Aligned Media

Labor Day used to feature parades with trade unionists, marching down the street with banners and their tools of trade, clamoring for better working hours. And through the years, as typical work weeks shrank from 60 to 40 hours, the sentiment behind the holiday shifted, and became more of a farewell to summer. But for Labor Day this year, we think it's time to go back to the roots. To honor the everyday workers that are getting us through this pandemic while putting themsel...ves and their loved ones at risk. To lift up the ones who have lost their jobs in any way we can. To help stop the spread so all workers can truly get back to work. So, to those workers, we say thank you, and want you to know how grateful we are for you. Happy Labor Day.

We often shoot in locations across the U.S., and many times we only have one day with our subject - so we need to make it count. Preparation is key, and for this shot, our client wanted to quickly read the city (without a tourist point-of-view), as well as represent the theme of the piece - Bridge to the Future. We also needed to get the subject in another three locations for the shoot - all in one day. So, with the help of Google maps, online image searching and the city's... film commission, we were able to map out our plan before we even arrived. The day before the shoot was spent on the ground in the city, validating our final plans and making sure we had traffic figured out and the best lighting for each spot at the planned time of day. All of that prep work, combined with a sense of adventure on our subject's part, allowed us to get the perfect shot.

Back in June, we helped Leverage Dance Theater and Sky Pie Studio capture a special dance performance, ‘Quarantined.’ Shooting a wife-and-husband dance team in their apartment with a small crew, we managed to get some great footage, including a rotating birds-eye view of their performance, using a camera and gimbal mounted to the ceiling, controlled by a PlayStation controller. Check out our editor’s cut of their innovative dance.

The most important part of launching a new product is the product. But when it's hard to photograph or has internal features you can't see, or isn't even off the production line yet, it makes it difficult to get images and video for your marketing campaign. That's where 3D animation can be incredibly useful, like for a wheelchair backrest Permobil was launching. Their brand-new backrest had tons of great features, but it wasn't practical or possible to shoot them all. By us...ing CAD drawings supplemented with 3D modeling and texturing, we made a video that showed off every feature of the backrest without actually photographing it at all. And, because we had complete control over the angles, lighting and camera moves, we were able to make a much more dynamic and elegant video than with traditional shooting. To top it off, we could also create complimentary still images for web and print use as well.

Many of us are still working from home, and for others, the workplace often seems like a second home. Our office definitely falls into the 'feels like home' category. Thanks to James for this fun illustration!