Composer Features

A client approached me for brand development and the creation of social media content for a newly launching brand called Chassay Production Music. The brand represents Sony Music Production Japan’s entry into the American market and wanted to emphasize their high production quality and focus on talented composers.

I decided to profile three of Chassay’s Los Angeles-based composers, highlighting the uniqueness of their creative processes. I aimed to shoot each composer in a similar fashion and interview each of them with a similar base of questions so that their differences would come to light in contrast with one another.

I visited each of the composers’ private studios for a five hour shoot capturing photos, B-Roll video, concluding with an interview. I worked with them to capture their natural working environment and encouraged them to work on existing projects while I was there. As I progressed through the shoots, the differences between each of the composers– like how they built and organized their studios, which instruments they specialized in, and even the software and composition techniques they favored– really showed the brand’s diverse range of offerings.

I also focused on making lighting and camerawork decisions that enforced the high-end and moody aesthetic that the brand was looking for. 

I wanted the locations to feel authentic and reflect each of the composer’s choices, so I stuck to some minimal additional lighting to provide better shape during the interview and stronger backlight and reflections for B-Roll and photos. I shot handheld with shallow depth-of-field to maintain a natural feel and help with the moody look.

In post, I took a heavier hand with color grading for the images and video so that Chassay would have a quickly recognizable and consistent look across all the materials. I also created a graphic design style with the titles and graphics that would help to establish the brand’s identity.  I integrated additional orchestral footage that the client provided from a recent recording session into the interview and B-Roll to create these short spotlights. Full versions of the interviews, shorter clips for social media, and a large series of photos were also created from the material.