Earlier this year I had a chance to collaborate with Yusong Zhang and Dave Barber over at Grey. They came to me with a great concept, and it was hard to go wrong. Apparently Communication Arts thought so too, and accepted the ad into the 2013 Advertising Annual. Congrats to Yusong, Dave and Patrick Scissons for the award! I think it’s time for a celebratory pint of the good stuff.
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19 Crimes Campaign Launch
Back in the summer I got a call from the creative folks over at Giants & Gentlemen to work on a campaign for the Canadian launch of 19 Crimes wine. In collaboration with art director Dan Bache and writer Geoff Morgan, it's no surprise that a gangster themed wine shoot quickly turned into one of the coolest projects I've ever worked on. Here's a sneak peak of some of the work. Lots more coming soon!
Batman
I recently had the chance to do a portrait of a real life Indiana Jones. Burton Lim is a batman. When he’s not crawling through mountains of bat dung deep in the caves of Vietnam, Borneo or [insert exotic location here], he can be found deep underneath the ROM here in Toronto. His research has led to many new species discoveries, and even more stories of adventure.
Badlands Timelapse
Took a trip out to the ol’ Badlands in Caledon, Ontario to test out a timelapse rig. Working with Dwain Barrick, we set up a couple of cameras to capture the sunrise. Nothing like a 3am wakeup call. Here’s a little snippet of what we got.
Anthony
When someone asks you if you're interested in shooting one of the top oyster shuckers in the country, you are intrigued. If they ask whether you'd like to shoot a cross dressing, metal band front man, you stop what you're doing and listen closely. Then you find out this happens to be the same person, who also bears the titles political speech writer and concert pianist. Yes, all you need to know now is where and when.
Collaborating with writer Inna Gertsberg, we set out to discover the character that is Anthony. Having a schedule that is as eclectic as the man himself, we were fraught with sorting out last minute production details for the shoot. Four piano moving episodes and one dead truck battery later, we sat down with Anthony in the studio. With our research for the shot spanning from Iggy Pop to Rachmaninoff to Eddy Izzard, we knew we had an interesting day in store. As you can imagine, Anthony did not disappoint, giving us a generous and captivating session.
Thanks to assistant Elijah Yutuc for helping out on the day, and to Rich Rapkowski and Sharj Zulqernain who are now qualified to start a weekend piano moving business.
When I first met Anthony, I had the opportunity to listen to him play in the church where he practices piano. I Couldn't resist including a few of the snaps from that evening.