How we work · Visual Utopia

We start here

Every job begins with 3 questions:

What do we photograph?
What do we build from existing assets?
What do we make from nothing?

The capture-first method

Our signature way of working is to photograph real people, products, and places. Imagine a traditional shoot stripped to its core. The budget may lose a zero or two, but the essential creative decision makers collaborate like always: art directors, set designers, wardrobe stylists, and so on.

We produce a library of assets on the schedule of a scout and fitting. Then we develop your dream deliverables.

Expand to see the process in 5 steps.

Step 1 · The shoot

Real people in a real room

The shoot prioritizes real talent and those irreplaceable creatives whose ideas shape the look and feel of a campaign. We capture portraits and all elements we’ll need to build from later.

Step 2 · The people

Three lights, three backgrounds, every expression

Multiple cameras fire wirelessly at the same instant, each with its own angle, focal length, lighting, and background. Every expression from the talent lands in three different setups at once. A session that would normally take three rounds of shooting happens in one. The result is a complete human portrait library.

Step 3 · The library

Every variable captured and catalogued

We painstakingly record the talent’s unique characteristics for authenticity, and every costume option for flexibility. We also shoot products at this stage. Then we keyword the data for easy building in the next step.

A digital character, built from the sitting

Step 4 · The characters

Digital characters built and ready

Now it’s time to test different imaging models and build a stable character. We work with open-weight models on local machines. Nothing goes online. The photography and the client’s materials stay in a closed system.

Step 5 · The output

Storyboard to finished art, fast

The puzzle pieces are in place, so let’s play. Final creative happens in software, so concepts can keep evolving after the shoot wraps. We put decades of retouching experience to work and deliver cohesive, finely finished stills and motion.

Places work the same way

If the authenticity of your setting matters, let’s photograph it. For our Marathon case study, we started from Andrea Fremiotti’s library of Iceland photos.

A glacier in Iceland, Andrea Fremiotti, 2011

Margo runs the moraine beside the glacier, a frame from Her Personal Marathon

The first image is Andrea’s photo of a glacier. The second is a frame from the campaign, built from it: the same white ice and dark rubble on the diagonal, with our runner, Margo, in the scene.

Using an existing photo library or shooting a new one solves licensing, too.

The all-A.I. method

Need a unique character or spokesperson built from the ground up? A fantasy landscape? We can create it in the same closed offline system.

Our pharma case study provides an example of an all-A.I. production.

See the process behind this all-A.I. case study

How we collaborate

FLO, our custom communications platform, organizes work and enables the committee-style creation and approval process commercial jobs need.

Here are just a few of FLO’s features:

Privacy: every asset made and stored on our own machines
Markup tools and comment boxes for change requests
Client freedom to describe simple changes and receive a sketch in minutes
Storyboards for building motion pieces

FLO: a storyboard shot with its first and last frame

How our clients benefit

We enable smaller, faster, more flexible shoots. And with our capture-first method, individual creatives win, too. Here’s how.

Lean productions. A library of custom assets without the crew of a full shoot, and shot on the schedule of a scout and fitting.

Shot anywhere. Minimal lighting, locations that don't have to be perfect, large-scale production results with the low-key setup of an in-home editorial.

Shot any time. Before layouts are locked, around talent and location availability.

Decided later. Final creative happens in software, after the shoot, so approvals can be faster and virtual.

Privacy ensured. We work in a “walled garden.” Assets are generated, trained, and stored on our own machines.

Roles maintained. Real talent, crew, and other creatives continue to be hired and credited.