See how four Miami creatives have made their path in the production industry

Rory Lee and Nicole Perry stumbled into their professions by accident. Lee realized she belonged in the world of makeup while helping out friends and family, and Perry discovered intimacy coordination while doing choreography for a high school play.

On the other hand, Chris Herman and Francisco Aguila knew what they were getting into. Herman bought a commercial agency with his father, and Aguila had practiced photography for years before deciding to buy a cinema robot.

Explore four different aspects of the production scene in Miami – from makeup to intimacy coordination and commercials to theater. This photo story shows just a taste of what the industry looks like in South Florida.

The Face is Her Canvas

Rory Lee always loved art and creative expression, from macramé and tie dye to jewelry-making and papier-mâché.

“I realized that I had a gift to also create art on faces and just started with doing it as a favor to a friend or family,” Lee said.

Now, she owns her own company, MakeupByRoryLee, with a team of wardrobe stylists, estheticians and hairstylists, and a makeup line.

Lee, who has lived in Miami full time for almost 30 years, loves all of the places she has discovered while on the clock. Some of her favorites include Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Redland, the Everglades, as well as several places along the coast.

Years ago, whenever Lee would have model shoots on South Beach, she would go to Pizza Rustica afterwards to treat herself to a slice.

“I just think Miami is a cool place,” Lee said. “Such a cool vibe.”

Cars and Commercials

Chris Herman, president and CEO, has run the Herman Agency for over 17 years after buying out a small automotive advertising agency and renaming it with his late father.

Herman, who has been in Miami for 17 years, loves to focus on the South Florida lifestyle in the agency’s commercials.

“It’s such a great place [for video production] just because there’s so many stunning backdrops and interesting people,” Herman said.

There are a lot of steps from idea creation to delivering the final product and more planning than Herman thinks people realize, including storyboarding, location scouting, getting permits to shoot in certain areas, contacting talent agencies, coordinating schedules and more.

Speaking Body Language

Nicole Perry moved to Miami from Pennsylvania in 2012 to work at a theater. She discovered intimacy coordination while she was choreographing a musical at a high school. A student came to her, nervous about a kiss in the musical because the director did not give specific instructions, like they do for most actions on stage, and it was their first kiss ever.

“We’re so specific about things in theater, but we weren’t specific about [intimacy],” Perry said. “So I was like, there has to be a way to do this better.”

She started researching and discovered intimacy coordination certification programs. She started the certification process in 2018 and has since worked on plays and musicals as well as independent and feature films in Miami.

Perry says there are three parts to intimacy coordination: actor advocacy, communication and choreography. She fosters conversations between and with the actors about boundaries and communicates those to the director. Then, they combine that with the director’s vision to choreograph the scene in a way that honors the actors and tells a story.

Most of Perry’s intimacy coordination work is in theater, and Perry says working on films in Miami is difficult because work in the city is usually more on the commercial side. However, she likes that South Florida has so many film programs at University of Miami, Florida International University, and Miami Dade College.

“I get excited, too, about working on student films because student films are usually a little edgier and are telling stories that are not mainstream stories,” Perry said.

Robots and Oranges

Francisco Aguila founded Miami Cinema Robot in 2021 after being interested in a type of photography that captures fast-moving objects for a while. The company mainly focuses on food and beverage clients because they often need the precise movements of a robot for their campaigns.

“I was always intrigued how you can capture a splash of water or a sauce or stuff flying in the air,” Aguila said.

After learning how to do that in still photography, he wanted to figure out how to capture that on video. His research led him to robots.

Aguila chose the Mark Roberts Motion Control Bolt Jr+, which costs around $100,000, because he believes the robot is “way ahead of the [other] companies in terms of software,” he said.

The robot uses a target-tracking software called Flair, which works as a spreadsheet with inputs for a timeline and the robot’s position at certain points on the timeline as well as the position of the subject you are capturing.

Aguila likes working in Florida because “we’re in an up-and-coming market. After the pandemic, a lot of people have moved to our state, so there are more people here. There is more demand for products. There is more demand for advertising.”

The following photos are from a demonstration of how the camera works. See Aguila’s Instagram to check out the finished product.