Stephanie Rausser, who specializes in commercial shoots involving lifestyle and kids, says that just about every other client who now calls her with an assignment to shoot stills ends up inquiring about video production, too.

That was the case with a recent shoot for pharmaceutical company through a large New York agency. The agency called on Rausser to shoot a campaign intended to spur parents to ask their pediatricians about the treatment of their kids’ asthma and allergy symptoms. Initially, it was for print. But after Rausser submitted her estimate, the agency inquired about video production for ads meant to run in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices.

The agency, which is skittish about identifying itself or its clients, is combining more productions to achieve visual consistency between the still and motion campaigns. Assigning to one photographer/director also saves money, the art director on the project explained.

Rausser attributes the sudden increase in still/video combination assignments to the anyone-can-shoot-video hype surrounding the DSLR’s that shoot video, such as the Canon 5D Mark II. But, she says, “It’s way more complicated than people perceive it to be.”

She reels off the challenges of video: telling a visual narrative, finding models who act and look natural in front of a video camera, controlling color balance, focus and other camera adjustments, stabilizing the camera, finding enough time to review the footage on set—all while managing the lighting, art direction, baby wrangling, and client relations that her still shoots normally require.

“It’s like 2002, 2003 when people were transitioning from film to digital cameras. Video is a whole different language,” she says. “I have great crews [for still production] in every big city. Now I have to sign people up who can help me manage video.”

Clients often treat video production as an appendage to still production, with a modest supplemental budget. Rausser recalls a recent shoot for which everyone’s fees went up “a little bit” when video was added. For her part, Rausser estimates that she got between $2,500 and $5,000 in additional fees. 

On set, though, video has a way of turning into the tail that wags the dog. Rausser described a shoot with a schedule that called for for finishing the video by 11 am on the first day. But the video production didn't wrap until 3, and she then had to rush to shoot the stills by the end of the day.

For the pharmaceutical shoot, the idea was to show kids enjoying themselves in some typical allergy-inducing situations. The art director provided Rausser with storyboards for four scenarios: a boy playing with a dog, a girl running through a field of flowers, kids playing outdoors in the leaves during the fall, and a mother and baby playing. Each vignette opens with a still image that animates into a video segment, with a voice-over.

Models were chosen on the basis of their looks and ethnic diversity, not their ability to act, which can create a problem on a video shoot. But it wasn’t an issue this time, Rausser says. “LA kids are pretty comfortable in front of a camera,” she says. “I just told them what I wanted them to do.”

She shot in two different locations: outside Golden Oaks on the first day, and indoors in San Pedro on the second day. The outdoor shoots included spring (a field of flowers) and fall (fallen leaves) scenarios. The latter posed a challenge because the grass and trees were a lush green. Rausser ended up shooting from above to avoid showing the background. 

One lesson she learned was to avoid cramming too much shooting into the first day, when she shot three of the four scenarios. After juggling models, props, and gear, she barely had enough time to review her take on set, and make sure the client was satisfied with it. “We bit off more than we could chew,” she says, vowing to allow more time for set up and review of each on future shoots.

Having detailed storyboards made the creative executions easier, Rausser says. She learned the importance of a storyboard after shooting a whimsical video on spec for Target. Inspired by a pair of really good models and a great stylist, she shot that video on the spur of the moment at the end of a still shoot, without a particular narrative in mind. It was a time-consuming challenge for the post-production editor she hired to pull a story out of all the footage she provided. “What’s new to me is telling a story and putting it all together, but I’m learning” she says.

Her strength, she adds, is art direction, and that translates easily from still to motion shoots. “I’m hands-on when I’m shooting. I’ll have a lot to say. I communicate with the kids while they’re running through frame. I’ll say, ‘Look up. Spin around. Do a cartwheel.’”

Rausser is used to shooting stills loosely and spontaneously, with camera in hand rather than on a tripod, so she shot video holding her 5D with a Red Rock stabilizer. And while she could theoretically shoot both stills and video with 5D, Rausser instinctively switches back to her Canon EOS 1D Mark III for stills. “Shooting with the 5D, you have to be thinking. But I love the Mark III and I’m so comfortable with it. I can take pictures without thinking.”

She did the entire shoot—stills and video—using available light. The 5D’s low light capabilities made that possible. “I didn’t have to think about HMIs [hot video lighting]. That made it a lot easier and less expensive,” she says.  She also worked with her usual crew, including a digital tech and two photo assistants, a wardrobe stylist, a prop stylists, and a baby wrangler. The stylists both had an assistant of their own.

According to the art director, one of the biggest challenges for still photographers is getting the color balance right with video. “The light has to be spot on, because it’s hard to correct it” in post production, he explains.

One of her assistants, Shawn Corrigan, helped Rausser manage the color balance and other technical details of the video shoot. And it was particularly challenging because Rausser was switching back and forth between different scenarios, rather than completing each one before starting the next. (The reason was because state laws and the kids’ attention spans limit the amount of time they can be on set.)

“Shawn made sure any take we did in the afternoon tied into the takes we had done in the morning, when the light was different,” Rausser says. Corrigan also fielded requests on set from the post-production team. After the wrap, Rausser’s digital tech delivered the video files unedited to the agency, which sent them to a post production house. The art director explains that the agency prefers to handle post production because it gives them more control over what the final production will look like. “It’s our vision in the end,” he says.

Rausser says she’s not interested in doing video production start to finish by herself, because it’s too complex.  “I went to an APA seminar on motion last March and people were saying, ‘Hire people to help you. Don’t expect to do everything,’” she explains.

Finding crew with video experience can be a challenge, she says. And technical skills aren’t the only issue. Shooting video for broadcast requires a producer that knows all the ins and outs of the Screen Actors Guild rules. Other crew members have to know the protocols of video. Rausser’s baby wrangler, who often talks to babies while Rausser is shooting stills, was talking to a baby while she was shooting video and inadvertently distracting it. “It kept ruining my take,” Rausser says. “Everyone has to retrain themselves [for video].”

One of her mistakes, she says, was not taking Corrigan’s advice about using more selective focus in the vignette featuring the boy and his dog. “I was playing it safe. I wanted to make sure it was sharp for the client. But at the end, where it shows the boy holding his dog, everything is a little bit too in focus.”

But Rausser considers those mistakes as part of her education and transition, and she’s moving forward as fast as she can. As this story was going to press she was working on a new combination production for Target, and was close to landing a broadcast production for a kids’ shoe company. “I’ve been the director of photography on every job so far, but I’ll be hiring two DP’s for that. It will be a step above anything I’ve ever done.”

A selection of Rausser's video production are available on the motion section of her Web site.