August 2019, Mumbai: It was the first day of the Godrej Script campaign shoot with Vikas Dutt and everyone was on the studio floor. Key members of the Godrej team, agency guys, photographer, and the whole shoot crew were there. Everyone was just preparing for the first shot of day one. The team was quite comfortable as the core team knew each other well enough and their expectations were almost aligned. With some initial to-and-fro moments, the first shoot went well.
There were 10 odd trainee photographers on the set in learning and assisting mode. For most of them, it was quite an enlightening moment to watch the shoot of this scale. As usual, things went according to the plan.
Agency and team Godrej were discussing shot by shot. The requirement was to have some more images with multiple angles for their social media and e-commerce platform where they wanted to showcase the product from different angles. Everyone realized that in between the main campaign shoot, it was not possible to remove the existing setup and shoot each product with multiple angles. It would have killed the entire rhythm of the campaign shoot. But anyways the newly propped-up requirement came to Vikas that there is a need to shoot each product in different angles for another purpose and medium. Everyone knew that this new requirement would lead to another photoshoot altogether, which would cost extra money, time, and above all massive coordination efforts.
The First Test
StudioOnCloud was already ideated by now and the Script team was briefly aware of the concept. Vikas knew that this was the time when the idea could be tested. Both agency and team Godrej knew that they needed simple neat images and a product photographer with proper guidance could deliver the desired result. The budget was fairly low and the requirement was clear.
This is how the concept of StudioOnCloud was first piloted. Luckily the studio had some extra space where we kept the products and assembled them for the shoot. The team chose that storage area and converted the section into a decent-sized studio with standard lighting. Vikas set up the whole shoot process, briefed the photographers with a defined number of angles for each product.
This test was a super success for both Vikas and the Godrej team. Agency was also happy who got the solution on the spot. The parallel shoot went on for entire 10 days in the adjacent studio.
The First Video-Bangalore
Another test happened again in the next month. There was a Huddle event in Bangalore and the entire event was to be filmed. Team Script wanted to put that video on Instagram and YouTube as part of their social media. The idea was to get the shoot crew in Bangalore itself to keep the cost controlled and also to test the StudioOnClod model. Team StudioOnCloud shot the still as well as the video coverage of the entire event successfully using a team in Bangalore.
Event Coverage-Delhi-NCR
Again, after a month, the Script team came up with a new requirement. They were opening two stores in Delhi/NCR and they wanted some very basic picture captured for the store launch. This time the budget was very basic and StudioOnCloud sent two event photographers to each launch event and executed it successfully.
Store/Interior Shoot-Delhi-NCR
Immediately after this launch shoot, the Script team wanted to cover their store interiors for both the stores in NCR. This time, they wanted a photographer who has some experience in shooting interior spaces. StudioOnCloud again executed this project. The next was their Mumbai store and then the story goes on…
