Fill, Shake, and Feed from George Sickler on Vimeo.

…They both like to make mooooooovies!

Ok, that was lame, but give me a break...I’ve been working long and hard on this video!

It is true, however,

that every business, these days, needs video – even those in the business of raising cattle, as unlikely as that may seem! I will admit – I know very little about livestock. I raised sheep in my younger years, but once I moved from Sterling to Greeley 15 years ago, I became quite the city guy. However, working with these two has been a hoot! This shoot was filled with nonstop laughs and even chickens intently watching a man shake his “bag” outside! That’s another video for another time, though. Hahaha!

The setup for this shoot was challenging, but it was a fun challenge. Don’t get me wrong - The building that these gentlemen chose for the shoot was a perfect setting for the feel they were going for – rustic and authentic. We did have to clear away a few items to make space for all our gear, but once the gear was in, the fun began.

The first challenge was – how do we keep the backlight from ruining the shot? There are a few large windows just behind and to the right of our subjects. Luckily I had some young guys with us – our college interns (thanks Joe and Nick!), and they happily set to work creating a sun barrier outside with some C-stands and a large muslin. This, at least, cut down on most of the backlighting so that our lighting set-up wouldn’t have to compete with the sun!

The next challenge was arranging the indoor lighting. Using my lovely wife as a stand-in, I placed and replaced lighting until it looked just right. I also added a small light with colored filter behind our subjects to add a splash of warm light to the background.

The rest of the gear set up quite easily, with all 4 of us pitching in. One camera on a dolly track, one fluid motion handheld camera and 2 backups on tripods. We used floor mics to record the tune, while hidden lapel mics captured their speaking.

The set-up took a couple of hours, but by lunchtime we were ready!

After lunch, our subjects arrived happy and ready to perform/play around! I say that because although we had a script to work off of, these two were really good at improv and it turned out so well, we didn’t feel the need to ask them to redo some of those scenes! Really, though, relaxed subjects make for a much more natural feel.

Angie kept track of takes and jotted down which take numbers were our good takes and that made it much easier to edit. Once I completed the first-draft edit, our client made a few change requests which we were able to do quickly and now it’s done!

So, all that to say – we were really happy with the finished video, and more importantly our clients were really happy with the finished video. They even mentioned that they want to do more in the future!

And I promise I’ll show you the chicken audience sometime…it really was hilarious!