Pre-Production

Everything kicked off with a full campaign team bio call on October 14th. That was the first moment we heard about the broader vision and started shaping how we’d bring Ryan’s story to life in a way that actually felt… different. Not just another political ad. From there, we worked fast. Locked the concept, built the treatment, sourced a location, and pulled gear together quickly. One of the trickiest parts early on was finding a functional polygraph machine that looked legit on camera. After striking out with a few prop houses, we eventually tracked one down at Zap Props in Chicago; a great pull by the team and a clutch detail that really sold the concept on screen. We wrapped the project by November 21st, with a few edit rounds along the way to make sure the tone was just right. Even during production, we were cutting together roughs so Ryan’s team could stay in the loop and shape the narrative in real time. Every piece of this was fast, collaborative, and hands-on.

Production Strategy

We did not have that much time with Jessica, originally only 5 hours, then cut down to 4 hours with her media interviews beforehand running a bit long; just how it goes! Nobody’s fault! With that being said, we had to be unbelievably organized and on the same page as a production team. Elise was doing BTS photo as well as stills for World of Hyatt Instagram stories so purely for video production, we had 3 totals individuals working on Cam & GnE…that’s how we roll, super nimble and everyone is a team player. Like our man Dan Campbell says…”we want football players, not position players”.