Milkbox NY

When the client is a luxury resort we shot the desert landscape.

Our Black Desert Resort shoot was the biggest project we'd undertaken to date: full grip-and-electric team, a serious lighting package. It turned out to be a dry run for the China trip to come.

A different crew might have focused only on the luxury. We captured the feeling of being surrounded by the vast, elemental landscape.

Our DP Zac Mills put the idea plainly:

"The whole idea for BDR was like an ego rinse. The desert was the main character, basically. We always wanted to see outside."

So the desert never left the frame. Even the interiors kept the landscape visible, with depth instead of flat silhouettes, so you never forgot where you were.

It's the same instinct as a tight shot of someone's hands, scaled up to an entire desert: never lose the context.

The Black Desert Resort was the client, and the desert itself was the star.

https://milkboxny.com/bts/lets-just-go-milkbox-with-it

The best shots happen with nobody watching the monitor.

A lot of sets run on a "video village": a bank of monitors, a ring of chairs, a coffee machine, and the client weighing in on every frame.

We usually skip it.

Here's our DP Zac Mills on why:

"It certainly slows things down, and it can dilute the end result. A lot of those pieces end up just feeling like commercials, more than the human, down-to-earth, docu-style ad that Milkbox makes."

Our clients let the crew chase the in-between moments because, shoot after shoot, our approach delivers.

The nimbleness is what keeps the work human.

The trust is what keeps our approach nimble.

For Milkbox, it doesn't take a village.

https://milkboxny.com/bts/lets-just-go-milkbox-with-it



"Let's just go Milkbox with it"

Every crew has a shorthand.

When the room feels awkward and the clock is ticking down, someone on the Milkbox crew will say: "Let's just go Milkbox with it."

It's the recipe we've run enough times to know by heart.

Our DP Zac Mills describes the formula like a meal.

The ingredients: a heroic wide shot of a person against a window, a tighter portrait, whimsical shots of the hands, close-ups of the mouth and the eyes, and observational pieces shot with an almost childlike curiosity. Underneath all of it, anything textural and tactile.

That's the dish. The same ingredients create a unique feast for the eyes every time.

https://milkboxny.com/bts/lets-just-go-milkbox-with-it

Use the tools you’ve got: the Tai Ping factory Segway goes on set.

We had a shoot to finish, and fortunately the factory had a Segway.

When the Milkbox crew rolled into the Tai Ping production facility in Xiamen, a two-wheel self-balancing Segway was already parked on the studio floor. The factory staff used it to move between the tufting areas, yarn racks, and finishing bays.

By the time cameras were up, Tyler had turned it into a mobile dolly.

Camera held high, with a dancer’s balance, he drifted in slow arcs around a finished Tai Ping carpet while two artisans knelt to adjust the pile. No rails, no rigs, no track, just a factory scooter and a skilled camera operator.

Between setups, Janelle caught the question that really mattered, as Tyler rolled up with his camera rig: hasn’t her husband always wanted one of these?

You can plan a shot list. You can’t plan what’s already on the floor.

Use the tools you’ve got.

🎬 Setting up a multi-camera interview inside a Brooklyn studio covered in hand-painted murals.

We visited Callidus Guild in Brooklyn to sit down with Yolande Milan Batteau, whose handmade wall coverings have earned a devoted following among the world's top designers. Tai Ping commissioned her to create a collection that brings her painterly aesthetic to carpet, and we were there to capture the story behind the collaboration.

Her studio doubles as a gallery for her large-scale murals, which became the perfect backdrop for the interview. With samples of her work surrounding the set, every frame tells a story before a single word was spoken.

Building a three-camera interview in a working art studio takes coordination: positioning the key light without casting shadows on the murals, rigging diffusion panels around an easel-cluttered floor, and making sure the monitors show a composed frame against all that color.

Here's a look at how it came together:

→ The crew positions cameras and the key light as Janelle and Juliana look on, Yolande’s murals filling the backdrop
→ Yolande gets final touches before the interview, camera monitors glowing with the composed shot
→ Andrew conducts the interview while the crew captures from multiple angles, diffusion panels framing the set
→ The full team in front of Yolande's murals (R - L): Janelle, Tyler, Zac, Ed, Juliana, Yolande, Vincent, Andrew, and Henry

One artist's studio, one story to tell, and just enough room to fit the cameras between the murals.

🎬 Inside the Paris design studio of Pierre-Yves Rochon, where some of the world's finest hotel interiors begin.

Our Paris shoot brought us to the offices of Pierre-Yves Rochon, the legendary interior designer whose work graces hotels like the Four Seasons George V.

Tai Ping carpets are woven into his projects as carefully as every other finish he selects. We were there to capture how he thinks about materials, craft, and the details that define a space.

Rochon welcomed us into his private office first, surrounded by art and elegant furniture. The crew worked around the room's ornate layout, rigging diffusion panels between fiddle-leaf figs and designer chairs.

Then he walked us into his materials studio, where shelves of fabric samples, project archives, and flat file drawers lined the walls. This is where the real work happens, and where we set up for the interview.

Here's a look at the shoot:

→ Ed and Zac in conversation in the designer's private office, framed artwork and Parisian balcony windows behind them
→ Ed seated in position as Andrew and Zac set up the camera next toa diffusion panel providing fill lighting
→ The crew gathers around white orchids to discuss the setup
→ Ed in the materials studio, project archives and fabric samples lining the shelves,
→ Tyler on boom, Janelle on camera, and Zac frames a tight shot shot as Rochon presents his work at the studio table

From a quiet conversation in an elegant Paris office to the bright lights of the materials studio, every frame captured a designer in his element.