get an idea of your sensibility, ie. it looks like a fun but efficient set.
And, in a similar way, I like the idea of sharing it with a nervous-nelly account person to calm any unnecessary anxiety.
2. If this isn’t something that the client actually requests (and, as mentioned above, these requests are coming more frequently), than this is something that you might be able to offer as an additional service- providing them some interesting on-line content at very little additional cost.
3. I can guarantee you, there are some Art Directors that would like nothing more than to see themselves looking cool and important on set in your little video. If they can link it to their Facebook profile, you’ve scored a couple of points on the ephemeral “fun” and “cool” scale.
With the rise of the “photographers who blog” phenomenon, there might be increasing pressure to have your personality on display. In these trying economic times, if I think I’m going to like working with you or I feel that I already know you (because I’ve read your blog or I’ve seen how you interact with your talent on set in a behind-the-scenes vid) , I might be more inclined to give you the job.
And in my experience, setting up a little camera to discreetly capture the day’s events is a lot easier than writing a blog.
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Most people like to know a little bit about the person they are working with, regardless of profession. It adds an additional level of comfort . . . or discomfort depending on the situation. But in the case of a photographer these little videos can give great insight into how someone works.
I assisted Randal in Austin on his Faith project a few years ago and watching this video reminded me of how much fun I had working with him. I think that is the real purpose behind videos such as these; to remind people of the shooting experience.
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