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by Maria Luci
This past spring, Minnesota-based brand narrative photographer Jonathan Chapman embarked on an exciting journey across the globe. Known for his “advertorial” style of shooting commercial assignments with an editorial approach, McDonald’s Corporation headquarters had tapped Jonathan to capture a library of stills and motion for several of their key global markets. The project had Jonathan and his team traveling from their home base of Minneapolis to Montreal, Shanghai, Sydney, and Melbourne for “lifestyle on location” type shoots.
Jonathan was attracted to this project for several reasons such as the international travel aspect, but it was the excitement of working for such a well-known global brand, and the creative freedom they allowed him that really sealed the deal. So the crew got to work producing this global assignment. Of all that was involved in pre-production Jonathan says,
The biggest hurdle in the process was lining up the necessary visas, applying for carnets, and figuring out the right still and video gear that would cover our needs. We had to travel very light, checking a minimal amount of personal and equipment items. We had to assume that checked items might not make connections, possibly ending up lost along the way.
Once across the world though, things ran smoothly, something that Jonathan attributes greatly to his production assistants and crew saying “It’s amazing how much locals smooth over any barriers, not to mention offering us some new friends in some really interesting places. Directing talent with limited or no language behind me was tough, however, our PA’s really made this a non-issue.”
For the shoots, Jonathan focused on capturing real people enjoying their meals, real employees and the atmosphere of each McDonald’s they visited. All of the location’s went smoothly and Jonathan says that “with minor direction and styling, we captured a broad library of shots.” His favorites are those that highlight genuinely spontaneous moments and those “offering a glimpse into the unique personalities we were fortunate to to spend time working amid.”
View Jonathan’s McDonald’s “Smile” video, shot in Shanghai.
As for the McDonald’s, Jonathan enjoyed visiting their different restaurants in Canada, Australia and China saying “I found them all to be quite modern and nice. One oddity [at the Shanghai McDonald’s] is that they sell hotdogs for breakfast, but not lunch or dinner.”
The client was extremely happy with the resulting images and were “amazed” at what Jonathan and his crew were able to capture while working abroad under crazy schedules. The images are now being used internally for McDonald’s World Wide Conference as well as externally via ad agency partners including Leo Burnett. Jonathan adds that “all in all, we more than rounded out their needs, inspiring more international travel and production for McDonald’s in some exciting places I look forward to gearing up again for…”