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In June 2023, eBay launched its Collectors Camp, a first-of-its-kind series of training events designed to mentor trading card enthusiasts in growing their collections. The inaugural Collectors Camp event took place in Brooklyn during NBA Draft Week. The launch campaign for the series needed some spectacular Sports/Fitness and Architecture photography. Our friends at Edelman came to Wonderful Machine for help finding the perfect photographers for the project, and managing the production.
For this shoot production, Edelman came to us for help sourcing photographers for a multi-part shoot for their Collector’s Camp campaign for eBay. The creative team at Edelman chose to feature Brooklyn Nets small forward Mikal Bridges within a basketball court. Due to Mikal’s tight schedule, however, the easiest way to accomplish this was to photograph him and the location separately. The images could then be combined during post-production.
Our first order of business was to find the perfect photographers for the projects.
We chose Emily Andrews to photograph the gym interior. Emily is a phenomenal NYC-based Architecture photographer that we have worked with many times over the years. Recently, we have even worked together on a few other Edelman projects. It came naturally to us to invite her into this collaboration.
Our choice for the portraits of Mikal Bridges was NYC-based Mo Daoud. Mo has an extensive portfolio of athlete portraiture for clients like Nike, New Balance, and Adidas. This one was an easy decision.
Once we had our photographers’ approval, we started planning the shoot with the producers at Edelman. The first shoot was with Emily on site with the agency’s Art Director to capture the gym and other scenic images. When these images were approved and edited, they were passed on to Mo and the team for review and to help define the lighting needs.
Once we had a shoot day scheduled with our NBA talent, producer Andrew Souders found a beautiful and accommodating studio location at 16 Beaver Studio in lower Manhattan. Andrew then headed to New York for the on-set production coordination.
We built our team of seasoned professionals earlier in the week to make sure we had the right people to help us see this production through to completion. We locked in Mo’s first assistant Henry Lopez to help with the lighting setup. Creating the right lighting setup in a short amount of time was crucial for us to nail the desired look. Digital tech Zoran Jelenic would also join us to manage files, make image adjustments, and provide capture previews on set. We wanted to be able to give the client and agency’s creative team an immediate idea of how the two shoots would come together.
Although we didn’t foresee extensive styling during the short time frame of this production, it’s always necessary to make sure hair, make-up, and wardrobe are covered. To make sure we had the right look, we worked with Honey Artists to bring on the styling crew for quick hair and makeup touchups during the shoot. They connected us with wardrobe stylist Alexandra DeAngelis as well as hair and makeup artist Adrian Alvarado. Lastly, we added local production assistant, Taylor Pedane, to the crew to assist Andrew with production demands and ensure a smooth shoot day.
Our NBA talent Mikal was on a tight schedule and wasn’t set to arrive at the studio until 4pm. When he did, we would have roughly 30 to 45 minutes with him to get the right shots. All hands on deck, and a quick production planned to get the job done within the time constraints!
Preparation was everything for this project. The final image needed would be a composite of a portrait of Mikal and previously captured backplate imagery of a basketball court in Brooklyn. In terms of photography, compositing is combining visual elements from separate sources into a single image. This process required very specific shots of the talent. Having limited time with Mikal meant there was no room for error. With this in mind, we arrived at noon (4 hours before our talent’s call time) to begin setup and allowed ourselves ample time to get dialed-in.
We quickly had our lighting locked in and tested and the styling crew prepped. This gave us a chance to pause for a late lunch before we got underway. Mikal showed up on schedule, just as we finished eating. We made our introductions and after some brief direction from Mo and the agency creative team, we began capturing imagery.
Mikal was a natural in front of Mo’s camera. It was all smiles on set, and Mo was able to snag the right looks well within our allotted timeframe. As he was finishing up, our digitech began assisting the clients with quick adjustments and mock-ups with Emily Andrews’s backplate images from earlier in the week. With approval on the final selections by the client team on site and high-fives all around, we made for a swift breakdown and loaded out of the studio before the sun had set!
See more case studies on our Shoot Production page.
If you need help producing your project, reach out!