Two productions around Capco show very different forms of company culture. At the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge a company team stood at the center of a mass event. The Christmas event, by contrast, concentrated on encounter, on the room and on an elaborately staged lighting mood.
The two occasions call for almost opposite ways of working, and that is what makes them interesting as a pair.
Finding one team inside a mass event
At a race with very many participants, the preparation decides whether the team in question is found reliably at all. The starting block, the position along the course and the color of the shirts have to be known in advance.
Without those details the reportage turns into a search, and the chance of catching the right people falls with every minute. It is the rare case in which most of the photographic work is logistics.
The moments at the finish say the most, when effort, joy and the feeling of a team become directly visible. The film is in the project Capco – J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge.
Projected light needs a raised position
The Christmas event asked for a quieter visual language. Guests, a decorated tree and projected snowflakes shaped the room.
Frames made from a raised position showed the projection as one coherent design element and kept it from looking like random spots of light on people’s faces. Photographed at eye level a projection like that reads as interference; from above the pattern it actually is becomes legible.
The film is under Capco Xmas.
Two occasions, two approaches
Together the projects show how company events demand a completely different photographic and cinematic approach depending on the occasion.
The race cannot be planned and has to be prepared for. The Christmas party can be planned and has to be observed. Treating both the same way loses one of them.
Related work is under video production.
