California Gold
Premium content creation trip in the California Sierra
My long-time friend and colleague, Dan Holz and I just finished up the final touches on our latest photo + video project, “California Gold.”
We don't normally give commercial photo shoots a title, but this job was a unique one. We're used to responding to creative briefs that are fairly narrow in scope...but we wanted to experiment with a different way of doing business.
Dan and I designed and produced all of the creative and art direction for this shoot, and then sold it as a buy-in multimedia trip to several outdoor industry brands. We're calling it a "library shoot" (or maybe a media trip?), and the idea is that we go out a freestyle create content that brands can plug their product into.
Just a month after dreaming this up, we were into production and headed straight into the High Sierra with a van full of product from Royal Robbins, Dometic, Klean Kanteen, and Pacific Adventure Works.
What is a Library Shoot?
While most of our commercial shoots are typically tailored to a single, highly specific campaign, with a lot of pre-production involvement from the client, these library shoots gather multiple brands (non-competing, of course) and give their products a fresh spotlight across varied, adventure-packed settings.
Brands can buy in at various levels (amounts of content), and everything is executed at the same quality as a high-end, targeted campaign - but since we've already done all the creative direction, scouting, casting, and shot-list development, brands can quickly see up-front whether it's a fit for them. It's a plug-and-play solution for our clients, and a rewarding creative exercise for us :)
What We Delivered
For “California Gold,” Dan and I handled every aspect of production—from casting the talent to crafting the creative direction and delivering the final assets. This approach allowed us to provide a cost-effective, dynamic package that filled each brand’s content library with fresh, adventure-driven visuals.
We crafted images and videos that shine across multiple platforms, whether it's a website or social media. By mixing in a variety of activities, stunning locations, and diverse talent, we provided each brand with a treasure trove of assets.
Your Brand x Our Expertise
Dan and I come from a long legacy of producing outdoor adventure content. We understand the core content needs of the industry and how to meet them with a contemporary visual style and authentic storytelling voice.
This kind of project is really ideal for a brand that's looking to feed the social-media content beast - but given the level of production quality I wouldn't rule it out for brand-level storytelling and marketing.
