Cade Martin

Who printed it?
Classic Color outside of Chicago printed the Mercy Street Promo. Matt Parris, the creative we having been working with, recommended them. This was my first time working with Classic Color and would work with them again in a heartbeat. The printer, Matt Claybour, was very collaborative, friendly and interested in the project. We came to them with the idea for a newsprint promo and we ended up with a hybrid newspaper ‘style’ promo that had the look of a newspaper, but used a slightly heavier paper that held the ink better and kept it from rubbing off onto people’s hands.

Who designed it?
Parris is the designer and art director of the Mercy Street promotional piece. We were introduced to Matt through a mutual colleague at the agency he works at in Chicago. Matt has been amazing to work with – lots of energy, great ideas and it’s been a joy to collaborate.

Who edited the images?
My agents, Kate Chase & Matt Nycz, at Brite Productions and I edited the images together. We started with nineteen final Mercy Street portraits and narrowed it down to six. It’s always difficult to edit it down and a lot of times you can’t just pick your favorites. You can start with your favorite images and expressions, but it comes down to the rhythm of the pages and how well the images work together.

How many did you print?
We printed 3,500 promos. We customize the list for each promotional piece sent out and there is always the balance of the printing and mailing costs when arriving at the final number you’d like to print.
How many times a year do you send out promos?
We send out printed promotional pieces four or five times a year. This seems to be a nice number and the right amount of outreach to keep the work in front of art producers and creatives without overwhelming their mailboxes.

Why did you choose this project to feature in your promos?
I love to send out images that are close to my heart and from projects that I have really enjoyed. For promotional campaigns, we feature either a series of images from one project or it could be just one isolated image. But I always want to put out images that mean something to me and are not based on trying to guess what someone else might want to see.

How did this promo develop?
I was hired to shoot the series portraits for Mercy Street, a new Ridley Scott produced PBS and BBC TV Series set in the Civil War. I have a lifetime interest in film and character and was very excited to be a part of this project. My idea was to create a uniquely textured and modern scene that complemented the period-piece subjects to help get them into character and to show the rich, multi-layered stories.