Matthew Slimmer • Producer

Spooky Target Casting at Orbit

Matthew — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:00:39 +0000

It’s another one of those “tag team” jobs. For this week, Sarah Fisher at Orbit Studios was waist deep in the Target Halloween costume photography with Kevin White, and needed a double! I came in to help them cast for the adult costumes and transition the talent into the flowing shoot that Kevin and Sarah had running. Since Kevin was occupied, the photographer for this casting was Kelly Loverud, who I had met before but never worked with. He was very professional and got just what we needed from each of the talent coming in to show their stuff.

Unfortunately, I can’t share any photos of this shoot since the costumes are not in stores yet.

Crew was: Kelly Loverud (photographer), Liz Roemer (wardrobe stylist), Jenny Jenkins (stylist asst), Colin Kopp (photo asst), PeggySue Imihy (production asst)

Returned from our Thailand Honeymoon

Matthew — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:59:58 +0000

TIME OUT for an unforgettable trip to the other side of the planet! We had considered Thailand among a few other destinations for our (belated) honeymoon after getting married last year. This was no lazy beach vacation, this was an adventure trip! We made a quick stop in Hong Kong, then entered Thailand in Bangkok. After 2 days of big-city-life, we were in need of different scenery and took an overnight train to Chiang Mai. This smaller bohemian city was much more the feeling that we loved. We saw temples, ate street food, squeezed our way through packed markets, fed & bathed elephants, took cooking classes, and received blind massages. THe final leg would take us to the islands of the southwest: Ko Phi Phi (where “The Beach” was filmed). These islands and beaches were the most beautiful that I’ve ever seen! Take a look at our photos…

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Bicycles in San Diego with Jonathan

Matthew — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:57:58 +0000

It’s great to be back on the road with Jonathan Chapman, this time for an amazing shoot with Boom Island agency for Schwinn Bicycles! They needed new images for the packaging of all their bikes and accessories (coming to Target and Walmart stores near you!) and we added a motion component for their online site. After weeks of planning, we traveled to the beautiful streets and hills of southern California for nice weather in early February. We would be capturing both stills and motion for a whole week. Spending time in the hills, parks, and upscale neighborhoods of San Diego, I know why people love living here! My wife came to stay with me after the shoot for a long weekend, but that adventure is here: Matthew & Mikayla take San Diego.

Wonderful crew included: Alex Horner (DP), Natalie Dixon (local hair & makeup artist), John Fontana (digi tech), Eric Schleicher (motion asst), Tim Olsen (local photo asst), Christina Williams (local stylist asst), Rick Drake (local location scout)

Brace yourselves, I couldn’t get the “Behind the Scenes” gallery under 40 awesome images…

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William cannot get enough of the KIDS!

Matthew — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:51:05 +0000

This short project for William Clark and Target was especially unique since I would be producing the front end and then handing everything over to the delightful J.J. Bitter, a fellow producer in Minneapolis. I would handle the creation and execution of a casting, and booking the crew and space for the shoot. JJ would book the talent chosen and run the shoot day. We saw another big crowd of super cute kids, well… ONE rambunctious one. It’s hard to imagine the art director struggle to choose the winners from all the great kids we cast. These photos were to be used for an upcoming weekly ad, April Week 1. Unfortunately I missed the final publication for a screen capture, but here’s a casting pic of one of the best little nuggets from the group!

Casting crew was: Elizabeth Wahl (wardrobe stylist), Brian Page (child wrangler), Heidi Prenevost (photo asst). The shoot day crew added these peeps: JJ Bitter (producer), Carol Stopera (hair & makeup artist), David Anderson (digi tech).

Capella University at Breck School with Jonathan

Matthew — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:32:57 +0000

It seem like schools, colleges, and universities are somehow ridiculously drawn to Jonathan, and I love it!!! We got to do some really nice photography for Capella University. It took a couple days flowing throughout Breck School with an amazing pack of kids, teens, and fake faculty to make some great captures. I will admit that it was a little creepy to have no kids in the whole school (due to winter break), but for our work it was perfect. The staff at Breck was very accommodating and we all took a shine to lead maintenance “Walter”.

We kept the crew pretty tight: Eric Schleicher (motion asst), Ashlee Ellert (hair/makeup/wardrobe stylist), John Fontana (digi tech), Neil DeKrey (photo asst), Anne Healy (location scout).

From Jonathan’s archive:
http://jonathanchapman.com/archive/86
http://jonathanchapman.com/archive/85

© Jonathan Chapman

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Target RED: a Pharmacist with Lee Stanford

Matthew — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:27:53 +0000

After a few conversations, Lee Stanford found a job that fit my skills! I’m happy to be brought on board with a familiar ad agency, Little & Company but met a few new faces. This shoot was for Target‘s internal team member magazine called RED, and they needed a great portrait of a Pharmacist from Nebraska being featured in the following month’s issue. I saw a few of these magazines while I was Art Buying at Target last summer which was great for me to visualize placement. Talent was great, lighting was perfect. A regular walk in the park for mister Stanford!

Crew consisted of: Maureen Donahue (wardrobe stylist), Shanon Darsow (hair & makeup artist), Trev Fenner (digi tech), and Greg Schaal (photo asst).

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International photography?

Matthew — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:24:45 +0000

Jonathan asked me to help out with his recently booked gig with McDonalds. He had done a few shoots in the USA, but this project would take him Internationally to several countries! Destinations included Montreal Canada, Shanghai China, Sydney Australia, Melbourne Australia, all of which totaled 9 stops in airports. Yikes! I was in charge of setting up a LOT of the travel and accommodations, along with McDonald’s own agency. Special travel Visas were needed for a couple of the countries, which Travisa.com helped me with. I learned how to set up safe transit and smooth transitions between countries for the fellas and especially for their gear. The key to this was an equipment Carnet (a passport for your gear). This was much more work than I had expected, but was completely worth it for them. I was the “man on the ground” for their late night communicatoni requests from across the globe. “Find me an assistant in Melbourne”, “We need transportation in Shanghai”, whatever they needed, I provided. It was a great exercise, and I hope to be on the trip next time!

A Mexican Wedding… almost

Matthew — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:23:28 +0000

This early November, I had a wonderful opportunity with my lovely wife to take in some fun in the sun! Our close friends (and my best lady in our own wedding) got married on a little island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. We soaked up plenty of sun and got in some great snorkeling as well. The wedding was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen!

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Target Kids at William Clark’s

Matthew — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:22:25 +0000

Who could ask for anything more than a nice little crowd of super cute kids!?!? William Clark had me produce for his Target Weekly ad shoot. Starting with a casting where we saw SO many kids with their moms, dads, or grandparents looking for a part in our shoot day. Honestly, they were some of the most well behaved I’ve ever known. William keeps his calm and had a great time with all these youngsters. Of course he’s backed by an all star crew: Ave Green (child wrangler, laughter provoker), Elizabeth Wahl (wardrobe stylist), Andrea Holton (hair & makeup), Christopher Erickson (digi tech), Andrea Vingers (wardrobe asst), and Seth Iverson (photo asst).

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Finally, MCTC Phase 3 with Jonathan

Matthew — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:09:42 +0000

At last, Jonathan and I wrap up our motion + still shooting extravaganza for MCTC! This project has taken nearly a year to complete from concept to delivery. It’s a beautiful relief to see the finished products. This final leg of the project took us off campus to the MCTC affiliate’s Flying Cloud Airport and Hennepin Technical College for Air Traffic Control and Law Enforcement, respectively. We rounded it our by polishing up on a few more program areas on campus: Math, Theatre, Astronomy. This may have been the most fun of all three phases of shooting. Not only because of the content or locations, but the people that we were privileged to capture and interview. After it all, we wrapped up at the nearby AMAZING restaurant, Joe’s Garage.

Our crew consisted of Jesse Roesler of Bolster (DP), Eric Schleicher (AC), Ashlee Ellert (Hair/Makeup/Wardrobe), John Fontana (DigiTech), Patrick Schaefer (Audio Tech), Patrick Meehan (Photo+Video Assistant), and Chris Worlow (Photo+Video Assistant).

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