Will work for Butter Burgers! St. Petersburg video production company, Litewave Media teamed up with Wild Bill, a collaborative, creative content company based in California to film a national TV spot for Culver’s Restaurant.
The two day shoot, produced locally by Litewave Media’s own Christian Cashmir took place at the restaurant just minutes from our Tampa Production Studio right here in sunny St. Petersburg,
Cashmir along with our awesome St. Petersburg video production crew worked hard to bring Director James Lipetzky’s vision together. Lipetzky traveled from California to work with Litewave Media on the TV Commercial.
The Tampa video crew spent Day 1 outdoors filming a variety of beauty shots of those delicious Butter Burgers the restaurant is known for.
Producer, Christian Cashmir, works with the DP on setting up the perfect shot for the ARRI Alexa Mini to capture on the Movi Pro gimbal.
The wood base used to display the burgers was created by a local craftsman and fashioned on set with rigging gear from our grip truck. Our gaffer and lighting expert, Andrew Ortoski, combined a few mini combo stands and some behind-the-scenes magic to get the burgers at just the right height for the camera.
Gaffer Andrew Ortoski with DP Florian set the perfect shot with the ARRI Alexa Mini
Day 2 took the Tampa video crew inside the Restaurant as the owner himself, Mr. Craig Culver, surprised unsuspecting guests by taking them into the kitchen to make those famous burgers. Four cameras, including an ARRI Alexa Mini, a Canon C300 mkll, and two Sony A7S mkll’s were tucked away from the customer’s view to capture their candid reactions.
Director James Lipetzky oversees the shoot as PA, Sasha Sebesta prepares to slate the next shot.
Our St. Petersburg Grip Truck rental was on site to supply an ample amount of lighting and grip equipment. An ARRI M18 and Joker 800 were used to light those outdoor shots on the first day, while our ARRI Skypanel S60, and some Litepanel Astras were used to set the stage inside for the production on day 2.
Culver’s Co-Founder surprises a customer in the TV Spot
After the shoot, Cashmir said, “We really enjoyed filming with the Culver’s family and the St. Pete restaurant’s friendly staff. The crew also enjoyed their share of burgers and frozen custard. Not a bad two days!”
Camera Assistant Daryn Murphy with producer Christian Cashmir and the food stylists.
You can catch the national TV spot airing on many local Tampa Bay and St Pete networks. You might even see a few familiar faces!
Do you have an upcoming project for our St. Petersburg Video Production Company? Contact us today to see how we can work together to help build your business. Find us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the Litewave Media blog to stay up to date on all of our St. Petersburg video production company’s news.
Recently Litewave Media took to the ice at Amelie Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning, for a Volvo TV commercial shoot with Victor Hedman, one of the top defenders in the NHL. The spot was produced along with Moore and Scarry Advertising for Crown Automotive Group and will be airing soon! Our Tampa video production company was thrilled to be back on the ice as we filmed with the Lightning last year for a production as well.
Director/DP Christian Cashmir & 2nd Cam Tony Ahedo plan out some action shots of Victor with the Sony A7s Mk2 & DJI OSMO.
Crown Automotive brought in seven cars and SUVs and set them up on the ice rink as a back drop for the shoot. The Litewave Media Tampa video production crew began work lighting the cars, with only a short window between the Lightning’s practices to set up. Our production crew brought out 5 cameras to film with including our Canon C300, Canon C100, two Sony A7s mk2’s, a DJI OSMO, and a myriad of Canon L series lenses – all from our Tampa video camera rentals package.
The Litewave Media Tampa video crew at work filming Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The crew filmed some lines with Victor and the teleprompter, but the shoot really charged up when Victor got on his skates, and the camera team chased him on the ice.
Director Christian Cashmir and 2nd Cam Operator Tony Ahedo go over lines on the prompter with Victor Hedman.
We used the Sony A7s mk2 mounted on our MoVi M5 gimbal stabilizer as well as the DJI Osmo to capture smooth creative action shots and POV shots of the hockey puck. Some 120 frame slow motion footage accented the skates tearing up the ice.
Director/DP Christian Cashmir gives chase to Victor Hedman with the MoVi M5 gimbal camera stabilizer.
Victor Hedman stylishly skids on the ice as the Litewave Media team captures it in slow motion
One of the highlights for our gaffer, was incorporating our newest light, the ARRI Skypanel S60 from our Tampa grip truck rental on the shoot. The Skypanel packs quite a punch and acted as the main key light to illuminate the shots of Victor with the Volvos.
Our ARRI Skypanel lights up the shot as Christian Cashmir directs with producer Andrew Hebert & Devon Mackinnon runs sound.
The shoot literally went out with a bang as the hockey stadium fired up their Tesla coils and shot electricity charges for our cameras to capture. This electro static footage will be used for a dramatic insert shot in the commercial. The Tesla coils typically only fire up at a hockey game when the Lightning scores, but we were able to turn all the lights off in the entire stadium so that the coils were the only thing lighting the arena – it made for quite a unique effect!
Looking to capture a Tampa TV Commercial production or Tampa video production? Contact us today to see how our teams can work together to build your business. Find us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the Litewave Media blog to stay up to date on all of our St Petersburg video production company news!
[All behind the scenes photos captured by Joe Malo]
The Litewave Media team has had some great opportunities to work with musicians over the years– from filming with Grammy-Award-Winning jazz musician Chick Corea in our studio, to classic rock legends Foreigner, and the country chart-topping Band Perry, we’ve worked with a great variety of talent. We recently finished a pre-concert publicity video with No Limits, a dance video with hip-hop artist Isis Sonatra, and even our very own 60’s zombie-themed Tampa music video production.
But one band our Florida production company has partnered with on numerous occasions is Tampa Bay’s own Come Back Alice… and this week we got to do a photoshoot with them!
Tony Tyler and Dani Jaye of Come Back Alice in our Florida production studio.
Come Back Alice formed in 2011 and have been performing live ever since. They love to be on stage and bring their funky rock style to every city they tour in. They’ve also been called “Tampa Bay’s Hottest Rock N Roll Band” by Advisor Magazine.
Tony Tyler, lead singer of Come Back Alice, rocks out in our Florida photography studio.
With the popularity of the band growing, they plan to expand into new markets this year. They enlisted Litewave Media for our photography and creative services. We photographed the rock band for their upcoming publicity and music releases and captured their unique, eclectic style right here in our Tampa photography studio.
Our Tampa photography crew captured this enigmatic photo of Dani Jaye of Come Back Alice.
Photographer and photo shoot director Christian Cashmir and our Tampa video production crew captured the photos using a variety of different lighting set-ups. Our team photographed the band with gear from our Tampa photography equipment rental package, including our Canon 5D MkIII, Canon L-Series Lenses (24mm L f/1.4 II, 50mm L f/1.2), and Profoto D2 photo strobes.
Our photography team used practical lighting in this shot for a more evocative effect.
After the shoot, our team processed and re-touched the photos back in our Florida post production suite to match the band’s stylistic vision.
Our Florida production company captured this photo of the alluring Dani Jaye.
This photo had a little inspiration from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours‘ album cover.
To see more of Come Back Alice, check out the video for their song “Coraline” that we produced, or this live music video we filmed with them in 2014.
A behind the scenes picture of our photo shoot with Come Back Alice in our studio. Photo courtesy of: Jimmy Rector
Recently our Florida video production company had the chance to work with Grand Villa, a resort style senior living community with multiple locations throughout Florida, to film a TV commercial campaign at one of their communities. We went to their St Petersburg, Florida location to learn more about the services they provide to their residents, take a tour of the facilities, and brainstorm ideas for the commercial.
Director Christian Cashmir and grip Sasha Sebesta film with our Dana Dolly and Sony a7S II.
Tampa video production services
Once we had a chance to sit down and speak with the marketing team and get a feel for the community, our production team was excited to draft a script for the project and provide our Tampa video production services. With multiple communities throughout Florida, Grand Villa is one of the more popular retirement communities among seniors, hosting a friendly staff, resort-like amenities, and high quality assisted living services.
Makeup artist, Nikki, puts final touch-ups on makeup before filming the 60’s flashback dinner scene
The video production process
Working together with Grand Villa marketing team’s Ben Rizzo and Clint Dockery, Litewave Media founder Christian Cashmir and writer Mike Garland planned out a fun, emotional story to film. Over the course of a week, the team transformed the idea into a fully developed commercial production- complete with storyboards, costumes, cast, and crew. The concept of the shoot was to journey through the life of a woman at milestones in her life, shown through various decades encompassing the 1950’s, 1960’s, and present day. Our Tampa video production crew was ready to begin filming!
Steadicam operator Eric Coughlin, director Christian Cashmir, and Grand Villa’s marketing guru Ben Rizzo review footage in between takes.
Stocked, locked, and ready to rock, we drove our St Petersburg grip truck to Grand Villa to begin our first day of filming. Their St. Petersburg location was a great choice for production as it boasts tennis courts, a pool, coffee shop, multiple hair salons, and a grand dining room complete with its own cafe. With multiple areas perfect for cinematic storytelling, our crew began filming with our Tampa video equipment rental package. Using our Canon C300 mkII and Sony A7sII video cameras with Canon cinema lenses, director Christian Cashmir helmed the production, bringing his technical skill and directing expertise to the project. Alongside Steadicam operator Eric Coughlin, our Tampa video production crew flew in our Arri and KinoFlo 4 Bank lighting kits, and also filmed scenes on our Dana Dolly.
Our Florida video production crew films a scene on Steadicam for the Grand Villa commercial
We recorded a little time lapse of one filming location (shot by grip Sasha Sebesta):
On day two of the shoot, our Tampa video production crew planned to travel in time to the 1950’s. But, since our time machine was out of batteries, we decided on the next best thing: Johnny Rockets, a 50’s-style diner. Our crew loaded up our grip truck and set forth. With a vintage theme, leather seats, and decor reminiscent of the 1950s, Johnny Rockets was the perfect place to film a scene for the Grand Villa TV ad campaign. The quiet restaurant was transformed and set ablaze with colorful costumes, laughing actors, crew members, and of course a classic dish of ice cream. (The crew may have had refills)
Actors Lexi, Linda, and Chris during the second day of filming at Johnny Rockets, a 50’s-style diner.
Post Production Time
After a lively, creative shoot it was time to head back to our Tampa Bay video studio to begin the editing and post production process. We hired a top notch voice-over actress, who we captured in our sound booth and Tampa recording studio. Our post team even created a visual effect sequence to augment the great work our production crew started.
The cast and crew at Grand Villa St. Petersburg celebrate completing the first day of filming.
Our Florida video production crew had a great time working with the Grand Villa team on such a fun project. The TV commercial will air regionally in Florida. You can also watch the finished commercial below!
Our St Petersburg video production company has been filming and working on post production for the hit new web series Rescue-Clearwater for a little over 7 months now. The show, based on the real life stories behind the Dolphin Tale movies and Winter the dolphin, recently hit a milestone: 10 episodes! The first episode premiered online in February 1st of this year, highlighting the history of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) and the amazing work they do to rehabilitate, rescue, and release sea animals in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Litewave Media’s founder, Christian Cashmir and SteadiCam operator Eric Coughlin film Abby, Winter’s caregiver for the showThe Clearwater Marine Aquarium is home to Winter the dolphin, the inspiration and star of the hit Dolphin Tale films. CMA is also home to a diverse group of wildlife ranging from dolphins like Nicholas (pictured below) to sea turtles and even pelicans, too! CMA has an amazing program to help rescue injured sea creatures, rehabilitate them using world class medical care in their state of the art facilities, and release them back into the wild.
While at the aquarium, our Florida video production crew were able to be a part of filming amazing stories like a sea turtle hatchling release and Hope the dolphin’s rescue and rehabilitation. For episode 7, the Litewave Media team drove our St Petersburg grip truck to beautiful Clearwater Beach, FL to film at the CMA, this time focusing on Winter and Hope’s special relationship.
Nicholas the dolphin happily waits for a meal of fresh fish. Photo: Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Litewave Media’s Christian Cashmir, Steffen Thiel, and SteadiCam operator Eric Coughlin used gear from our St Petersburg video equipment rental package to film the aquarium team in action working with the animals and rescuing sea creatures in need. Our St Petersburg video production crew were able to film the CMA team performing their mission to preserve the environment and protect local marine life!
Special thanks to David Yates, director and producer of the show, and Joe Malo, shooter and editor at the aquarium for partnering with Litewave Media on this awesome project!
The Litewave Media and CMA teams wrap Episode 7 in front of a gorgeous sunset in Clearwater.
After quite a few exciting days of filming with the aquarium team, the post production process began. Joe reviewed the footage and chose the best shots. He then brought the media back to our Tampa video production studios for editing. Our editing team began work on the finishing and fine-tuning of the edit to tell the heartwarming story behind the episode. In our Tampa post production studios we created the opening titles and all of the visual effects seen in each episode. We even utilized our St Petersburg recording studio to capture voice-over for multiple episodes.
“Working on Rescue-Clearwater is a great opportunity and our St Petersburg video production company is proud to help the CMA team. Working with the animals is a truly incredible experience”, said Litewave Media’s Christian Cashmir.
Ready to be inspired by the cutest dolphins this side of the Mississippi? Check out episode 7 below: