San Francisco photographer Kaare Iverson has fostered a strong relationship with smartwatch retailer, Pebble. Early this summer we wrote about Kaare and his experience shooting photos for Pebble’s website relaunch, and since then the two have worked together multiple times, with Kaare shooting different lifestyle campaigns for each of their products. This time, Pebble is taking full advantage of Kaare’s other skills, and hired him to create a video piece to highlight the ways a Pebble smartwatch can augment a fitness lifestyle.
From the beginning, Pebble had approached me because I have a portfolio of both still and video work – so there was always a conversation about using video as part of their lifestyle facelift, and this was the opportunity.
New heart-rate monitor hardware brought diverse potential to the wearable technology market that Pebble was keen to highlight in a vibrant and approachable way. As an experienced videographer, Kaare that that video was simply the best way to do this.
As with many dedicated still photographers, film production has been in the back of Kaare’s mind for quite a while. Coming from a writing background, he is always looking for ways to tell richer stories, and video was a clear next step.
I started making the transition into film over the past three years, tackling progressively larger projects and learning my way through the minutia of the craft. My approach to all my work is very technical and filmmaking is an exceptionally technical craft. I threw myself into learning everything I could; I feel that it makes me a better director to have a strong working knowledge of everything that’s happening on set.
Because Kaare had done work with Pebble in the past, it was easy to head straight into the creative process this time. Though there were some new faces on the set (specifically for the surfing sections,) Kaare brought back talent from some of his previous stills-only work with Pebble, which made everything feel even more familiar.
There were a number of people that participated in the creative process of the shoot, and the final concept didn’t happen until fairly late in pre-production. With so many different ideas and possibilities for the video going around, it was important that Kaare was prepared for any variety of changes that could happen.
To address the shifting desires of the various creatives on the project, I put a lot of effort into vetting my talent for the flexibility I anticipated needing on set. I also expanded our storyboard to allow more room for editing changes down the line.
Though the biggest challenge of the project was maximizing the good light across all the locations, adding those extra storyboards made the shotlist quite the beast to fit into just one day of shooting. To ensure that he was able to capture everything he needed, Kaare expanded his typical preproduction process. He did more scouting than usual, and mapped out traffic and weather patterns to maximize the efficiency of his crew. He also hired a steadycam operator so he was able focus more on directing the shoot.
The video is being used by Pebble everywhere from homepage media to in-store advertising, and will eventually be released in shorter edits for social media reach. Kaare is already working on new projects with Pebble; there are a number of product launches on the horizon and pre-production has already begun on some of them for early next year.
See more of Kaare at kaareiverson.com