Timberland Pro — Andy Maser, Director + DP

The brief from the agency was to inspire people to enter the trades. What we found when we got on location was something more specific than inspiration. We found people whose whole identity had been shaped by the work they chose with their hands.

Our team filmed with five tradespeople across the country: a general contractor who found his way out of a gang through construction, a sheet metal worker who discovered purpose after incarceration, a former beauty pageant winner who became a welder, a one-time rock musician who now mills his own lumber, and a biologist who realized the lab wasn't for her and went back to her climbing roots by rappelling down the sides of skyscrapers to wash windows. Each had a story that predated the trade and a life that couldn't be imagined without it. Each was damn fun to spend a day with.

I chose to both direct and shoot this campaign myself to facilitate more intimate access with the subjects. I was supported by a brilliant AC and a lighting team to help shape the vision (when not hanging off the side of a building)

The campaign led with a visual anthem and was supported by individual documentary-style portraits of each subject. That anthem and three of those portraits are above.