Adidas 2024 Collection Chp 2

Kate Arnold Wines

New Balance Wilted Rose

The Wilted Rose Project is a social video I produced for New Balance. It told to the story of Ricky, a self proclaimed sneaker head, who chose to wear the same pair of shoes for 365 days straight no matter the elements.

CVS: Shawn Johnson East

The mission of CVS is to improve the lives of their customers across the United States. They do this through, “ innovative and high-quality health and pharmacy services.” As a born and bred New Englander, CVS is a household name and I am happy I had the opportunity to work with them to announce their partnership with Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson East.

The Details

CVS partnered with Shawn Johnson East in the Summer of 2019. In order to announce the partnership CVS needed a database of photographs they could use on their social media channels and a micro site - dedicated to their partnership with Shawn. Partnering with the PR team at Matter Communications I was tasked with creating a production outline, mood board with style references, travel plans, a and splash page that encompassed the logistics of the shoot day itself onsite in Shawn’s home in Nashville - 10 days before the shoot.

Working diligently alongside the CVS Team, the Matter team was able to art direct and keep the trains running on time as we only had one day to shoot 4 setups. Three in Shawn’s home and one at her local CVS, all while adhering to CVS’ Beauty Unaltered guidelines. In the end we delivered over 100 images to the CVS team in under two weeks in order to launch the site and announce the partnership nationwide.

The campagin went on to create 17.9 million social impressions, 73.7K total link clicks, and a 72% increase in Shawn’s Youtube Page.

Depression & Self-Worth

This is not an unfamiliar feeling. It is one I have not felt in a long time.

Heck, it’s even hard to write this. I find myself typing out sentences and then deleting them. My brain is wracked with thoughts on how to articulate what it is like to be depressed. There are so many clinical definitions of what depression is supposed to look like but the reality is further from any of those.

Many of the days I have playout like Groundhog Day, where it’s as if the same day is playing itself out over and over again. In the words of Nyles from Palm Springs, “ Today, tomorrow, yesterday, it’s all the same.” I wait on calls from friends who eventually don’t call, screen my calls, or constantly reschedule with me. I find myself wanting to go outside less and less, drinking far more coffee than one should, and generally being apathetic in a majority of the interactions I have. It feels as if there is no forward momentum in what I have tied the idea of self-worth to. For so many years that was my job, every job I had was one I took pride in, and all of the momentum I had found in finding that self-worth instantly vanished when COVID hit.

The question now is, where do I go from here? How do I redefine what self-worth looks like to me? What projects should I actually finish? How do I articulate this to people when they ask, “how’s it going?”

I hope in the near future I find answers to these questions, and maybe I’ll use this blog as a way to keep folks updated. I mean, I am looking for a project after all. Remember, ask people how they are truly doing, listen, offer resources if you can’t give advice, and be an ally to those who struggle with their mental health.

Thanks for reading.

COVID Does Not Care About Production Quality and Neither Should You

As you aimlessly scroll through social media, stop and take a moment to look at comments on either Youtube or Instagram. Without fail, there is always someone asking,

What did you shoot this on? What lens did you use? How did you edit it?

Let me shout it for those in the back who still cannot hear what the internet has been saying for years.

GEAR DOES NOT MATTER.

This topic has been debated to death, and I’m here to beat a dead horse.

Recently, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, and Some Good News have all started recording from the comforts of home. There are not fancy setups, just hosts sitting in front of a camera trying to do their job amidst a global pandemic. I mean I think it’s safe to call them Youtubers if we want. This isn’t a shot at Youtubers, more of an acknowledgment that they have been ahead of the curve. On top of that, all of these hosts are conducting interviews with folks across the world over webcams that can barley shoot 1080p.

Every week, millions of people tune in to watch these shows because they tell compelling stories. At the end of the day, people do not care about what you shot something on, the lens you used, or how it was edited.

As someone recently said to me,

There's never been a more forgiving time for production quality and shaky shots and dumb ideas. If ever there was a time to play, it's now!

So, go make dumb stuff, who cares if you don’t have the gear. I sure as hell know I won’t be asking you what you shot something on.

If Jimmy Fallon can interview Justin Timberlake in 720, with minimal lighting, using built-in computer mics you can do anything.