“We are all being presented with shorter turn arounds, with less and less time to organize our shoots; to pull off what many times might seem impossible.”
Richard Gaul and Scott Davis, Founders of Planet PrePro
By Missy Hunter
It is our goal to keep tabs on the industry, to stay relevant and always think about what’s next. When we know of a company or person who is breaking new ground, we want to share! Technological advances in this day and age, make our lives less complicated as well as ask, “How did I survive without this?” When it comes to production, Planet PrePro is one of those companies looking to solve problems that need solving. Often, they have been able to make projects go more quickly and with less budget – with technology. Their latest offering is an augmented reality app which allows users to add a vehicle into a shot on location and in real-time, an added-value tool certain to be coveted by many.
We sat down with our production partners Richard Gaul and Scott Davis, founders of Planet PrePro, to get a feel for how their company came about, what challenges they face today, and what they see in the road ahead.
They’ve been in a photographer’s shoes in the past.
Before being producers, both Richard and Scott were on the photography side of the business, seeing first-hand, the cumbersome nature of scouting, project management, and production books in the production process. They combined forces to create a production company with technology intertwined every step of the way.
A production company evolving industry standards, creating transformative tools
Planet PrePro is a production company seeking to provide a better experience for their clients. What started as a production company who used their website to track their projects and communicate with clients, has grown to become a production company offering a better experience who also goes above and beyond by providing value in tools others can use. Planet PrePro developed online project management tools to be used with their own projects but soon opened these tools up, for a fee, to be used by other production companies. To date, the services developed by Planet PrePro, and offered to clients are location and talent databases, an iPad talent casting app and smartphone production books.
Planet PrePro has also developed, offering for free in the app store, PPP Scout – a location scouting iOS app, PPP Expenses – an app tracking production expenses, PPP Miles – an app recording mileage and generating mileage invoices, PPP PC – an app tracking petty cash expenses, and now the PPP AR app – Inserting 3D vehicles in location images.
Augmented reality isn’t just for entertainment.
Having developed an app which provides location scouting with augmented reality means Planet PrePro cleared the latest hurdle of needing to see vehicles in locations right then and there. A user can choose between vehicle types, vehicle positioning, color, angle, reflections, and lighting. This latest advancement sets a new bar in the industry.
Click here to see how the Augmented Reality app works
The road ahead is a long, twisting journey.
If you’ve looked at the entertainment industry lately, you’d know that augmented reality has legs. Stay tuned for the next edition of Planet PrePro AR, incorporating up to four people into a scene, to be used for lifestyle projects. In addition, we all know photographers are regularly creating both stills and motion. In line with the rapidly changing industry, Planet PrePro sees an app integrating motion in the not-so-distant future.