Commercial Shoot: Camera Operator on Coolray and Mr. Plumber Commercials

This was one of the best gigs I have worked on so far this year. We had a photographer on set who captured some awesome behind-the-scenes photos, and I added some of those at the bottom of this post.

In June of 2026, I worked on a series of commercials as a Camera Operator and Gimbal Operator. We filmed three or four commercials over the week. Half of them were for Coolray, a home HVAC company. The same company owns Mr. Plumber, so the other half of the commercials were for them.

These were really amazing shoots to be a part of. All of the crew members involved were great to work with. Everyone was nice, fun, and the energy on set was great. Everyone was also very skilled at their jobs, and we all worked very well together.

We had a decent-sized crew with multiple Producers, a Director, a Director of Photography, a Camera Operator, which was me, a Gaffer with a full truck, an Assistant Camera, two Grips, and a PA. The DP and Producers flew in, and they hired the camera crew in Atlanta.

The commercials were essentially short stories about things going wrong in a family’s home and the repairman showing up to save the day. I really loved this aspect of it because it felt like we were working on a narrative set.

On the shoot, I was alternating between operating the main camera and one of my own cameras on a gimbal. The main camera shots were storyboarded out by the agency. They told me to use my gimbal to get as many different alternate shots as I could.

About half the time, we either could not get a gimbal shot, or it just was not needed because the shot was so heavily storyboarded. In those cases, I would operate the main camera and sometimes act as an AC for the Director of Photography.

The main camera on this job was a Sony BURANO. If you are unfamiliar with this camera, it is one of Sony’s high-end cinema cameras. I really loved working with it, and the images it produced looked beautiful. We also had a nice set of Canon cinema prime lenses, which I often helped change with the assistance of the AC.

I also supplied my Sony FX6 for this shoot. I was operating it on my Ronin RS3. I have used this rig on many other sets, so I was very used to the setup. It is a bit tricky to balance the FX6 on a Ronin like this, but once you figure it out, it is a really amazing setup. It is pretty lightweight, and the internal ND on the FX6 is great to have on a gimbal.

I was trying my best to provide strong alternate shots to the main camera. I would look at the composition on the A camera and do my best to film something different, but still complementary. This often meant switching lenses so I was on a different focal length than the A camera.

I was using primes, and if you have ever used prime lenses on a gimbal, you know that changing lenses is not a simple task. Every time I changed lenses, the gimbal needed to be rebalanced. Many times on set, I would be quickly changing lenses and rebalancing the gimbal as fast as I could so I could get in place before they started rolling.

Once we started rolling, I would try to film a shot with subtle cinematic movement. I often had very little space to work with because I would be squeezed between a light and the A camera. More often than not, I found myself filming on an 85mm lens, capturing closeups of the actors with subtle movement that created a parallax effect with the background.

Any time the A camera would go in for a closeup, I would swap to a wider lens. But the shots were always set up around A camera, so if I chose a wide lens, I would often see lights, crew members, or other things we did not want in the frame. This made things fairly challenging, but I made it work.

One of the very last shots we filmed was on a Dana Dolly. We had no use for a gimbal shot there, so I was helping with the A camera. In the shot, we had the actor walking toward the camera while the camera dollied, and focus had to be pulled during the move. The DP was pushing the camera, and I was on the other side pulling focus. The photographer captured a shot of me while we were setting up the camera, and I really love the picture.

Another interesting moment on set was when we had to safely get the camera directly above a sink so we could film down into the drain. In the commercial the story was that a little girl had shoved her stuffed animal down the drain, clogging it. Getting the large Sony BURANO into place proved to be a difficult task. We ended up extending the back tripod leg and keeping the front two legs on the countertop. This allowed us to get the camera into place, but it was definitely not ideal. The legs could easily slide off the edge of the counter, so myself, the Assistant Camera, and the Production Assistant were all holding the tripod legs. While holding onto a leg, I was also operating the camera, checking focus, and pressing record. This may not sound that difficult, but the shot went on for about 30 to 45 minutes.

This was an amazing shoot, and I wish I could work on things like this all the time. The entire crew was so nice, and everyone was good at their job. The client asked if we had all been working together for years, but it was actually our first time working together.

The Director of Photography later sent out an email saying the client described the shoot as “magical,” so I think things went really well.