On Production
The best of the best in creative production make the work seem invisible. My goal is always to make the behind the scenes work run like clockwork, and feel seamless and effortless. I like to think about it like the swan, swanning around the lake looking like it’s gliding, all the while paddling furiously underneath the surface. In practice this skillset is a specific combination of operational rigor, financial discipline, and enthusiastic creative investment. This is my special sauce.
Three things stood out to me in this job description. I want to answer each of them directly.
Every Production Needs a Mission, Not Just a Brief
This is my creative motto and the philosophy I bring to every production I lead. The review and approval frameworks, the timelines, the call sheets, the checklists — these are creative works of art. These are the things that make up the infrastructure that makes creative risk possible. When the operational scaffolding is completely invisible and completely taken care of, the creative team can be wild and specific and surprising in the actual work.
But process alone is not enough. What I have found, consistently, is that the most effective productions are anchored to a creative mission — a clear, specific idea of what this campaign is trying to make someone feel, and why that matters to the brand. That mission lives at the top of every brief, every shot list, every approval conversation. It is the thing you return to when you are making trade-offs under pressure, when a vendor falls through, when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
The review and approval frameworks I build are designed around this idea. Not just: did the asset get approved? But: does this asset serve the mission? Is it technically precise and launch-ready? Does it feel like Faire? Those three questions, asked at every stage, are how you get both speed and quality without trading one for the other.
Relationships Are the Most Undervalued Line Item in Any Production Budget
Budget stewardship isn’t just about tracking spend. It is about knowing what things actually cost, knowing where waste is hidden, and having the relationships that let you get more than the rate card says you should.
I have managed production budgets up to $7M and I know where the money goes. I also know how to make it go further. A few things I do consistently:
Studio day rates in New York can be punishing. A location shoot an hour outside the city can deliver the same or better creative result at a fraction of the cost. Off-peak booking with trusted crews can save real money. And multi-day shoots with the same team, spread across a production cycle, are almost always more efficient than single-day sprints.
The biggest budget inefficiency in DTC creative production is shooting one thing for one purpose. I build shot lists that satisfy sales, marketing, experiential, editorial, and customer service — all at once. That means thinking about spacing for headers, sizing for every digital medium, vertical and horizontal crops, stop motion, still, and video all sequenced in the right order. You shoot it once. You use it everywhere.
I have spent years building relationships with photographers, stylists, crew, prop houses, and production partners. Those relationships mean I get the call when someone cancels and there is a studio day available. They mean a vendor will go the extra mile on a difficult shoot because we have worked together before and they know I will make it worth it. You cannot buy that with a day rate. You earn it over time.
What Most Brands Get Wrong: They Shoot One Thing for One Shot
The most common and most expensive mistake in DTC creative production is treating each asset as a discrete deliverable. This looks like a single hero image for the homepage. A solo social post for Instagram. A one-off banner for email. Shot separately, briefed separately, produced separately.
This kind of work doesn’t fly with me.
The way I produce, every shoot is designed from the brief outward: what does sales need? What does marketing need for paid? What does the editorial team need for the blog? What does customer service need for FAQs? What does the experiential team need for events? I map all of that before I build the shot list. Then I design a production shoot that satisfies all of it, in one shoot, in one location, with one team.
This requires knowing how to think about spacing and framing for multiple mediums simultaneously. A shot that works for a full-bleed hero has different compositional requirements than a shot that works as a thumbnail, a square post, or a banner with text overlay. I think about all of these at once, and I build that thinking into the shot list and into the brief before anyone shows up on set.
It also requires thinking in formats: still photography, video, stop motion, motion graphics. These aren’t separate productions. They are a sequence, planned together, shot together where possible, and delivered as a complete asset suite that is ready for every channel on launch day.
A rigorous SOP and asset checklist is the key to creating these kind of shoots. Combined with a clear creative mission and you’ll start nailing amazing shoots.
- Built a full beach scene in the basement of a warehouse — sand, props, lighting, the works
- Sourced a vintage Triumph sidecar motorcycle for a shoot with the two founders of Food52
- Found and booked a trained Airedale show dog for a brand event on 48 hours’ notice
- Carried a mantel built for Christmas stockings on the New York City subway to a shoot location
- Produced five photo shoots a week, every week, for three years
The point is not that I am resourceful, though I am. The point is that great production requires someone who is happily willing to do whatever it takes to get the shot — and who has enough experience to know, before the day begins, what “whatever it takes” is likely to mean.
The Future Is Local, and This Is the Production Infrastructure That Proves It
Faire’s mission is one I find genuinely compelling. Independent retailers are doing more than Walmart and Amazon combined, and they are doing it one shop at a time, in communities that matter to people in ways that big box retail never will. The creative work that represents that mission — that makes a retailer in Lyon or a boutique in Brooklyn feel seen and celebrated — has to be as good as the mission deserves.
This role is about building the production infrastructure that makes that possible at scale. I want to build it.