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Sometimes a miss-sent email is a great thing. Alabama photographer Stephen DeVries meant to get in touch with 22squared’s branch in Atlanta, but when the branch in Tampa received his work, they wanted him for themselves. They pulled Stephen in for a still and stop motion campaign for Publix Super Markets, and for them, it was all about the dough.
Publix, a Florida-based grocery store chain, makes bread from scratch each day, so they wanted to put a spotlight on that. Publix is known for being completely employee-owned and being one of the top-ranked companies for employee-treatment, so it’s a place where people proudly shop. Stephen himself was pleased to shoot for a place that he and his wife do their daily shopping at. For the campaign, “Scratch Made,” he photographed the flour, the dough, the bread, and the tasty snacks the bread could become. Then, they worked closely with a food illustrator to turn the photos into stop motion videos.
For me, stop-motion is a perfect bridge between still and motion. It allows me to have my hand directly in both sides of the production: the directing and the actual image capture.
Stephen started by receiving several concepts for the campaign, complete with sketches. From there, he and his DP made a production plan. They really wanted to focus on the bread, so their planning had strong direction. The lighting, the illustrations, the images—were all about the bread.
As Stephen got the shots that would make up the stills of the campaign, he was also getting shots that would be used for the stop motion videos. He set up a timed capture that fired strobes every three seconds, allowing him to overshoot the frames needed for the final illustrations. The shoot happened quickly, definitely no loafing around for Stephen and his team. Check out how the videos came together:
Publix has a very distinct look: moody and contrasty but with a lot of pops of light. It’s a little messy and home-spun while still feeling elevated. All of those things describe my style and also the type of work I aspire to create.
I really enjoy working with a team and when you have a great team everything just flows smoothly and comes together in the final product. I think that was evident in this project from pre-pro to on set to the final project. We had an amazing crew and were able to create some really fun and powerful work!
Publix launched this campaign across all their social media and digital platforms to great reception. After the campaign launched, Stephen got snatched up to shoot several more stop-motion pieces for other clients, and he looks forward to kicking those campaigns into action.
To view more of Stephen’s work, visit stephendevriesphoto.com!