Do you shoot stills and video at the same corporate event?

Yes. This evening was covered for both and the 2:18 highlight film was cut from the same night. Stills-only bookings run solo; film work runs with a second shooter and an editor.

The JetZero hangar late in the evening, illuminated banner panels running down the length of the floor

Corporate Events & PartiesGrit Rising & Entrepreneur · JetZero, Long Beach · 12 February 2025

Dinner in a hangar

Q: Do you photograph events in hangars and industrial venues?

Yes. Large industrial spaces are a lighting problem more than a photography problem — huge dark volumes, coloured production lighting, and surfaces ranging from matte black to white composite. The coverage gets planned around the light.

Trent Bryson brought Grit Rising and Entrepreneur inside JetZero’s Long Beach hangar — a conversation with JetZero co-founder and chief executive Tom O’Leary on the hangar floor, and dinner served in a full-scale blended-wing cabin. One hundred and seventy-four frames across three and a half hours; these are the fifty-six that tell it in order.

Host: Trent Bryson · Bryson Financial
Event: Grit Rising × Entrepreneur
On stage: Trent Bryson with Tom O’Leary, JetZero
Venue: JetZero, Long Beach, California
Date: Wednesday 12 February 2025 · 4:49pm–8:09pm
Coverage: Stills and film · load-in to last guest · 174 frames delivered
Shown here: 56 photographs and a 2:18 film

▶

The film

Two minutes and eighteen seconds, cut from the same evening. Sound on.

Grit Rising + JetZero Highlight2:18Directed, shot and cut by Clubhouse Creative

The room before

A working aircraft hangar, cleared and re-lit. The banner walk, the stage and the seating all went in during daylight; by the time doors opened the room had changed colour completely.

The JetZero hangar in daylight before the event, roof trusses overhead and the floor cleared — R6M11974

Illuminated banner displays lined up down the empty hangar floor during load-in — R6M11975

Rows of black chairs set facing the stage, with the lounge build behind — R6M11976

A screen reading welcome to the innovation, with the JetZero blended-wing aircraft on it — JF9A3591

The Grit Rising stage set with two armchairs and the Entrepreneur backdrop — R6M12029

The hangar at dusk, banner displays glowing down its length — JF9A3510

The banner walk lit, each panel carrying a different aircraft image — R6M12012

The full run of illuminated panels down the hangar, floor reflecting the light — R6M12019

The aircraft

JetZero builds a blended-wing aircraft — one continuous surface rather than a tube with wings bolted on. The model and the full-scale cabin are the reason the evening happened here instead of in a ballroom.

The blended-wing aircraft model lit against black, nose toward the camera — JF9A3475

Engine detail on the aircraft model, a single intake in raking light — JF9A3473

JF9A3501

The blended-wing model in silhouette, one continuous surface from nose to wingtip — JF9A3469

The full-scale cabin mockup in the hangar, lit blue along its length — R6M12086

Close detail of the model's nose section and the seam along its upper surface — R6M12040

The mockup from the side, light raking across its moulded shell — R6M12087

III

Set for dinner

Tables laid inside the cabin mockup. Linen, protea and candlelight against moulded white composite — an unusually good problem, and the reason the food was plated on terracotta.

Place settings on the white composite cabin table, patterned plates and glassware — R6M11985

A single setting photographed down the length of the cabin table — R6M11996

The printed menu resting on a charger plate — R6M12005

A low floral arrangement in protea and greenery on the cabin table — R6M12008

The cabin interior lit amber and violet, tables running the length of the fuselage — JF9A3593

The cabin from the aisle, seats and tables receding toward the far bulkhead — JF9A3598

Doors

Bar, boards and badges. A guitarist and a horn player worked the floor while the hangar filled and the light came down.

A bartender pouring at the hangar bar — JF9A3557

A charcuterie board built along the bar, cheeses, fruit and crackers — R6M12104

Close detail of the board — prosciutto, berries and dried apricot — JF9A3612

Guests at the bar as the room fills, name badges on lapels — R6M12109

A canapé plated on white, three to a plate — R6M12119

A cocktail in hand, lime and salt on the rim — R6M12107

A horn player performing during the cocktail hour — R6M12128

Two guests in conversation with the lit aircraft behind them — R6M12111

Three guests talking, drinks in hand, under the coloured hangar lighting — R6M12116

A guitarist playing under stage light, teal guitar catching the colour — JF9A3619

The conversation

Trent Bryson in conversation with Tom O'Leary, JetZero's co-founder and chief executive, with the audience seated on the hangar floor and the aircraft behind them. This is the part of the night the room came for.

The seated audience from the back of the hangar, stage lit at the far end — R6M12149

The audience filled in, the Grit Rising and Entrepreneur backdrop beyond them — R6M12153

Trent Bryson and JetZero co-founder Tom O'Leary in armchairs on the Grit Rising stage — JF9A3652

Leaning into the microphone mid-sentence during the on-stage conversation — JF9A3702

Trent Bryson and Tom O'Leary mid-exchange during the on-stage conversation — JF9A3663

Making a point on stage during the Grit Rising conversation — JF9A3696

The stage from the audience, a raised hand mid-answer — R6M12167

Trent Bryson and Tom O'Leary in the armchairs with the Grit Rising backdrop behind — R6M12168

The hangar floor packed with seated guests facing the stage — R6M12198

The audience from the side, the length of the hangar visible behind — R6M12210

Dinner in the cabin

Guests eating where passengers would sit. Courses came out on terracotta against the white shell — the one colour decision that made the food photograph at all.

Guests seated at dinner inside the cabin mockup, lit warm — JF9A3756

A table of guests in conversation over dinner in the cabin — JF9A3761

The main course plated on terracotta — beef, asparagus and confit tomato — JF9A3763

The plated course photographed from above against the white table — JF9A3788

A plate carried out to the cabin table — JF9A3777

Service underway along the cabin tables — JF9A3779

Guests at a cabin table, glasses raised mid-conversation — R6M12262

Dinner in progress, the cabin's curved shell overhead — R6M12265

A table of guests toward the end of the meal — R6M12270

VII

The room after

Portraits at the backdrop, then the hangar going quiet with the panels still burning down the floor.

A group portrait at the Grit Rising backdrop — R6M12224

Two guests photographed together at the backdrop — R6M12218

The hangar late in the evening, lighting dropped to blue and amber — R6M12078

The last of the room, banner panels still lit down the empty floor — R6M12082

A brand evening inside an aircraft hangar.

JetZero is building a blended-wing aircraft in Long Beach — one continuous surface instead of a tube with wings attached. Trent Bryson, who runs Bryson Financial and hosts the Grit Rising podcast, staged an evening with Entrepreneur inside the hangar: a walk of illuminated panels down the floor, a conversation with JetZero co-founder and chief executive Tom O’Leary on a stage at the far end, and dinner served inside a full-scale cabin mockup.

Clubhouse Creative covered it on two bodies from load-in to the last guest, and cut the highlight film. A venue like this is mostly a lighting problem: the hangar is enormous and dark, the cabin interior is white composite under saturated colour, and the food had to read against all of it. 174 frames were delivered. The 56 here are the selected edit, in the order the evening happened.

Questions about this event and this kind of coverage.

Where was this event held?

Inside JetZero’s aircraft hangar in Long Beach, California. The company is developing a blended-wing-body aircraft; the evening used the hangar floor for the stage and audience, and a full-scale cabin mockup for dinner.

Who hosted it?

Trent Bryson, owner of Bryson Financial in Long Beach and host of the Grit Rising podcast, in partnership with Entrepreneur.

Who spoke on stage?

Trent Bryson in conversation with Tom O’Leary, co-founder and chief executive of JetZero, in front of a seated audience on the hangar floor.

Do you photograph events in difficult venues like hangars and warehouses?

Yes, and they are usually the most interesting bookings. Large industrial spaces are a lighting problem rather than a photography problem — enormous dark volumes, coloured production lighting, and surfaces that swing from matte black to white composite within a few feet. It is worth planning the coverage around the light rather than the run of show.

Do you shoot stills and video at the same event?

Yes. This evening was covered for both, and the 2:18 highlight film on this page was cut from the same night. Stills-only bookings run solo; film work runs with a second shooter and an editor.

What does corporate event coverage cost?

Event photography starts at $450 and videography at $600, with a social half-day at $950. An evening on this scale — load-in through dinner, stills plus a cut film — is quoted on the run of show, because the number of set pieces matters more than the hours.

How quickly are photos delivered?

A graded set of selects comes first, so there is something to post the next morning, with the full gallery following after. Same-night social cuts can be arranged in advance.