Project Bio

Lazarus Brewing in Austin, TX only existed on paper. In order to finish raising the money necessary to start building the brew-pub, owner Christian had an idea for a crowdfunding campaign; Free Bear for Life. With a financial goal in mind and a script ready, Christian needed a production team to finalize the script and shoot it. 

Our responsibilities on the project were a bit different from the typical project - with an internal creative director, Lazarus already had a script and story in mind, and they needed a light-and-tight production team to execute it

My Role 

Fixer

*Location scout (b-roll days, stained glass in church building, etc.).
*Crew provisions (transpo, housing, meals for out of town crew).

Executive Producer

*Landing client (warm connection) and upsell (Negotiated price between production house and client, upselling x3 the original proposed budget).

-Pre-production
*Facilitating emails, conference calls, and skype meetings between client and production team.
*Call-sheet, logistics, and scheduling.
*Art Department - Making sure talent had all props and tools necessary for b-roll and interview sequences.

-Production
*Played as a fill - regular oversight duties as a producer (schedule, facilitating client, crew direction) along with being a grip-swing and talent extra (due to small crew size).

-Post-production
*Gear and rental returns.
*Oversaw communication between editor and client, dialing in specifics on the cut and custom score.

Creative

While Lazarus had an internal creative director who had a specific vision for the script, there was a strong need to shape it up with an outside creative direction.

I printed copies and the script and read through them with the DoP, red-penning the weaker parts of the script until we had a final draft that was significantly stronger than the original. 

There was a similar process for the edit, primarily the final length and custom score.

Additional Details

-Alexa Mini
-Zeiss Contax

-4 client members.
-5 crew members.

-Director of Photography - Evan Bourcier
-Creative Director - Nicholas Cryder

-Matt Workman (most known for this work as a DP, for creating Cine Designer, and for founding Cinematography Database) picked up this video and had Evan featured on his podcast to talk more in depth of how such a small crew was able to produce such a high quality video. You can listen to the podcast here.