So production, headed by Axios Director of Photography Matt Matossian, consisted of a four camera Sony EX3 camera set and included a swinging jib arm, one host camera complete with an Ipad telemprompter, and two roaming broll cameras all on the sidewalk and in the middle of 5th Avenue. With the help of our Tricaster 450 Extreme, director Jon Johnnidis was able to cut each camera in real time as it was streaming live through our host site, Livestream, with an embed on Lord & Taylor's website. The entire event lasted a total of one hour and included a variety of interviews including Kathy lee Gifford who also performed with the Young Peoples Chorus of NYC.

The actual building of the windows took more than 8 months from conception to completion and Axios stopped in periodically to document the progress as is seen in the Making of the Holiday Windows video.

Once the shoot ended, it was then our job to break the 20 person crew and all of our equipment down and head back to our Brooklyn home base to begin the edit. As is customary with media friendly events such as these, turnaround time is essential to ensure news coverage the following day, both broadcast and online, while the story is still hot. Under the direction of Axios lead editor Mark Johnnidis, we began the overnight edit for the creation of a standard Broll Package for media distribution, and an event Recap Sizzle Reel for online distribution as can be seen below.

As always, teaming up with Lord & Taylor for the unveiling of their Holiday Windows is one of our favorite projects of the year as it not only fills us all with some holiday cheer early in the season, but their entire team is a pleasure to work with! We look forward to more events with Lord & Taylor in the near future while continuing to expand our Axios Live productions!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!   

On a production note, it was a very quick turnaround project that was shot on Monday, September 26^th, and delivered on Friday, September 30^th! The main challenge we had for this shoot in particular, besides the tight turnaround, was shooting the entire video in one continuous shot, without any cuts, while keeping a high level of production value. We ended up using what has become our “Go To” camera, the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, with a 24-70mm Canon L Series lens set at 35mm, on a homemade 12 foot PVC sliding track, which we were building, bolting, sanding and finessing right up until the camera started rolling…it’s just how these things go. The actual shoot lasted about 5 full hours, with another 5 hours added on for load in, setup, break down and load out, and as I’m sure all of our wonderful extras would tell you, it certainly was not a one take and done situation! Between nailing all of the lines, precisely timing everyone’s entrance, getting a smooth camera slide, making sure the subject was in focus throughout, and various other detail oriented components that presented themselves, we’re pretty happy with only 5 hours of shooting! Regardless, the final product came out looking great and the client was very pleased so, mission accomplished.

Special thanks to our lead, Tracy Pendergast, who as always was incredibly patient and professional through the entire day, Ed Steltz, who endured a less than perfectly fitting superman costume, our friends at Likeable Media for their stellar performances and support, all of our extras, and of course the entire crew.

Additionally, we would like to thank our close friends over at Huntington Social for allowing us to use their incredible restaurant for an entire day to capture what we needed. As always, the on site staff was amazing, the food was beyond anything a Hollywood craft service setup could provide, and of course, the location was perfect. Looking forward to more food and drink soon at The Social!

Axios Productions Credits:

Director: Jon Johnnidis

Director of Photography: Matt Matossian

Editor and Motion Graphics: Mark Johnnidis