Oriane Playner is comfortable modeling in front of the camera, she’s been doing it for years. But her passion lies on the other side of the lens.

The rising junior film major has been on the cover of Zipped Magazine, a fashion magazine at Syracuse University, and in video productions of SU’s Mayfest and Juice Jam. With that experience under her belt she is looking to make her name known on a bigger scale.

“My dad used to make homemade videos of my brother and I as kids,” Playner said. “I guess that inspired me a lot.”

Last week Playner, along with three other students, launched Passion Production Studios, a creative agency specializing in photo and video preproduction. While preproduction involves the standard creation budgets and schedules it also entails styling, set design, casting and writing treatments and concepts, Playner said.

The idea came from her current internship at Optimus, an ad agency based in Chicago where she shadows team members, collaborates on sets and performs administrative tasks. The agency’s name-brand clients include McDonald’s, P.F. Chang’s, Skittles and Corona.

“They’re a postproduction company but they do have a few people that work on the production side of things,” Playner said.

That’s where her company comes in. Optimus handles everything postproduction, and a lot of their clients have their own individual production teams. In the production process Playner noticed there was a market missed: preproduction.

“There aren’t that many preproduction companies. Magazines like PAPER and Nylon have their own teams but no one really owns a preproduction company,” Playner said.

The idea is that Passion Production Studios would reach bigger companies and expand, Playner said.

A few days after the team created an Instagram account — @passionprostudios — they had an offer. Ear to the Ground, a sports and music ad agency, asked if her team would be interested in creating advertisements for them. The Chicago company works alongside corporate brands like Red Bull and musicians such as Chance The Rapper.

To balance an internship and launching her own company Playners sticks to one rule.

“No going out.”

Angela Ricciardi, one of her partners, currently interns in New York, so they have a stretch of connections. During the school year, they plan to drive out to New York every other weekend to work with directors and models.

Published on June 28, 2017 at 8:00 am

Contact Lydia: lnilesst@syr.edu