Looking Back, Looking Forward

 As we kick off the new year, we want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped make 2013 a really great year for Mark Wagoner Productions, filled with lots of exciting and fun projects. From clients to crew, making great video and photography is a team effort, and not only could we not do it without you - it wouldn't be nearly as much fun!

We wish each of you a happy, healthy and creative new year! We'd love to be a part of your upcoming projects, so drop Mark a line or call the studio to discuss - 336.854.0406.

Thank you!

More Than Just Pretty Pictures...

Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words, right? But for your brand, don't you want more than just words?

   Style, comfort, sophistication, reliability, even sense of humor, can all be part of a brand's identity. The right imagery can communicate that to your audience even more effectively than copy. We work with you and your team to design photography and video images that communicate your brand's identity and personality to your market.

Flexsteel IHFC Showroom, 2013

   Flexsteel Furniture illustrates both style and comfort in the video that we produce for their television commercials. The overall production value sets it apart from much of the stock footage seen in traditional dealer ads, which communicates to their potential customers that Flexsteel is a high quality brand.

"When we started working with Mark on Flexsteel's commercial video, he really took the time to understand what we needed from the footage - beyond simple images of the furniture. We began working together on commercial spots, and he started seeing other opportunities to help build our overall image, such as virtual tours of the High Point Furniture Market showroom. He and his crew are fun to work with, and we get great images, too."
           ~ Justin Mills, Director of Advertising & PR, Flexsteel Industries, Inc.

South of France - Cote D'Ivoire and Lavender Fields

   When South of France introduced new packaging for their Natural Body Care products, they needed new photography to further define their soaps and body washes as exotic and luxurious. Mark worked with them and production designers at Ink Photography Productions to create artistic sets to capture the brand's new feel.

South of France - Vanilla Creme Caramel

    Sometimes a brand needs to feel accessible, more human. In those cases, the situation might call for a little comedy. Everyone dreads taking their car to the shop, right? When G-Force Marketing wanted to lighten the mood with a humorous character for a series of tv spots, Mark worked with them to create the world of "Betchadidn'tknow Guy." He rescues everyday folks from the the hazards of going to the wrong car repair shop, and steers them to the clean, professional dealer of our hero brand. With Mark behind the camera, his team of set designers, stylists, lighting & grip, and camera crew, brought "Betchadidn'tknow Guy" to life and had a blast doing it.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos from that shoot!

It'd be scary if it wasn't a set.

Would you trust this guy with your car?

Waiting room from hell.

Happily Ever After!

Give Mark a call at the studio to discuss how our photography and video production team can help you capture and promote your brand's identity.

Supporting the Arts

We're fortunate to have a vibrant arts community in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Mark Wagoner Productions is proud to have had many opportunities to help promote and contribute to its success.

     One recent project was a video to announce the rebranding of artsGreensboro (formerly the United Arts Council). Mark edited a collage of still images provided by a host of local photographers (including a few of his own), plus music and graphics, into an dynamic statement about creative life in our city.
     "We needed a high-energy video solution to help us rebrand the United Arts Council as ArtsGreensboro. Mark Wagoner’s fresh creative approach combined that change with emotionally engaging arts images and a rhythm that literally jump off the screen. It’s brilliant!"  --  Thomas Philion, President & CEO ArtsGreensboro
     Watch the video here!

     Another notable local arts event is the Eastern Music Festival. Mark has provided still photography and video to help promote EMF for years, and this year he was honored to see three of his images incorporated into the festival banners at Dana Auditorium on the campus of Guilford College.

2013 Telly Awards

We are so excited to announce that we have received three Tellys for creative work over the past year. The Telly Awards recognizes the very best film & video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional, & cable TV commercials and programs.

Set the Stage, a commercial spot that Mark directed for the United Arts Council of Greensboro's 17 Days Festival, won awards for use of animation and for non-profit promotion. Mark served as Director/DP on Esperanza, a short film created with Ink Photography Production, which was recognized for cinematography.

We are honored to have received these awards, and we are very grateful for the wonderful clients and partners who contribute to these exciting projects. Click the links below to view the winning videos!

Screen shot from "Set the Stage"

Screen shot from "Esperanza"

Bon Appetit!

Sometimes you seek out a specialty, sometimes the specialty finds you. That has been the case with Mark and food & beverage photography. Over the years, he has been called on to do this appetizing work for both editorial and advertising clients. Being a bit of a foodie himself, it was a natural fit. Mark has experience shooting in the studio and on location in restaurants, bars, and kitchens for clients ranging from Darryl's Wood Fired Grill to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Click through the photo above to be taken to more food & still life images in Mark's "objects" portfolio, or view his Showreel on Vimeo for more motion samples.

Telly Time 2012

We are so excited and humbled to announce that Mark received four Telly Awards for his work as a Director and DP during the last year! You can see the award winning spots by clicking the links below:

Charitable / Not For Profit, "Go Out For A Run"
      for the GO FAR Club with Watts Communications

Cinematography, "Sam the Flim Flam Man"
      with G-Force Marketing Solutions

Cinematography, "Taniya Nayak - Mohawk Flooring"
      with ASV Productions

Cinematography, "Santa Letters"
      with G-Force Marketing Solutions

We want to thank our good friends and colleagues who worked with us on these projects. They were all team efforts!

Letters to Santa... behind the scenes

"Letters to Santa" includes footage shot for a series of commercials with our friends at G-Force Marketing. Mark wanted the results to show "classically beautiful lighting and camera movement" to give it a traditional, yet timeless, feel. He re-cut the footage to showcase the results into this short film, which can be viewed on our Blip.tv channel. Here are a few production stills from the shoot, showing all the work it takes to make something look natural and effortless!

Mark shot the film using the Letus camera attachment, which combines still camera lenses with the video camera. This allowed for the shallow depth of field and critical focus pulls that give the video a very intimate feel.

The crew rented a real, lived-in home for the day, rather than build a set, for a variety of realistic environments. It made it a tight squeeze for the dolly and track, but they were necessary for the camera motion that contributed to the classic look.

Actors don't always appreciate the time it takes to get everything set just right... But we think it's all worth it in the final film!

Yakov, Bald Nobbers, and Mark Wagoner Productions

We just returned from a great video shoot in Branson, Missouri. We were there the week after the ice storms, which meant we had to set lights one of the days on 5" thick ice, but the gaffer and crew did an above all expectations job. Everything looked really nice and no one slipped and fell. The grip truck, lighting package, gaffer and crew all came from FILM GEAR RENTALS in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thanks to Dave and David for an excellent job. Christian Parsons also went out of his way to make the project for Wrangler Home Furnishings a big success. No really - he went out of his way, since there is not a very direct way to drive a truck load of cameras and a jimmy jib from Greensboro to Branson. Thanks to Christian for enduring 32 grueling hours of snow, trees in the road, ice, and traffic jams. Ben Root, fresh off a job for CBS, and I had a very early morning rendezvous at the airport and flew to Missouri for the shoot. Ben made the camera fly with ease in the confines of a house, albeit a 5,000 sq. foot house. Our team was rounded out buy a great cast and stylist, and most importantly, a fantastic client! Thanks to Justin for everything!

While in Missouri we shot footage for commercials, DVD's and web spots. We shot with 2 cameras on P2 cards, HMI's and Kinoflos. Camera was on the jimmy jib or dolly and tracks.


Branson is, well, an interesting place. It is a mix of Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach, plus a dash or so of Hee Haw. We all really liked seeing the Dick Clark Used Car Lot. It was so quiet there, it is hard to imagine that they had seven million visitors last year. Glad we went in the middle of winter. Though we hated that we missed Yakov.