Microsoft · 2017
Two Artists, Two Continents, One Canvas
Director of Photography / Producer
Scope of Work
I filled two seats on this production: Director of Photography and on-site producer. Leading a four-person crew in Lafayette, Louisiana, I made every camera, lighting, and framing decision while managing the shoot schedule and timeline. Keynote production at Microsoft runs on first-submission expectations — there was no second trip built into the plan.
The Challenge
Microsoft needed footage of something genuinely new: Lafayette artist Cayla Zeek and Norwegian muralist Hans Hammonds co-creating a mural across continents using HoloLens. The technology was the story, but the footage had to make the human collaboration feel as real as the innovation, and it was built for keynote use. I was deployed to Lafayette, Louisiana as DP and on-site producer, leading a crew of four, responsible for running the shoot and delivering the footage. Keynote production at Microsoft runs on first-submission expectations. There's no soft deadline.
My Approach
With a lean crew and no margin for a second trip, I had to produce and shoot at the same time, managing the timeline and the frame at once. The hard part of shooting HoloLens isn't the hardware; it's that mixed reality doesn't translate through a lens. What the wearer experiences and what the camera captures are two different things, and what actually makes the moment land is the human connection the technology enables. Every lighting and framing decision had to serve both the physical space and that invisible collaboration, capturing two artists genuinely making something together while thousands of miles apart, and making a keynote audience feel the weight of it. We delivered on schedule. The footage cleared stakeholder review on the first submission.
Scale
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