Product Launch Shoots

Throughout 2024–2025, I led the creative production and on-set art direction for Wild Alaskan Company’s major product launches—including salmon burgers, crab & cod cakes, pre-marinated seafood, snow crab, and seasonal products. These were high-stakes shoots with ambitious shot lists, shifting creative direction, and tight timelines. I oversaw all planning, crew leadership, talent direction, visual cohesion, and real-time stakeholder review, consistently delivering polished assets without reshoots or overtime.

ROLE: On-Set Art Direction & Creative Producer
CLIENT: Wild Alaskan Company
YEAR: 2024-2025

Overview:

As Wild Alaskan Company expanded beyond frozen fillets into ready-to-cook and value-added products, they needed high-quality visual storytelling to support new product launches across e-commerce, email, retail, and paid marketing.

Creative & Production Leadership

  • Led concept development, pre-production, on-set art direction, and post oversight

  • Interpreted creative briefs into actionable visual plans and shot priorities

  • Ensured alignment between different department objectives

Workflow & Systems Design

  • Built production workflows for intake → development → approvals → delivery

  • Developed shot lists, schedules, and review structures

  • Created a repeatable process adaptable to varying product complexity

Casting, Locations & Environmental Direction

  • Cast both lifestyle and hand talent

  • Sourced locations, rental properties, and set pieces

  • Collaborated with stylists to build environments that matched the creative brief

Cross-Functional Partnership

  • Collaborated with Creative, Brand, Product, Social, Marketing, and Ops

  • Synthesized evolving needs from multiple stakeholders

  • Maintained clarity around scope, constraints, and resourcing

Resourcing & Vendor Management

  • Balances in-house team capacity with external crew and talent

  • Scoped projects to determine when to scale up versus run lean

  • Negotiated and coordinated vendors while protecting budget and timeline

On-Set Art Direction

  • Directed lighting, propping, styling, composition, and pacing

  • Guided the crew through efficient set transitions

  • Kept production aligned to both visual intent and daily schedule

Challenges:

  • High-stakes launches with executive and board visibility

  • Very limited lead time, with creative direction often arriving days before production

  • Complex shot lists involving multiple environments, talent, and culinary styling

  • Food perishability, requiring precise timing and sequencing

  • Cheating environment in studio spaces not designed for lifestyle imagery

  • Remote creative approval, requiring 80–90% finished images before sharing out

  • Maintaining schedule discipline across demanding multi-day shoots

  • Frequent pivots due to product cancellations, weather, and shifting priorities

Despite these challenges, every shoot wrapped on time, stayed within budget, and met leadership expectations—without reshoots.

Conclusion:

Across more than a year of product launches, I led Wild Alaskan Company’s most complex and visible shoots with a calm, strategic, and adaptable approach.

These launches demonstrate my ability to direct high-volume creative production under intense pressure while maintaining visual quality, operational efficiency, and collaborative team culture.

As the in-house studio evolved, these shoots became some of the strongest content produced for the brand and a clear reflection of the studio’s growth under my leadership.