SLOWLY GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER
The theme of this shoot and this year has been “Getting The Band Back Together.” This shoot was special, working with BETMGM, with whom I’ve had a long history of collaborating, but it had been over a year and several campaigns since we had worked together; when the call came in for this project, I was pumped. Let’s state the obvious, he is incredibly talented, but what I connected with was what he has personally overcome. Working with him was amazing; talking sports and about one of my wife's and my favorite shows, Your Friends and Neighbors, was one of those small moments that made the day.
Now getting to work with several people I’ve built friendships with and creatively with was the most rewarding part of this project. My line producer on the project was one of the first producers to ever hire me for a job many moons ago, when she was a producer at BET. The lead creative at BETMGM has been in the trenches with me since the very first shoot, when we had COVID protocols and this journey into this world was just beginning. In one of our first conversations about this project, he said to me, “We are slowly getting the band back together.” I’ve seen his team grow and evolve over the 10+ projects we worked on together, and I’ve grown close with so many of them. And the director of the spot, we collaborated together on a previous BETMGM project that is still one of my favorite projects (the practical special effects chef’s kiss). I’m truly grateful to work alongside so many talented creatives because it takes all of them to make something special.
This was the first stop on the reunion tour. Something tells me it won't be the last.
