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Photographer Erik Almås is accustomed to having creative control of his imagery. He's discovered it's easier on all involved if he does most of his own retouching and draws on a select group of retouchers for consultation, art direction rounds, and the final beautifying. But when you have an aggressive production with compositing required in less than half the time of the normal, not-enough-time, you're going to need to loosen the creative reins a bit. Those decisions don't come easy, especially when you're deeply invested in maintaining a signature aesthetic. Good thing Scott Dorman is used to standing by with a vision, and used to Erik.
Scott and Erik had been working together for two years and had never actually met in person until this job for Hill Holliday. The three Liberty Mutual ads that needed to wrap in North Carolina were due to complete within just five days and both artists pushed their schedules and creative comfort levels to new heights.
In order to complete the project on time, everything went into motion at rapid fire. Scott knew Erik usually didn't embrace retouching on set as part of his workflow, but in this case he welcomed Scott's real-time vision and anything he could do to help elevate the imagery. Armed and traveling with monitors, Macs, and tablets, Scott worked in a hotel suite, creating composites, comps, and finishes, with the agency art director in tow. While they were holding it down over room service, Erik was out finishing the location shoot.
The best relationships are the ones that are successful even during the most trying situations. Erik's Liberty Mutual job was a large undertaking for such an accelerated time frame and all comfort zones were definitely put to the test. Yet, the power of
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this real-time collaboration was impressive in producing a pretty transparent experience for everyone. The photographer was able to let go a little because he was confident Scott would maintain his aesthetic, and Scott was able to move from the ever-familiar post-production feeling of awaiting retouching surprises to an on-set comfort level. In the end, the agency and client marveled at how smooth the process was and absolutely fell in love with the ads and the team Erik brought. We fell in love with how a pre-existing relationship, normally handled through the power of the World Wide Web, was fully realized in a hotel room in North Carolina.
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