General Motors Photoshoot

Tallgrass welcomes Campbell-Ewald and General Motors to San Diego for a “Traveling With Kids” social media shoot for the On Star product line.  

Art Directors Phil Foster and John Kalmar from CE were amazing collaborators, true pros”, said photographer Jeffrey Lamont Brown. “Brown said, “it was uncanny, on some shots it was like we had a Vulcan mind meld and they really know how to nuance the images to tell the brand story.”  2 days, tons of great images and GIF’s and beach bonfire wrap party. Woot!

Tallgrass heads to Oregon

JB and Christiaan headed North to Portlandia to hang with some of the best agencies in the US.  Chillin with the hipsters, for great coffee and of course microbrews.  




First stop: Wieden & Kennedy.  Shouts out to Grace, Mari, and Ben for making us feel right at home.  And if you didn’t know Oregon's state animal, you’ll be greeted by it when you walk in their office door   .

Next, more coffee. Woot! Then on to R2C: Great to connect with Sara, Kristen, and Alison in a chill setting. They are on fire. Tons of productions, multiple buildings...taking over the world.    

Saving the best for last: CMD agency! Cindy Marks, you are our hero! Thanks for taking the meeting, even on crutches.  Double order of TGP hot sauce for you.

Tallgrass Pictures Latest Broadcast Reel

We're excited to present our very latest broadcast reel. It's freshly cut, shinier than ever and, as always, filled with  hand-crafted stories.

At Tallgrass, we're passionate about making breathtaking films and photographs AND building nimble, high yield productions. 

Here's a sneak peek at the first page: 


Want to see the whole thing? Tallgrass Pictures Broadcast Reel

Show-n-Tell: Los Angeles

Heads up Christiaan! 

Great trip to LA to visit Midnight Oil, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Ignited.

Midnight Oil:  40 ft tall superhero wraps, sick theater displays, posters, 3d builds. Amazing. Creative and manufacturing all in one bldg. A frickin huge building. 

Ignited: A creative community built by the power of curiosity. Hanging with Sam and showing our skills on the ping-pong table.

I like the way you roll TBWA\Chiat\Day:  be more human (and if in doubt) be more dog ~ Plus a full size Bball court.  Respect to Womack, Michael and Max for hookin it up.  Enjoyed spreading the MARDI GRAS love:  Hurricane style.

"Mother's against gun violence" shoot, goes to the stage!

One of JB’s images will appear onstage in 'The Gospel of Loving Kindness” opening Dec 9th in Washington, D.C.

The play is a edgy, hymn-and-hip-hop-musical.  It’s about a 17 year old boy who sings for President Obama at the White House, and is shot to death 3 weeks later.

Produced by the Mosaic Theater Company (http://www.mosaictheater.org/), written by Marcus Gardley and directed by Jennifer L. Nelson.  Shout out to NJ Mitchell (Mosaic Board Member) for inviting us to participate.

Tallgrass Films Unleashed! Commercial

In late September this year, Tallgrass went dog-gone mad! We had the pleasure of working with Vitro in creating a :15 sec TV spot for their client Unleashed! by Petco. The production was a blast and at the center of it all? Three very talented, adorable canines.

    

The hilarious spot followed a chubby dog as he runs in for dinner...and sadly squeeze in through the doggie door. After weeks of searching for the perfect talent, we were very lucky to have Lola, Penny Lane and Spike join us on set.

Tallgrass was joined by some talented folks in production, props, g&e, animal training and location management who really helped the day run smoothly and efficiently. We even had custom doors built thanks to our accomplished set constructors.

At the end of the day, we had the chance to run through the spot with all 3 dogs to make sure our client’s creative got the best treatment.

Want to find out who made it into the final spot? Check it out below:

[[VIDEO]]

And here's another version with JB's favorite pup - Spike:

[[VIDEO]]

We’re so glad we got to collaborate with the great minds at Vitro and Unleashed! by Petco. Looking forward to our next one...fingers crossed for more new, furry friends!

"This Goes Out to You" Music Video

Tallgrass Pictures is lucky to have team members who are passionate about storytelling…and do it exceptionally well. Over the summer, our very own Gavin Filipiak (TGP Sr. Editor) was tapped to create a music video for San Diego rockers P.O.D. The project was commissioned by Universal Music Group, who reached out to Gavin after seeing his work on Vice - the music video “Young Gods” for Prayers and Blink 182’s Travis Barker.

Gavin took on the challenge of creating the music video, just a few weeks before album release. With the support of TGP, he directed and shot the video for P.O.D.’s latest single “This Goes Out to You”.

To kick-off production, Gavin and Nico first traveled east to Michigan for the Common Grounds Music Festival. Enthusiastic fans gathered around as P.O.D. performed, while Gavin and Nico maneuvered on stage to capture the energy from both the band and fans. Before and after the show, we were lucky enough to hang out with the band in a different setting: with their family.

Then we were back to San Diego to finish up the rest of production. It was a blast getting to work with our local community. First stop: Undisputed Gym in downtown, where we were lucky enough to film San Diego boxing champs and learn how to throw a strong right hook from their trainers.

Next, we headed towards the Mexican-Californian border to capture the beautiful visuals of towering fence and explore the story of separated families. The weather fit the mood perfectly and our talented actors nailed the scene.

But our day was far from over...we were off to another location. Luckily, the sun peeked out for the rest of the day and we ended with a beautiful shot of 2 friends riding to Sunset Cliffs; celebrating the power of friendship on a motocross bike.

For the next scene, we were honored to be able to ride around town with the guys of Tribal Gear. We captured footage of their gorgeous low-riders cruising through the historic Barrio Logan district. To finish the day, we filmed the proud owners at a BBQ scene while enjoying delicious tacos, courtesy of San Diego Taco company.

Gavin and Nico created a truly authentic, compelling music video reflecting the anthemic song and a unique San Diego vibe. We’re proud of their work and invite you to check out the full video below  -

Tallgrass National Commercial on Monday Night Football

What’s great about Mondays? It could be one of two things:

1) Monday Night Football
2) A Tallgrass produced national commercial airing on ESPN during Monday night football

This week, we’re leaning towards #2. On Monday, we were stoked to see our spot UCI “We Believe” break on Monday Night Football. It was a fantastic collaboration with Skiver Advertising, University of California Irvine and Tallgrass Pictures.


 

The 9 day production took us all around southern California, shooting everything from medical labs to ballerinas to farms...and we couldn’t be happier with the final result!

JB worked closely with Sean, Rob and RG from Skiver to create a visually beautiful and compelling story about the incredible work coming from UCI - a place where great minds can truly shine brighter.

From the initial creative to pre-production, production, post and final broadcast delivery - we’re thankful for such awesome collaborators! A special shout-out to the fantastic staff and students of UCI who shared their stories with us, inspiring us to make the commercial as authentic as possible.

 

Missed our spot this Monday? Don’t worry, you can check it out below.

And keep a look-out for our second UCI spot “See Differently” made in collaboration with “We Believe”...breaking soon on a TV near you!

 

Go Aztecs! Tallgrass Shoots National Spot for SDSU

Our Aztec alumni at Tallgrass were stoked when SDSU came to us with a National TV Spot early this summer. Armed with the Tallgrass production prowess and a superb script written by Brandon Reif; we headed to San Diego State to craft another great spot for the Aztecs.



On our first day we captured a private performance of The Great American Trailer Park by the TTF department. How lucky we felt to watch these big dreams in action. In fact, JB was so inspired...he decided to try out his own sweet dance moves.




Then we visited the college of Engineering for a quick lesson in "body building". We filmed these Aztecs putting the final touches on their robot. For the robot stand-in, our awesome sound designer Josh bravely slipped into a green morph suit. 



To finish up, we went networking...with "The Show" and the SDSU cheerleaders also known as the loudest, proudest Aztecs around. 





These SDSU students will make you "Think Again" and be pleasantly surprise. Glad to have partnered with SDSU and our friend Greg Block for another spectacular shoot!


 

Under My Roof wins at film fests

In the latest Weinbergian news, “Under My Roof” takes home two more film fest laurels.





At the River Bend Film Festival in April, UMR won Best Independent Screenplay. At the Sacramento Film Festival, UMR won Best Comedy Screenplay. These are exciting wins for Jennifer de Poyen and Tallgrass.


It’s honor to see the UMR story making waves in the indie film fest circuits while still in development. Cheers to the little guy!