TALLGRASS PICTURES

If there’s one thing Tallgrass loves, it’s coffee. There’s...

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:40:49 -0700

If there’s one thing Tallgrass loves, it’s coffee. There’s nothing better than coming into the studio and filling up your favorite mug with a big cup of caffeinated goodness. Hence, panic struck in everyone’s hearts when the news spread…The coffee maker was out of order.

We contemplated all possible substitutions. Tea. Red bull. 5 hour energy. None came close to our true craving, but we bravely carried on. (And by carried on, I mean there was a Starbucks run.)

The team was fading slowly, trying to use grapes for glucose & pump 80s jams to raise our energy levels. It wasn’t until 4 pm that JB asked us: “Guys, don’t you know there’s another coffee pot? It’s on top of the fridge.”

The moral of the story is…You learn something new every day!

Jenny and Beau have made some major headway on Tallgrass’ newest...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:00 -0700

Jenny and Beau have made some major headway on Tallgrass’ newest project: an animated short film. They’ve been hard at work turning the idea into reality today through some rough sketches that will lead us into the animatic phase.

Here’s the plot…The tale is set in an elementary school classroom, but we find ourselves in a World War II like battle when a paper airplane fued transforms into a 2D B-52 attack between the fighter pilot of love and the Japanese zeros. “War: a Love Story” is something very new for Tallgrass. We enjoy trying new things, so this new animated short film is raising the excitement of the studio…this is something you don’t want to miss!

wonderfulmachine: View from the top. Photo by Jeffrey Lamont...

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:46:56 -0700

wonderfulmachine:

View from the top. Photo by Jeffrey Lamont Brown

The Tallgrass team has been hit with a bad case of puppy love....

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:00 -0700

The Tallgrass team has been hit with a bad case of puppy love. Two of our team members adopted puppies over the weekend, and we were pumped to have them join us in the studio today.

These two new additions to the Tallgrass family are Ada and Olive. Ada’s a social one; her hobbies include cuddling on peoples’ laps and playing with her toy dinosaur. Olive is a little more on the shy side; she’s sweet as can be and can usually be found by her owner’s side. One simply cannot help but smile when seeing either of these two darlings.

With puppies in the studio, our working environment is just that much more enjoyable. They say that a happy worker is a productive worker, and with these pups here, we’re elated. So watch out world, Tallgrass is about to take things to a whole new level!

We’ve been long awaiting having lunch with our friends at...

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:46:00 -0700

We’ve been long awaiting having lunch with our friends at I.D.E.A. It’s been a very busy time for both parties, so we were excited when we finally found a date that worked. We just finished our second day of shooting for Huntington Beach Tourism yesterday, and what better way to celebrate than having a potluck?

In preparation, the Tallgrass team came together to create a mouth-watering menu. All of the team’s different cultures came out on the table. There was everything from Southern boudin to Greek salad to tiramisu. Gavin brought party crackers, a British party favor in which two people pull at either end and the winner gets the prize inside. After we ate, everybody ended up in the colorful crowns hidden in the crackers. This quickly led to a highly energized photo shoot, props and fake mustaches included!

Why go through so much effort for one lunch? We love to stay in touch people in the industry. We’ve been privileged in the companies we’ve worked with, but it’s the one-on-one interactions that make us go above and beyond!

Guess who drew crowds all over Huntington Beach yesterday? If...

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:00:00 -0700

Guess who drew crowds all over Huntington Beach yesterday? If you were thinking it was Tallgrass Pictures flying drone helicopters to and fro on the downtown strip, you would be right. We had the privilege of shooting commercial footage, care of Surf City USA, and it was blast! In this, our second shoot shoot in Huntington Beach we highlighted the other more professional side of the renown surf city. It was a beautifully long and sunny day, full of unexpected challenges but we always triumphantly pull through.

Honestly, it’s pretty hard to have a bad time in Huntington Beach when we’re all out there doing what we love to do. In addition to the fun and sunshine, we got a chance to work with awesome talent, Noel and Josh: our heli-cam cinematographer and pilot, and our wonderful clients: John and Briton from Surf City USA. All in all it was a fantastic shoot, and we got some great footage that we can’t wait to share!

Saturday was none other than JB’s 46th b-day. Friday we brought...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:33:00 -0700

Saturday was none other than JB’s 46th b-day. Friday we brought in a classic Cookie Monster cake to celebrate the occasion & dye our tongues blue!

Today the festivities continued when we implemented our secret mission with one objection: to decorate JB’s office as insanely as possible.

We converted his chair into a throne of crazy colors, covered the floor in balloons that had funny messages written on them, then we had strobe lights flashing at maximum capacity, the mission was deemed successful by JB’s first reaction, ” HOLY $#@! I got glitter bombed!!”

The final aspect of our endeavor? A little birdie told us that Jeffrey has some interest in photography. We wanted support his interest in the hobby, so we found him the perfect gift… a disposable Kodak camera! Complete with film! :)

We're excited that Brandtailers has awarded us another shoot for Palm Springs Ford Motors!

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:48:49 -0700

Looking forward to collaborating with Kate Szalay again, and of course, Dane and Cheril!

We are Family! I got JB, Tallgrass, and Britney!

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Today we welcomed a new member to the Tallgrass Team, our new creative marketing assistant, Britney! With a background in marketing, photography and graphic design, this enthusiastic lady is going to bring a lot to the table. (Literally; on Friday she’s cooking her first family lunch for the team!)

Fun facts about Britney: If there’s one things she loves, it’s lions. If there’s one thing she loves more, it’s Beyonce. :)

Jeffrey, Gavin & Tsukuru journeyed to Las Vegas last week to...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:40:00 -0700

Jeffrey, Gavin & Tsukuru journeyed to Las Vegas last week to attend the NAB Show, an event boasting ten city blocks of the latest broadcasting technologies. This industry is always changing, and Tallgrass loves keeping up to date on the new and exciting developments. (As you can tell from the video, these innovations really bring out the inner-children in Gavin & Tsukuru.)

Some of the favorites Jeffrey highlights in the report include the Red Dragon 6K Sensors, the green friendly LED Lights that produce amazing quality for very little energy and the increased energies of digital workflows. And of course, as you’ve seen on our blog, the helicopter drones that we’ve recently introduced in our regime!

Here at Tallgrass, we’re constantly looking for ways to...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:30:00 -0700

Here at Tallgrass, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve in every facet of every department. Part of that improvement is investing in new technology, new methodology, and the top notch training by leading experts.

Our marketing director, Aly Bucholz, just returned from a 3 day seminar program in Grapevine, TX where she filled up on knowledge of new marketing strategies and sales techniques that she’s ready to share with the team. With this new found knowledge, we intend on enhancing out outreach skills and better satisfying the needs of our clients.

One of our interns, a current student at San Diego State, was...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:46:00 -0700

One of our interns, a current student at San Diego State, was power walking to class when she spotted something unexpected. It was the cover story on the front page of the Daily Aztec, the university’s newspaper. She had seen this work before, here at Tallgrass Pictures as a matter of fact!

The Mars Rover commercial featuring the alumni of SDSU was a national spot Tallgrass Pictures proudly released this year. The article says that “our students go big places and do big things”. That was the intended message, and we’re thrilled to see the school and its students proud to air our commercial!

Over the weekend Tallgrass Pictures had the privilege of working...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Over the weekend Tallgrass Pictures had the privilege of working with Scott Phillips and Donna Mulgrew of Agency 51 producing a shoot for Burbank Hospitality Association. This dynamic shoot intended to give you the best of “the town behind the tinsel”. With that idea in mind, two teams set out on this 2 day shoot and shot 27 locations exploring unique Burbank experiences such as their downtown art fair with incredible sidewalk masterpieces and their annual Monster Palooza!

Despite working with great people, in beautiful places, good vibes are no match for bad weather. Ultimately, we were able to retreat indoors during the worst of it, and with a little post production no will believe a cloud ever passes over Southern California. And next Tuesday (4/23) we will be back to do all over again, this time with talent in studio, so stay tuned!

Agency 51 Awards Tallgrass Pictures Production Contract for Burbank Tourism

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Last week our studio was one person short due to a case of the...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:56:00 -0700

Last week our studio was one person short due to a case of the travel bug. Our creative marketing intern, Allison, headed off to Guatemala for spring break with a group of inspired SDSU students whose mission was to volunteer at an elementary school in a rural village.

They spent the week transforming the drab grey school into a declaration of gold and maroon, and compiling school supplies for 200 students. When they weren’t bringing color and joy to the children, Allison was exploring Guatemala, hiking ceremonial Mayan caves, zip lining through the forest and walking the cobblestoned streets of Antigua.

She came back rejuvenated from her amazing experience with the kids, sporting a tan and even more in love with guacamole!

The boys are in Las Vegas today, getting their geek on at the...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:05:00 -0700

The boys are in Las Vegas today, getting their geek on at the 2013 NAB Show! As you can see, they’re very excited to explore all the cool new tech devices out there and just discovered a box from black magic that converts 2D footage into 3D automatically!

The rest of us here at the studio anxiously await news updates and have our fingers crossed for new state-of-the-art gear. It feels like Christmas!

Tallgrass Pictures Documents Passover Seder

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:18:00 -0700

The Jewish Federation of North American assigned us with a very special assignment: to document photographs of Passover Seder for their website: jewishfederations.org

Seder is a religious ceremony and feast that marks the beginning of Passover, the Jewish holiday. But this isn’t just any-old family get together dinner - each piece of food in the meal is symbolic, and there’s a special ritual that celebrates the freedom of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.

For this ceremony, the Sisk family had their entire extended family over, which meant the house was packed full of life, laughter, and song. It wasn’t hard to capture a great moment with this family, and we managed to shoot over 2500 images in just 6 hours! It was a great experience and we were happy to collaborate with our friends at Jewish Federations of North America again - thanks for the great opportunity!

The Mustache Marvels are at it AGAIN! :) As we start the...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:29:00 -0700

The Mustache Marvels are at it AGAIN! :)

As we start the branding process of our new hot sauce, we realized that it was time for a new team photo for the label. So we’ve upgraded our new photo with our favorite element - mustaches!

Keep your eyes out for our new hot sauce labels coming soon…

Our behind the scenes video from HB tourism is finally available...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:12:00 -0700

Our behind the scenes video from HB tourism is finally available for your viewing pleasure! Check it out… there’s some sneak peaks of the actual spot in here! Shhh, don’t tell anyone ;)

Here it is!!! The SDSU Mars Landing :30TV spot, airing now...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:58:00 -0700

Here it is!!! The SDSU Mars Landing :30TV spot, airing now during SDSU sports games on ESPN. We had so much fun putting this production together, we can’t wait for the next SDSU spot! Thanks goes out to Jack Beresford and all those who helped make this commercial possible!