Photography

Keith Lane Photo Lecture Recap

August 26, 2009 August 26, 2009 CDIA was fortunate enough to have veteran creative director Keith Lane give a presentation and it proved to be quite an interesting evening. "There's nobody I enjoy working with more," said Rob Van Petten of Keith, and it was clear that he meant it. Much of the evening proved to be a frenetic game of musical microphones between Keith and Rob talking about how the industry used to be, how it's changed, and where it's going in the future. Keith's first slide was a loose (very loose) pencil layout of an ad campaign they worked on together in the 80's, complete with a demonic bear, a vaguely human outline of a woodsman, and notes like, "Can we do this? Got two days! Need: Crazy grizzly bear!" and "Gotta show the product!" He then went on to flesh out how they did indeed manage to pull it off in two days, and turn that crabbed scrawl into a successful nationwide ad campaign for Timberland shoes. Keith's wide-ranging clients have included Tom Mcan, Puma, Fox Sports, the American Red Cross, a council on anti-Semitism, and a Ukrainian vodka company. And he's won over 500 awards for his work. "Clients usually hail from Akron, Ohio and look like Drew Carry, even the women!" said Keith, and, "The most expensive part of any shoot is usually buying lunch for the client." He also said that often the client doesn't really know what they want, and it's the job of creative directors and photographers to educate them as to what they really need. Probably the most important point for photographers that Keith made during the presentation was that even in this day-and-age of Photoshop and mega-pixels is that the idea is still king. "Great ideas are free, but you own them." He also talked about the effect the economy has had on the industry, and stressed that more than ever the envelope needs to be pushed creatively, but cheaply. He gave an example of a Red Cross ad he did in an evening with a nonexistent budget and nothing but copy; sparingly little copy, in fact, and it showed what can be done with only one's imagination. Other advice he had for new photographers: "Use your brain - it's a gift. Use your heart, be passionate, and remember that the job is 24/7!" to which Rob added, "It also takes a lot of guts!" On shooting models he added that the photographer needs to create theater for the talent, meaning that the photographer needs to be writer, director, and producer for the shot, spinning the story to which the model/actor responds, which made me think that maybe I need to stick to still life for now. The evening ended with Keith discussing some modern trends like Facebook and YouTube, and how he has been using those platforms to promote his own work. When a technical glitch waylaid a YouTube video of one of his commercials, without missing a beat Keith proceeded to act out the commercial complete with Robin Williams-esque voice characterization. He then fielded some questions from students and faculty, and left us with the simple but powerful advice: "Never stop creating." Rob mentioned that he'd love to have Keith back, possibly teaching a module at CDIA, and if it happened after my time here is through it would certainly be one worthy of an audit. If you're interested in seeing some of Keith's commercials, you can watch them on YouTube under "Keith Lane Creative director," and check back here soon for an interview with Keith and Rob.