Project
PBS TEAM
Producer: Kevin Lahr
Sr. Creative Director: John Ruppenthal
Director of Production: Jared Traver
Art Director: Christopher Richard
PRODUCTION TEAM
Executive Producer: Joel Edwards
Executive Producer: Daniel Kiedis
Director: Blaine Hogan
Senior Producer: Jen Lewis
Cinematographer: Kendall Rittenour
Production Coordinator: Rebecca Ryan
Casting Manager: Lucile Rich
Client
PBS
Content
Branded Content
Services
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), a multi-platform media organization that serves the American public with programming and services of the highest quality, embarked on a comprehensive refresh of its iconic brand. This included all new brand imagery, a refreshed logo, custom typeface, bold color palette, motion graphic elements, illustrations and video content that would all reflect the new brand voice for a digital age.
The goal was to evolve the PBS brand to help it compete for viewer attention, engagement, and loyalty in a rapidly changing viewer and media landscape. PBS wanted to create a more consistent brand experience across all platforms and its member stations that celebrated its 50-year history through a forward-looking lens.
We were tasked with the mammoth and very exciting job of planning and shooting all of the imagery and video for the network’s new asset library. We’re no strangers to this type of asset capture campaign. In fact, we’ve taken on this challenge with several other clients such as National Geographic, NBC Universal & Bridgestone.
To some people, filming 29 scenes in 24 locations, with a cast of 178 people and 12 full weeks of pre-production might seem overwhelming. But with a team of rock stars in every department from production to casting, scheduling, art and wardrobe, it’s a challenge that we were ready for.
The all-new, live-action catalog of 63 videos and 330 photos we delivered will be integrated across all PBS platforms and features content that pulls the viewer into the experience while maintaining a distinct visual identity that is uniquely PBS.
The success of this project can be directly attributed to clear direction from PBS and to the individual people that make up the Evolve team. Challenging production logistics behind a massive undertaking like this project required our small, dedicated team to pull off the impossible.
The budget, the production schedule, the project duration and the intricacies of the casting and logistics of this year-long project required detailed execution and resourcefulness from our team members.
Jen Lewis, our Senior Producer on this project, said the production team was on a constant one-step-ahead schedule that became a delicate juggling act.
“Because we were moving to so many locations and never really staying at the same place for long, we had one part of the production team move ahead of the film crew to open the next location, while another part of the team stayed behind at each location to close it out, clean it, and wrap things up. That was the only way we could get it done.”
After discussing the possibility of shooting the footage in Washington, D.C. to be closer to the PBS headquarters, we also considered locations in Denver, Cincinnati and Portland. But it quickly became clear that we had everything we needed right here in Tennessee – the bulk of the footage was shot basically in our backyard with a few ancillary scenes shot in Chattanooga and Atlanta.
Once again, finding perfect and affordable locations is a testament to our amazing team who called in favors, visited friends and worked with location scouts to find the perfect spot for every scene.
“With our working budget and trying to stick with as much of a home team as possible, shooting here in Tennessee just made sense,” Lewis said. “We had to move quickly with our shots as well, so having a crew that had worked together before was a huge benefit. We were able to get into a great rhythm.”
Despite the size, magnitude and duration of this exciting project, we were able to rise to the challenge and deliver exactly what the client asked us for – on time and on budget. That’s just what we do. Every day. Every job. We have learned that when we work together as a team, there’s always a way to overdeliver.
