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.

Corolla 2013

Take a moment to unwind with this video postcard from Mark's winter trip to the Outer Banks...

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!

New Showreel for 2012

Come view our new showreel on Vimeo! It's an exciting collection of the wide variety of work we've been up to recently. Then browse our website for more in depth samples.

Case Study: Eastern Music Festival

Each summer, the Eastern Music Festival brings students from around the world to Greensboro to study with outstanding professional musicians in classical music. In addition to classical performances, EMF offers events in a variety of musical styles, through EMF Fringe, Jazz & Blues and Kids programs. As the Eastern Music Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary season, we thought it appropriate to celebrate our partnership with the festival.

Mark has always loved live music, both as a listener and a performer. So it was natural that he had an interest in documenting and promoting this unique musical event. For 15 years, Mark has contributed to EMF by photographing classes, students and performances for use on EMF's website and print pieces. He has worked closely with Director of Education Nana Wolfe-Hill to cover the events and people EMF wanted to highlight in their promotions.


Mark Wagoner is creative, talented, and professional. He has been working with Eastern Music Festival since 1996 and brings innovative and thoughtful ideas to our team. He has initiated several projects to help promote our Festival and follows through with each one, working with us during each stage so that the final product is just what we need. Mark goes “above and beyond” for EMF and we are deeply grateful for his commitment.
~Nana Wolfe-Hill, Director of Education

In addition to still photography, Mark has created multiple videos documenting and promoting EMF. In 2009, Mark proposed that these short films could became the foundation of EMF TV, a YouTube channel dedicated to videos featuring Music Director Gerard Schwarz and other students and staff of the festival. Through this venue, the public and EMF donors get a closer look at the amazing experience the festival offers to young musicians.


One other fun note - Mark once performed at EMF, as part of an ensemble of drummers performing traditional African music!

This summer, the Eastern Music Festival continues until July 30. Visit their website for a schedule of the many different events, and to purchase tickets online! Please visit our website to see more of Mark's video production and photography: www.markwagoner.com.

Slinkyness

This iconic toy was invented by a naval engineer named Richard James in the early 1940s and first sold at Gimbels department store in November of 1945. I loved having a new slinky when I was young and it was great fun, as long as you could keep it from getting twisted.

While I was on a prop search for another project this past summer, I saw Slinkys for sale in a store, and I could not resist getting one. OK, I went back for a second one (to have as a spare in case of a kink, of course). I had this idea of shooting it in slow motion and crawling across a flat surface. After a bit of mental problem solving and design time, followed by a few hours of shooting, here is our little short visual experiment called "Slinky".

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!

Catching up...

It's been a while since we've updated the blog, but we promise that we have an excellent reason. We've been busy working! The past 2 months or so have included shooting video on 24 commercials and 12 how-to videos, putting the finishing touches on a promotional piece for a non-profit, continuing to shoot and edit the Proximity documentary, and some still photography jobs, too! Here's a peek...













On set with the lovely and talented Taniya Nayak for Mohawk Flooring. You might recognize Taniya from the HGTV show "Designed to Sell." In case you were wondering, she is just as much fun in real life as she appears to be on her show...


Back in his Greensboro studio, Mark recently shot a cover for one of AAA's regional magazines. He still shoots stills, when the occasion calls for it, and the studio's wide loading door came in handy for getting that motorcycle onto the set.












We visited our good friends at Viewpoint Studios in High Point for a video project for Lane Furniture. Mark's new wide-angle Canon lens does a great job with those big room sets.


Mark recently put the finishing touches on a collaborative project shot with Monkeywhale Productions for the youth fitness program, GO FAR: Go Out For A Run! You can see the full video on their website.

... and that's just a few of the projects that Mark's been working on lately! We hope this little taste whets your appetite for even more visual goodness to come. Stay tuned!

Go Far 5K

On Saturday we started production on a short documentary film about GO FAR (Go Out For A Run!). With perfect weather after days of steady rain, it was a great day for watching 1,000 people run a 5K many for the first time.

We had a crew of 4 people, Maciek Krzysztoforski on stills, Zack shooting and sound, Harvey Robinson (of Harvey's Kitchen fame) shooting, along with me on a third camera. We shot 750 still photos and 3 hours of video footage. Watch for the film in a few weeks and if you have small ones sitting around, check out this program, 2 thumbs up, and then some!

Watcher, a short film shot with Pinhole Video

This short is the outcome of something I have been thinking about for a few months, video shot with a pinhole lens. Well, as you may know there is in fact no lens creating the image, just a very small hole made with a pin. Pinhole image creation is very old and started with the camera obscura. I have worked with pinhole photography a few times over the years, and this thought of video created with a hole in a piece of aluminum foil would not go away.

While this image is not suited to showing great detail in an object, it does have a very ethereal look and would work nicely for a baby's POV, dream state, or other-worldly kind of feeling.

This is my first test, and we plan to shoot with some different size pinholes to go for different looks. I liked this look for a horror film, so with a tip of the hat to Halloween here is "Watcher".

Irata-Eye of Ra music video

Last fall I served as DP on a music video for the band IRATA. The song "Eye of Ra" is from their first CD. Love the song and the band. Look here for a post about the shoot.

Car Rig

Last week we had to mount our HVX200 on my van for a time lapse shot for a TV show we are shooting. While it was mounted, I shot a little extra footage. Here are some production stills of the rig and the outcome of the second shoot of the day. Although we had done a test shoot a few weeks ago, on this set-up we learned a lot about rigging the camera to the car. Our next rig will smooth out the shots even more.

Popping Pills

These eye-popping images are part of an ongoing video & still project we've been working on with the good folks at Banner and Blue Zoom. For you techies out there - the movie was shot with the HPX500, and the stills with the Hasselblad H3D-39.
(For more video samples, check out our library on blip.tv.)

Proximity Hotel Documentary Update

Dennis Quaintance CEO of Quaintance-Weaver

Restaurants and Hotels

We are into the main parts of production on a new film about the Proximity Hotel. Recently we had the opportunity to do the first in a series of interviews with Dennis Quaintance. This interview was shot in the lower lobby of the hotel, where we talked about the formulation of the ideas that led to the creation of the only LEEDS Platinum certified hotel in the US.

The film will tell the story of how the Proximity came to be and look at the philosphy, the struggles, and the triumphs of the construction of this important American building. We had a great shoot with Dennis. Thank you's go out to all the staff at the hotel who helped us and to Christian Parsons and Harvey Robinson, who both did a great job shooting.

Director Mark Wagoner interviews Dennis for the film.

Harvey Robinson shooting.

On Set with HGTV Personalities

Recently, Mark and crew had the opportunity to produce some TV and web spots for Mohawk Flooring featuring Taniya Nayak and Chip Wade. Those of you who are HGTV junkies out there will recognize these two right away from their show "Designed To Sell." And the good news is - they are just as friendly & fun in real life as they seem to be on TV.
We had two very full days of shooting on a variety of sets that took our talent from an interior designer's office to a Carribbean-inspired living room to everyone's favorite - the green screen. It was a multi-camera shoot that included a teleprompter mounted to the jib camera.
Thanks to Chip, Taniya, the good folks at Mohawk, Viewpoint Studios and ASV Productions, and all the crew for a great shoot!

Taniya makes sure the carpet passes the barefoot test.

How'd he get that whole floor put in so quickly? Just a little TV magic...

Taniya gets a little touch-up from stylist Heather Hawkins. Like she needed any help!

Taniya & Mark at the end of a good day.