SternRep: How many times have you shot with Beats?

Shaughn and John: We’ve shot 8 campaigns for Beats.

SR: When was your first time shooting with them?

S+J: We started shooting with Beats in 2016.  We originally got brought on to capture behind the scenes stills for Beats One Radio.  We did a ton of quick shoots with them for that and got to photograph people like Beck, Kid Cudi, Pharrell and a bunch of others.

S+J: However, the first real campaign we shot for them was a 4 day shoot (3 days in LA and 1 day in New York) near the end of 2016.  The campaign was for a new series of wireless headphones including the Beats X, which were a brand new design and involved a lot of secrecy and security on set.  It was the biggest shoot we had done up until that point in our career and it was an exhilarating experience working directly with the Beats team and the creatives from Anomaly.  The cherry on top was when Apple featured our photos in the keynote presentation that coincided with the release of the Apple AirPods as well as the Beats headphones that we photographed.

SR: Why do you like working with them?

S+J: We like working with the team at Beats because they are a great client who has given us countless opportunities, traveling the world to photograph some of the coolest technology being made today.  They really care about their products and they pour themselves completely into every project, making sure that the message is clear and consistent with the brand. 

SR: What image was the most fun for you to shoot?

S+J: Although all of the shoots we’ve done with them have been fun, there is one that always stands out in our minds.  At the beginning of 2019 Beats hired us to photograph the Japanese pop star Daoko in Tokyo.  We flew to Japan with a small crew, immediately gorged ourselves on sushi and ramen, then pulled off a successful shoot in the streets of Tokyo.  Upon returning to LA the Beats team asked if we had any illustrators to recommend for an illustration they were planning to add on top of the photos we had just captured.  We explained that we both have experience with illustration and painting and would love a chance to execute the illustration portion of the project.  In the end we worked back and forth with the Creative Director at Beats to complete the final images which were used on billboards and on the sides of buildings in Tokyo. 

SR: Any locations that stand out to you?

S+J: We’ve worked with Beats in Beijing, Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles.  Traveling to Beijing, China was quite the experience.  Adjusting to the change in language, culture, food, air quality and time zone were all factors that made it even more important for us to stay focused on the task at hand.  In the end we were able to capture all the images we needed as well as sing some classic 90’s hits in an underground karaoke bar with the client and crew.

SR: A lot of these images have a fitness element, is that something you enjoy shooting?

S+J: We love shooting fitness because it requires capturing movement and action which is always an exciting challenge.  Collaborating with athletes, be it skateboarders, kickboxers, marathon runners, or yoga instructors, we get to learn about their world and strive to capture it authentically.  Beats products are often geared towards people on-the-go which means shooting campaigns that showcase movement within a still frame while not losing sight of the product itself.  With a million variables at play it can become a complicated puzzle to solve.  I think that is where we really thrive, in the middle of the chaos, working directly with our client, solving complex problems on the fly and making compelling images.

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