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Content Creation Partner
March 29, 2007
By Pat Hunt
Jack Hollingsworth is a top commercial image producer and Content Creation Partner. He plays a key role, both day-by-day as well as strategically for this changing era of stock photography. What does it mean to be a content creation partner compared to a stock photographer?
The Difference
A Content Creation Partner produces and delivers:
- a higher volume
- higher value
- faster, smarter, cheaper time-to-market
- one-stop-shop performance
- Completely staffed (They provide pre-production, production and post- production services which separates them from individuals/small shooters.
-"They do it all!"
JackHollinsworth.com works out of four worldwide offices and has a proven track record of success in the stock sales arena. Truly, another new class of image creation. 'Jack and company' don't work FOR agencies; they work WITH them to produce the imagery that fully fits today's market needs.
The Experience
A long and successful history shooting for stock imagery has brought him to this point in his career. He is no longer considered to be a contributing photographer for royalties, or even a full production company which feeds a chain of distributors. Jack considers his business, JackHollingsworth.com, to be a full content creation partner with any alliance he cultivates. His success to date provides him with a 7,500 square foot studio headquartered in Austin Texas. From that southwestern cornerstone emanates a global media company that draws Jack and his creative staff to locations all over the world. Jack has become a Content Creation Partner for companies who require high quality, culturally diverse images of contemporary lifestyle ranging across the planet.
The New Business Model
What does this mean in today's corporate business atmosphere of publicly owned companies, lightening speed technology changes, and powerful new international markets? There are several keywords and phrases that label his business model:
(To quote Jack)
"Think globally and shoot internationally."
"Control internal creative intelligence."
"Brand major collections."
"Talk to customers."
"Invite comparison and foster speed to market."
"Have total creative control over shoot briefs, visual style and editing."
This is the definition of a multi-national, multi-office, well staffed production company that maintains a leadership role in industry innovation. Emanating from JackHollingsworth.com is a balanced portfolio of revenue models that encompass traditional royalty free (RF) and rights managed (RM) imagery, along with attacking the new wholly owned model with a vengeance. 'Jack and company' don't work FOR agencies; they work WITH them to produce the imagery that fully fits today's market needs.
In addition to that he creates growth equity by owning and marketing his own labels, which presage the ad content of the future, and offer lucrative niches into a growing industry segment. Recently launched, but already popular, are his Photosindia.com and Redchopsticks.com. These additions to the Hollingsworth network are located in New Delhi and Singapore. These bring Indian and Asian lifestyle collections to a market that commands double digit annual growth and modern economic boom in ethnic areas of the globe. Also, launching now is 40260.com (forty to sixty), highlighting the lifestyle of a growing population enjoying the most disposable income. All of these brands are creative and beautifully conceived, employing the top notch digital techniques and the broad rights of RF production.
A Day in the Life
A day of shooting with Jack and crew at his resort-like Cape Cod studio further affirms his almost frenetic commitment to content creation - at all levels, all ages, all different ethnicities, and across all distribution models. Shooting on the Cape is a joyous and whirlwind affair. Jack was born on Cape Cod and passionately returns to that familiar territory every summer to renew his senses, enjoy life, and produce more dynamic imagery. The crew contains his wife and two daughters, 9 and 5, who act as creative directors and spiritual promoters. Then come the stylist, producer, asset manager, casting director and camera assistant, each with a vital role to play. According to Jack, the crew and family all "crash" in his Cape house for four weeks of production and fun to escape his Austin Texas headquarters' summer heat.
That day's production was at an elegant Chatham resort, and probably the Cape's most beautiful ocean setting. Preproduction to secure the location was completed before summer even started, and the day's models were enjoying the beach, the dining and the pool, all with the markets of BlendImages.com in mind. Jack is a partner in that company, which acts as a distribution portal for his content featuring multi-ethnic lifestyle. According to the stylist, "If the photographer is uptight, the models can sense it. Everybody wants to work with Jack." He can coax the best production from whatever is available.
As for workflow, Jack says, "I have a love/hate relationship with story boards. I am at the point where I am responsible for my own shot list. I've tried to delegate that process, but it's really difficult, as I can't find someone who thinks like me with my design sense."
While shooting he works with Canon Mark II digital equipment and moves at lightening speed, never struggling too intensely over one shot or location. "The location, the talent and the wardrobe inspires me, and it doesn't come to me until I'm right there on the spot." Constantly swapping out people, clothing and locations, they take more than the normal number of breaks that day due to heat. His goal is to walk away with 200 tightly edited shots out of a possible 2000 captured. Jack claims that 80% of his Latino content is with Blend Images and half of that is produced outside of the borders of the US.
Jack shoots with Canon EOS Mark II (16mp) and a full complement of Canon lenses. His favorites are: 50/1.4, 80/1.8, 135/2.0, 200/2.8, 45+/5. He also uses Elinchrom Ranger kits and a Bogen tripod with a Cambo ball head. For post production he uses Macintosh G5's and Iview Pro editing software.
The Results
He warns, "We have shoots that bomb and contracts that bomb, but most of it's very positive. It's about working with people you like and trust. My business is strategic not tactical, and I'm having more fun at it every day. You will never get me to be regimented! My vision, mission, and passion is to propagate the stock genre of 'World Photography,' and to create marketable content faster, cheaper and smarter than the next guy."
The Future
In 2007, Jack and company will be on location shooting contemporary, indigenous lifestyles on four continents; in Mexico, Japan, Eastern Europe, and South Africa. These month-long self-funded foreign content shoots will produce four collections of tightly edited material of global lifestyles with over 5,000 images apiece. Jack Hollingworth will capture the essence of each location and the sense of the people who live there highlighting their faces, gestures and sense of pride. This is the professional that is Jack Hollingworth, accomplished World Photographer and definitively a Content Creator.
Hollingsworth's URL's are:
www.photosindia.net,
http://www.photosindia.net
www.redchopsticks.com,
www.40260.com.
(Pat Hunt is a writer and workshop leader for the stock photo industry, and Managing Director of Huntstock.com in Boston, a Royalty Free lifestyle production company. pat@huntstock.com)