Local Goods
Client: Square
Director: Scott Perry
Director of Photography: Will Desena
Executive Producer: Tripp Kramer
Line Producer: Jim Bird
Edit: Matt Carter, Final Cut
Color: David Torvica
Mix: Jon Day

After gaining way too much experience with remote production in the pandemic, we designed a process that allowed us to interview each character two weeks in advance of the shoot, recording just their audio from a recording studio that was local to them. We then took the time to build “radio-edits” from that audio, pair them with music, and create an exact shot list for our visuals. All of this meant that we had an exact sense of timing for each shot, each screen and each key message going into our shoot.

Recording the audio interview for each story in advance not only benefited the final product by telling a purely visual story without the talking head, it also benefited the process. In the two weeks between interviews and production, we took the time to cut audio-only edits that then dictated our shot list. On location, we played those audio edits in our headphones while shooting different scenes to remind us of exactly what we needed. And of course, we didn’t need to build in time for a long interview on the day of the shoot, giving a few hours back to the crew to keep capturing beautiful visuals.

In the end, this process was validated by the client’s reaction at wrap: “This doesn’t feel like any other doc-style shoot we’ve done before.”