About Us
Primary Pictures is one of Atlanta’s most experienced production companies. We create original programming, commercials, corporate films, and interactive media. We provide our clients with creative vision and dependable experience to create stunning films. Award-winning Director/DP Rod Paul and the Primary team have shot all over the world in every acquisition format, from 70mm film to HD. Our work includes HD documentaries for clients like PBS and Discovery Channel, and commercials and corporate films for clients world-wide, like Coca-Cola, UPS, and the CDC. Read more about us->
Primary Pictures can provide all levels of production, from shooting, editing to complete production. We work with talented free-lancers from all over the world, for project-specific services like writing, music, graphics, design or what ever is required.
Our world-class AVID edit suite offers uncompressed HD editing and color correction.
Primary Pictures has produced hundreds of commercials, both regional and national, winning many of the industry's highest awards. We work in both live-action and graphic-driven styles. Director Rod Paul has also worked with dozens of celebrities and CEO's. We have done many spots for the Healthcare industry, with clients like Emory Healthcare, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Humana Healthcare, Promina Healthcare, and many hospitals throughout the South.
Original Programming
We also produce original documentary content that is engaging and real. Our work over the past ten years has included programs on fossil discoveries in Africa the political crisis in Haiti, the drug war in Colombia, dirt-track racing in the southeastern United States, and many other subjects. We look for entertaining and visually compelling subjects, and our shows have gotten high ratings and received excellent reviews in the national press. Our documentaries include: "Crisis in the Keys" (National Geographic), "Discovering Ardi" (Discovery Channel), "Roots of Racing" (Discovery Channel), "Failing Haiti" (PBS), "Worm Warriors" (Poder360/In-production), and "The Forgotten War" (In production").Corporate videos
We have over thirty years of experience producing corporate content for clients like Coca-Cola, UPS, Emory Healthcare, the CDC, and Wyeth Pharmeceuticals. We have produced dozens of image and product-specific videos, as well as client videos such as patient guides for Healthcare patients.Healthcare – spots and videos for hospitals and healthcare organizations.
Nurse recruiting at Parkland Memorial Hospital – 2 videos, and image spot campaigns as well. CDC – numerous projects, the most memorable being the 13 spot “Understanding Aids” campaign, directed by Rod Paul. This campaign was, at the time, the most successful PSA campaign in television. We’ve done other spots and videos for them as well. Partnership for a Drugfree America – our spot, created by Rudy Fernandez, aired nationally and received many awards. Literally dozens of hospital image and specialty spots/campaign for hospitals around the US. We understand the unique challenges of working in and around hospitals.Difficult, distant, exotic, and complex productions…
We’ve shot at locations around the globe for both television and corporate clients. Many of these locations we extremely remote, and projects required not only great production ingenuity, but special gear, like cranes, jib arms, helicopter mounts, time lapse cameras, and lighting in places many miles (or kilometers) from any electricity. We once flew a helicopter and nose mount 800 miles from Nairobi to Northeastern Ethiopia for a week –long shoot. Other than the obvious, this required not only a mass of permits, but also arranging for the only fuel truck in the country to relocate across the country to the desert location – all this in the middle of an air war between Ethiopia and Somalia. The footage looked great… And also: many of trips to Haiti, some in the midst of the rebellion following Aristide’s ouster; locations through Colombia including choppering in a Huey throughout the front where the battle against the FARC guerillas was being waged; hiking through the most remote Amazon rain forest; slogging through knee deep garbage at the Bangkok city dump in the midst of driving rain; and hiking up a ski slope in 3’ of deep snow with an 85lb. 70mm camera at the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. If it’s far away, complicated or expensive, we can find a way to do it.Motion Graphics
We offer 3D and compositing services for most kinds of production. Capabilities include 3D scanning, 3D modeling and animation, and compositing. Our recent work on the Discovery Channel two hour soecial, "Discovering Ardi," featured over 15 minutes of motion graphics and animation. Depending on the project needs, we work with a talented group of freelancers and graphics artists worldwide.Editing/Finishing
Our high end AVID edit suite offers uncompressed HD editing from any camera format. Our integrated Baselight color correction system gets the best image from every frame. All digital material we create is brought into a 20+ terabytes RAID-protected system with original elements backed up on LTO. The AVID offers digital mastering in every industry standard broadcast format , for the web, and for custom Blu-ray and DVD authoring.Recent Projects
GRTA
Georgia Regional Transit Authority is trying to encourage commmuters to leave their cars outside the Perimeter and travel to work by bus, connecting with Marta. This spot is the most recent in a number we've done in support of mass transit and toll lanes to improve the commute for Atlantans. The spot highlights the unexpected comforts of today's bus experience. Agency is Creative Outhouse in partnrship with Porter Novelli.
Ride with Respect
Primary Pictures worked with MARTA to promote its' new "Ride with Respect" Campaign. We provided end-to-end production services, including filming with celebrities Jeff Foxworthy, Ludacris, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Kevin Willis, the Atlanta Dream, Kenny Leon, and Judith Martinez. Read more about the campaign at MARTA's website.
Martin and Zimmerman
An incredibly fun and challenging assignment from HLN (part of CNN): produce dramatic footage to accurately convey the sights and sounds in play the night of the Trayvon Martin shooting – minus the confrontation. We ”rented” a subdivision, brought in lights, cameras, and our own rain. Client specs demanded that actors, props, and locations were as accurate as possible, down to the make and model of shoes and cars. The shoot wrapped as the first light from dawn appeared.
Urban Bowhunters
Urban Bowhunters is a new documentary project being developed by our good friend Jonathan Wickham, an Atlanta-based writer/producer. Jonathan has collaborated with us on a number of shows and is helping as we finish our show on the drug war in Colombia. The Urban Bowhunters trailer required dramatic images to help convey the unusual subject. Rod and Andy had good time working with the new 4K cameras and the two bowhunters were great to work with. We look forward to seeing this project heading into production before long.
Project: Recover (Thailand) // Coca-Cola
This video was shot in Thailand for Coca-Cola, through agency Creative Outhouse highlighting one of Coca-Cola’s global sustainability programs. The shoot took the crew through parts of Bangkok’s inner city not visited by tourists, and even to the city dump, then on to locations further north. Dir/Dp Rod Paul rode through Bangkok’s famous traffic in the side basket of a motors scooter.
What Would You Do? // HLN
CNN network HLN asked our friends at The UpThink Lab to produce some promos for a new series WWYD? As the project evolved Primary was brought in to provide production support and live-action direction. The four spots involved over 40 actors and extras in four separate shooting locations, with only five days of pre-production. The shoot went smoothly and post was done in Primary’s edit suite.
Suriname Postcard
Primary Pictures is developing a series on the world’s forests, starting with a one-hour show on Suriname’s rain forests. During this first shoot we went to one of the most remote and dense rain forests in the world – one of the biggest challenges was simply getting there. We used a variety of cameras and techniques, including time-lapse and aerial sequences. Much time and energy was spent walking with gear through the rain forest, and waiting for the rare moments when the rain stopped long enough for us to film.
Discovering Ardi // Discovery Channel
This two-hour Special documents one of the most historic discoveries in human origins, and the fifteen-year process leading to its front-page announcement. Filming took place on three continents over a five-year span. Primary crews traveled to the remote Ethiopian desert four times, working out of tents and Land Cruisers in the three-digit heat. Other locations included Tokyo, and laboratories across the U.S. research took place. Sophisticated motion capture and extensive 3D cgi helped tell the dramatic story of how the fossil skeleton was finally reassembled. Primary produced all elements of the complex production and all in secrecy until the first public announcement. Discovery site
3 Spots // Emory Healthcare
Primary Pictures has produced many projects for Emory Healthcare, this one through agency Creative Outhouse for Emory Vision’s laser surgery center. Bringing in cameras, lights and dollies into the surgical suites was a challenge, as was the dark environment necessary for laser surgery. Primary handled all production through post.
