Don Cherel, the founder and director/producer with DCP Productions, created the iconic Motorcycle Money Man for commercial client GEICO, along with spots for Planet Fitness, the Washington Nationals MLB team and the Washington Capitals NHL team. Now DCP Productions, like their mobile GEICO creation, itself is ready to go on the road, with a fly-pack rig that will let it shoot, record, edit, and mix on location, vastly increasing the boutique shop’s productivity while giving it access to new sights, sounds and talent. And that road rig, like DCP Productions’ six-room video and audio production facility in Baltimore, was sourced with a combination of technology and expertise provided by Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users.
Eight-year-old DCP Productions’ business model is predicated on Cherel’s “concept to completion” notion, which enables clients to work with one entity for concept creation; original music creation; and pre-, field- and post-production. “By simply eliminating the layers of multiple companies in the advertising development process, DCP is able to create content and transform it into quality advertising media much less expensively and faster than traditional ad agencies,” Cherel explains. “That savings is passed on to the client.”
The new mobile rig, which tackles its first official project in July for the next GEICO campaign, is made up of two 12-space racks that hold gear including a Universal Audio® Apollo high-resolution interface, an Avid Pro Tools system with Thunderbolt connectivity, an Avid MC Mix controller, an API 550 EQ, Crane Song Falcon compressor and two Rupert Neve Designs 542 tape emulators.
All of this equipment was sourced through GC Pro account manager Mitch Shaivitz at GC Pro’s Baltimore-area office. The mobile rig’s make-up grew from Shaivitz’s conversations with Cherel about what the producer/director wanted to accomplish. “I called up Mitch and said, ‘Here’s what I want to do,’ and he came back with equipment suggestions that matched our workflow at the studio,” Cherel explains. “This mix of equipment and systems really make the mobile rig an extension of the studio – our workflow remains the same on the road and in the studio, so the end product is totally consistent.
“Every product choice was well thought-out. With the exception of cameras and lenses, virtually every piece of equipment we have, in the studio and on the road, came through GC Pro. They have the products and the expertise. But mostly, they get what we’re trying to do.”
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