Jose Calderon | Creative Production Leader, Director & Director of Photography

Interview build inside a warehouse, crew and lighting

Principal Financial Group · Creative, production and studio leadership · A decade

Building and Running an In-House Production Capability

Ten years of building what the work runs on. Before any national or global shoot, the crew was hired, rentals and grip trucks booked, travel and lodging set, and the budget accounted for. Doing that work early made the creative outcome predictable by the time we reached location.

Role: Director of Photography and Studio Manager, with ownership of visual standards, production capability, studio technology and production infrastructure
Scope: National and global campaigns running weeks at a time, on location across the United States and internationally, for a Fortune 200 brand.
Precedent: This was not the first studio I built. In 2003 I designed, built and operated a full culinary production studio for a network television cooking show, from camera systems and lighting through audio, switching and live graphics for multi-camera broadcast in front of a live audience.
Challenge: An in-house team has to deliver agency-standard work without an agency's standing infrastructure. That meant building and maintaining the capability behind the work as well as producing it: the people, studio, equipment, technology, workflows and outside resources required to execute national and global productions reliably.
Creative: I set the visual standard the work was held to and wrote it down. The studio brand look book I authored defined location selection, lighting philosophy, photographic style, color palette, stock footage criteria including LOG capture, production lighting and animation, so the standard held whether a scene was shot, licensed or built. A standard only means something if it survives contact with a new city, a new crew and a new medium.
People: I built teams around the demands of each project, hiring and directing freelance crew, specialists and production partners rather than forcing every assignment through the same staffing model. I also mentored developing creative talent and serve on the DMACC Film and Video Production and Photography advisory boards, helping evaluate the skills and standards needed in the next generation of production professionals.
Operations: I managed the production infrastructure behind the work: budgets, scheduling, equipment purchasing and lifecycle planning, camera, lighting and grip packages, studio technology, and the computer and server environment supporting production and post. For location work that expanded to grip trucks, travel, lodging, vehicles, local crew, and the sequencing required to keep multi-day and multi-week productions moving efficiently.
Studio & Technology: I was responsible for the technical environment supporting the studio and production team, including equipment selection and purchasing, studio systems, production workstations, storage and server infrastructure, and the networking required to move large media files reliably through production and post. The goal was never technology for its own sake. It was building a system the creative team could depend on every day.
Stakeholders: I worked directly with marketing, communications, creative, executive and business partners to translate objectives into production plans, budgets and visual approaches, presenting creative strategy and production roadmaps to senior leadership to secure alignment and buy-in. Work regularly moved through brand, legal and compliance review and was produced for executive, national and global audiences.
Outcome: The capability let an internal team take on work that would otherwise have gone to an outside agency. Because the crew was chosen deliberately and the equipment was accounted for before anyone traveled, that preparation made the creative outcome far more predictable by the time we reached location. Predictable outcomes on unpredictable jobs is what made the in-house model viable. In a single representative year that meant 745 unique headshots shot in studio and on location, a conference gallery that drew more than 27,000 views, and workflow changes, including cloud review and AI-assisted editing, that cut turnaround by roughly 30 percent and reduced freelance spend.

On set

Studio built inside a corporate interior

Aegon Asset Management leader interviewed at the Fund Forum

Aegon Asset Management · Miami · 2025 · Event film & photography

Aegon Fund Forum

Two days in Miami, film and stills from one person. I planned gear and schedule around the forum's agenda before flying in, built a warm interview set inside the venue, and caught leaders between sessions. The panels and conversations around them gave the edit something to cut against.

Role: Director · Director of Photography · Editor · Photographer
Format: A 2:47 recap film finished in 4K and captioned for sound-off viewing, delivered alongside a full set of event photography.
Challenge: An investor forum runs on its own schedule. Sessions, panels, networking and a dinner happen once, and the leadership interviews have to fit between them without pulling speakers away from the room for long.
Approach: A single interview set built inside the venue, lit low and warm against the room's own practicals, so every speaker sits in the same consistent frame. Around it, observational coverage of the sessions and the conversations between them, shot to be cut against what the interviews say.
What I Led: I directed the interviews, shot the film and the stills, and edited the recap. Doing both on one assignment means choosing, moment to moment, whether a scene is better served by motion or by a still, and making sure the two read as one body of work when the client puts them side by side.

Frames from the film

Attendees in conversation, Aegon Fund Forum

Panel session above Biscayne Bay, Aegon Fund Forum

Event photography, same assignment

Two schoolgirls making a heart with their hands, Pune

Principal Financial Group · Pune, India · Shot solo

Global Impact, Pune

Pune with no crew, no rental house and no pickup day. Everything the film needed was planned and packed before I flew, then shot solo, edited and graded by me. Earning trust quickly, in schools and workplaces where I was a visitor, was as much of the job as the camera.

Role: Director of Photography · Editor · Colorist
Challenge: International production removes almost every safety net a domestic shoot relies on. No familiar crew, no local rental house, unfamiliar light, and no possibility of a pickup day. In Pune I was the entire crew, so everything the edit would need had to be captured while I was standing there.
Planning: Gear, media and power were chosen and packed before the flight, because nothing could be rented or replaced once I landed. The days were built around the program's own schedule so I could be in the right room at the right moment without slowing anyone down.
Approach: Shoot for the edit rather than for the day: arrival, place, work and people covered as a complete sequence, knowing I would be the one assembling it later.
What I Led: Everything. I shot it alone, cut it and graded it. Working in communities where I was a visitor meant earning enough trust to point a camera at children and workplaces without the result feeling extractive, and doing it quickly. That is a directing problem before it is a camera problem.
Outcome: A finished film from the other side of the world, delivered to the same standard as work made at home with a full crew.

Frames from the film

Children at a Lend A Hand India program, Pune

Schoolgirls walking away down a tree-lined path, Pune

Principal Financial Group · Brand film · Hong Kong · Ecuador · London

Takeover

One person, three cities. The film draws on footage I shot on my own in Hong Kong, Ecuador and London, which I then edited, graded and designed the sound for, so material from three continents resolves into one film rather than a travelogue.

Role: Director of Photography · Editor · Colorist · Sound Design
Challenge: Footage from three countries, shot in different seasons and very different light, had to resolve into one film rather than a travelogue. That is a grading and pacing question as much as a shooting one.
Where It Comes From: I film wherever I go, on assignment or not. The Ecuador material came from my own travel, not a commissioned shoot. Over twenty years that has become a personal library I own outright, and it is often what makes corporate work feel like it was made by a person rather than assembled from stock.
What I Led: I shot the Hong Kong, Ecuador and London material on my own, then edited it, graded it and designed the sound. The grade carries most of the weight: holding skin, sky and city light to one palette is what makes three continents feel like a single place.

Frames from the film

Horse Guards Parade reflected in a puddle, London

Principal Financial Group · Growing Businesses campaign · 2023

Bob's Red Mill

A multi-day shoot at Bob's Red Mill near Portland, Oregon, planned well before we arrived: locations scouted, crew hired, rentals and budget set, and each day built around the mill's own schedule. On site we adapted as plans and spaces changed. Prelit sets kept us on time, and half the interview answers came with a laugh.

Role: Director of Photography
Challenge: Principal needed to show what employee benefits actually do for a business, without the sentimentality the subject usually attracts. The proof had to come from real employees rather than actors, and it had to survive brand and legal review at a Fortune 200 insurer.
Approach: Several days on location at Bob's Red Mill near Portland, Oregon, letting the mill and its people do the characterization. Interviews were framed to keep both the person and their workplace legible in the same shot, lit to stay natural rather than styled.
What I Led: I set the visual language for the campaign and shot it. The planning started well before travel: scouting, hiring crew, booking rentals and building a schedule that fit around a working mill. On the ground the crew prelit each set ahead of the interviews so we stayed on time when the day shifted, and the coverage was designed so the same days produced both the long cut and every paid cutdown.
Outcome: National distribution across broadcast, digital and social. The format became a repeatable template for subsequent stories in the series.

Frames from the film

Black and white studio portrait series, lighting visible

Principal Financial Group · Marketing film · Studio · 5:07

The Black & White Studio Series

A dozen subjects who aren't performers, one hard key across a seamless, and five minutes with no location to hide behind. The rig was designed and built before the first person arrived, so subjects moved through on schedule and the light never changed between them.

Role: Director of Photography
Challenge: A long roster of people, most of them not performers, each needing to look considered and consistent on camera. Shot across a single studio build, the film had to hold visual interest for five minutes without a location, a set or a second camera position to hide behind.
Approach: One hard key raking across a seamless, thrown at an angle so the background carries a diagonal gradient rather than sitting flat. Subjects placed on a small platform, isolated in the frame. Monochrome throughout, which removes wardrobe and skin-tone variation as a problem and puts the attention entirely on face and gesture.
What I Led: I designed the lighting and shot it. The wide frames deliberately keep the stands and heads in shot, so the film admits it was made in a studio instead of pretending otherwise. That decision is what gives the piece its point of view: the apparatus is part of the aesthetic, not something to be hidden. Directing non-performers to camera and keeping them at ease through repeated takes was as much of the job as the lighting was.
Outcome: A five-minute film carried entirely by faces, light and structure, with a visual system consistent enough to absorb a dozen different subjects without fragmenting.

Frames from the film

Frame from the black and white studio series

Principal Financial Group · Wooden Award · Social · Director of Photography

Caitlin Clark · Confidence

High-profile talent, one setup, a short window. Gear, schedule and lighting were settled before she arrived, so the only variable left was the conversation. Framed square from the start, for the feed.

Role: Director of Photography
Format: Square, built for feed, with captions and disclosure burned in. Part of a set delivered in 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16.
Challenge: High-profile talent with a short window. One setup, limited takes, and a piece that has to work with the sound off for most of the people who will see it.
Approach: Framed for square from the start rather than protecting a wide and cropping later, which is the difference between content designed for a channel and content adapted to it. Composition leaves deliberate room at the bottom for captions, so the type is part of the frame rather than covering it.
What I Led: I shot it. With a subject who has very little time, the job is to have the light and the frame already solved so the only variable left is the conversation.

Frames from the film

Capital Campaign · 2025

Norwalk Public Library

A small-budget campaign film, made solo. I planned the gear, the budget and a week of filming around the library's own schedule, then lit every interview myself. The story came from what patrons actually said, not from a script.

Role: Director · Director of Photography · Editor
Challenge: A capital campaign film has to ask for money without appearing to. The library needed the community to recognize the building as something it already relied on, and the budget was a fraction of a comparable corporate film.
Approach: Rather than lead with the building or the ask, we led with use. I filmed across an ordinary week and let patrons describe the library in their own words, then built the structure so the case for expansion emerges from what people were already saying.
What I Led: Everything. I directed, shot and cut it. Working solo meant designing every interview to be lit and recorded by one person without slowing the room down, and finding the structure in the edit from what the interviews actually gave us rather than from a script written in advance.
Outcome: Adopted as the campaign's primary highlight film. The campaign is ongoing and raising funds toward the new library.

Frames from the film

Frame from the Norwalk Public Library film

Iowa Motor Truck Association · Chairman tribute film · Director of Photography, Crew, Editor

Decker Companies

A tribute film presented to the chairman as a gift. I hired the crew, planned the trip to Fort Dodge, and shot two cameras in his own office. In the edit I kept the pauses, because that's where the affection was.

Role: Director of Photography · Crew hiring · Editor
Commission: Commissioned by the Iowa Motor Truck Association as a tribute to their outgoing chairman, and presented to him as a gift. Filmed at Decker Companies, the family trucking business in Fort Dodge, Iowa that he led.
Approach: The chairman interviewed in his own office, two-camera, warm and window-motivated, with colleagues and family speaking about him elsewhere in the building. Archival photographs of the company's earliest trucks carry the heritage thread the interviews talk around.
What I Led: I hired the crew, shot it and cut it. Three generations of the business appear in the film, and the edit had to make that succession legible without anyone stating it outright. Cutting a tribute means holding pauses a marketing edit would trim, because the silences are where the affection sits.
Note: A film made to be received by the person it is about, in a room full of his peers. That is a different brief from a marketing piece, and it changes what you shoot: warmth over polish, and enough room for him to sound like himself.

Frames from the film

Frame from the Decker Companies tribute film

Principal Asset Management · “Actively Invested” · Broadcast · Sound design

Principal Asset Management

A national broadcast spot built on one visual idea: a circular aperture that returns as a porthole, a lens, a tunnel, a clearing in a forest. The picture was sourced and cut by the wider team. My part was the music and sound design: deep bass drops and fast swooshes that drive the momentum and make each world the camera passes through feel physically real.

Role: Music & Sound Design
Challenge: Asset management is an abstract product. The category defaults to skylines and handshakes, and the brief was to say something about perspective, at broadcast quality, in thirty seconds.
The Film: The spot is built on a single visual idea: a circular aperture that recurs as a porthole, a lens, a microscope, a tunnel, a clearing in a forest. Every transition passes through the shape. Footage sourcing, production and the picture edit were handled by the wider team.
What I Did: I built the music and the sound design in Apple Logic. Deep bass drops land the transitions and fast swooshes carry the camera through each aperture, so the cut keeps its momentum and every new world arrives with weight. The audio is there to catch the ear as hard as the picture catches the eye, which matters most in the first seconds of a broadcast spot.
Outcome: National broadcast and digital campaign for Principal's asset management business.

Frames from the film

Frame from the Principal Asset Management spot

Principal Financial Group · Campaign · Homes and offices · Director of Photography

Creative Alignments

A campaign shot in real homes and offices. We scouted every location ahead of time, booked crew and gear, and sequenced the day so moves between rooms flowed. Lighting real people in their own spaces, the goal was a look that held steady from room to room and still felt natural and human.

Role: Director of Photography
Production: Real people in their own homes and offices rather than sets. Every location was scouted ahead of time, crew and gear were booked before the first day, and the schedule was sequenced so moves between rooms and buildings flowed instead of eating the day.
Approach: Natural, motivated light that respects each space, with subjects framed so their environment stays legible behind them. The aim was a look that held steady from one home or office to the next and still felt human rather than produced.
What I Led: I shot the campaign and planned the production around it: locations, crew, equipment and the order of the day. Consistency across very different rooms came from deciding the lighting approach before we arrived, then adapting it quickly on site.
Format: One production delivering a :30, an extended :30 subject-matter cut and two :15 versions.

Frames from the film

Frame from the Creative Alignments campaign

Principal Financial Group · Campaign · Three cutdowns · Director of Photography

PlanOmatic

Shot inside the company's working office, with the day scheduled around their business so nothing stopped. Window light did most of the work and kept the crew small. One shoot delivered a :30, a :15 and a :06.

Role: Director of Photography
Format: A :30, a :15 and a :06, all pulled from a single production.
Approach: Shot inside the company's own brick-walled offices with employees rather than actors. Window light carried most of the work, which kept the crew small enough to move through an operating business without shutting it down.
What I Led: I shot it and built the coverage so the shortest cut still had a beginning and an end rather than reading as a truncated :30.
Note: The :06 is the useful one to watch. Making six seconds feel deliberate is harder than making thirty.

Frames from the film

Principal Financial Group · Long-form narrative · 2:19 · Director of Photography

Succession Story

A dental practice changing hands, shot around real patients and appointments. The schedule had to bend to the clinic's day. The walk-and-talk hallway coverage gives the film its spine.

Role: Director of Photography
Subject: A dental practice changing hands, told through the outgoing owner and the dentist taking over.
Approach: Available light in a working clinic, shot around patients and appointments. Two subjects at different stages of the same career, framed so the handover reads visually before it is described.
What I Led: I shot it, including the walk-and-talk hallway coverage that gives the film its spine and keeps two people talking about paperwork from becoming static.

Frames from the film

Principal Financial Group · Three long-form films · 6 to 8 minutes each · Director of Photography

Hall of Fame Profiles

Three profiles, six to eight minutes each, shot in offices and homes on separate days. I planned one lighting and camera approach to carry from location to location, so three different rooms read as one series.

Role: Director of Photography
Format: Three separate inductee profile films, each running six to eight minutes.
Approach: Interviews shot in the subjects' own offices and homes, lit to sit naturally in the room rather than announce itself. At this length the setup has to hold attention on its own, so framing and depth do the work that cutting would do in a shorter piece.
What I Led: I shot all three. Consistency across separate shoot days, different rooms and different subjects was the real problem to solve.

Frames from the film

Photography

The same visual judgment, expressed in stills. Lighting, human direction and composition are one discipline, whether or not the frame moves.

Portrait & Editorial

Directing and lighting people, from boardroom to street

Light-painted portrait, Late Night Legends series

Annual report portrait, three colleagues in a bright office

Executive portrait against a glass block wall

Events & Conferences

Reading a room as it happens · Aegon Fund Forum, Miami

Architecture & Interiors

Reading space, structure and available light

Food & Commercial

Precise control of light and composition · 2012 to present

Sports

Anticipating the moment · Collegiate and professional

About

I build and lead visual storytelling functions, and I still make the work.

My background spans creative production leadership, directing and cinematography.

For more than a decade I led video and photography at Principal Financial Group, working across national campaigns, executive communications, branded documentary and global production. I defined the enterprise visual language and wrote the studio's brand look book, the document that set the standard for location, lighting, color, stock selection and animation across the company's work. I led and mentored a multidisciplinary team of producers, editors and designers, presented creative strategy and production roadmaps to senior leadership, and built the enterprise asset library that let campaigns reuse work rather than reshoot it. The role required discretion as often as it required craft.

My approach sits where documentary authenticity meets commercial discipline: real people, real rooms, held to a standard a brand can live with.

Leading the work has always meant developing the people who make it. I mentored the creative team and advised on their continued education, and I serve on two Des Moines Area Community College advisory boards, for Film and Video Production since 2017 and for Photography since 2022, shaping curriculum, equipment and skills standards for the people entering the field next. I judge the American Advertising Federation awards for the Akron chapter.

I have never stopped making the work myself. I direct, light and shoot, and I cut when the project calls for it. I also film wherever I go, on assignment or not, which over twenty years has built a personal library I own outright and regularly draw on to keep corporate work from feeling assembled out of stock. Born in Ecuador and bilingual in English and Spanish, I've worked across the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Outside production I play cello with the Des Moines Community Orchestra.

RecognitionUpper Midwest Regional Emmy, 2014
Public Content / Community Affairs

Selected talentCaitlin Clark · Bill Belichick · Jason Sudeikis · Lisa Bluder · Jan Jensen

EducationBA Graphic Communications, Iowa Wesleyan · Music performance, cello, Truman State · Audio engineering certification, SAE Institute

ServiceDMACC Film & Video and Photography advisory boards · AAF awards judge, Akron chapter

LanguagesEnglish, Spanish

BasedDes Moines, Iowa

Creative & Team Leadership

Visual strategy · Brand standards · Hiring and directing crew and freelancers · Creative review and mentorship · Agency collaboration · Executive stakeholders

Production

Directing · Cinematography · Lighting · Interview direction · Production planning · Location and studio

Post & Delivery

Editorial direction · Color · Channel-native delivery across broadcast, digital and social · Brand, legal and compliance review

Creative Technology & AI

Adobe Creative Cloud and Firefly · Runway and Higgsfield for generative motion · ElevenLabs for voice and audio · Google Gemini image generation. Actively evaluating and adopting emerging tools as the field shifts.

Creative Operations

Wrike for production calendars, milestones and work visibility · Frame.io for creative direction, review and approval · Licensed asset sourcing and rights management across Filmsupply, Artlist, Motion Array and Getty Images

Available for senior creative leadership, directing and creative production roles.

jose@digitaljose.com

LinkedIn Resume ↓