In each of my fashion shoots I aim to do something very new and dramatic whether it’s shooting underwater (take a look at the Beauty & Water shoot) or something very edgy and fashion forward like ‘Man Made Moon’. For this shoot I wanted it to be bold but almost more commercial, which means shooting in a style that could actually resemble a final ad campaign for one of brands. I chose a story that explored the relationship between architecture and the structure and design of men’s formal wear. I was playing with ideas around a famous Coco Chanel quote, “Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.” My aim was to interpret these ideas visually through uses of dramatic lighting, hard shadows, strong lines, perspectives and silhouettes while always keeping the focus on the quality and tailoring of the garments themselves.

Some of the brands we shot included Fabiani, Daniele Alessandrini (available at Speagetti Mafia), Paul Smith, Viyella, Tiger of Sweden (available at Melrose Arch), Louis Vuitton (which we flew in from Paris as few days before the shoot), Hugo Hugo Boss, Boss Hugo Boss, Trenery, C2 and Burberry (also flown in from London).

Credits:

Stylist: Roger Mann
Styling Assist: Dale Robinson
Follow Wanted Magazine Editor Gary Cotterell on twitter: @want_ed

I don’t sleep the night after the meeting. The 6mg of Melatonin sleeping tablets from Wellness Warehouse doesn’t kick in between 2am and 4am. It’s impossible to come up with an idea, a treatment, a location, do a casting and source the clothes for 8 DPS’s and 8 ‘looks’ by next Thursday. I’m pouring my soul into this. My girlfriend will witness the effects of this stress in later weeks when she discovers me sleepwalking around the holiday house ‘looking for shapes’. In the morning I start location scouting. Scouting is less fun than it sounds. I’m in the trokkie, I’m up the mountain, I’m talking, I’m phoning, I’m mobile googling, I’m sweating. By 4pm I find MacSteel in Belville. I can tell no location scouts or photographers have even stepped foot in this part of Industria. I’m charming the secretaries with my glam fashion industry stories. MacSteel is a shape paradise. Piles of steel wrapped in hexagons. Rolled aluminum stacked to the roof ready for pressing in to pixels.

It’s 10am on day one. Our Argentinian model Estefania clicks into automation. She’s good. She laughs at my pose stetches. “They’re so cute”. Giggle giggle. She’s standing between 9 foot plates of raw steel while a curious crane loader hovers overhead like a bot from The Matrix. Mirage, the MacSteel stock manager, sticks to my side throughout. Fashion photography is much more interesting than loading pipes. Mirage strikes me as the the type of employee the company can’t live without but will never be promoted. He’s wedged himself under an industry machine and he’ll prop it up for the next 50 years. The factory workers mingle around the set during breaks. Between poses I hear “yeah, that’s sexxeeee” in that cheeky South Belville drawl.

Here’s the gallery of images from the shoot.

Some behind the scenes shots were taken by my Assist, Renier Botha:

On the Factory Floor

Our Audience of Steelworkers

The Curious Hovering Bot

Fashion Editor Giselle making sure

I have over 4000 reference images on my Mac desktop in a folder called ‘Inspiration’. Collected ruthlessly over the years, it stores images from blogs, tears from magazines, things I’ll pulled from FFFFound. Out of these 4000 images, I’ve reduced it to 300 important references that cover the styling, treatment and photo-messages that I really love. From my over-abused sketch books, I’ve taken three or four ideas that are the most compelling. It was a tough job scanning through the most beautiful talent of Cape Town’s seven best modeling agencies. But some poor guy had to do it. I’ve found 12 models that will make your mouth water, no matter what your orientation. And on my travels around the Cape over the last few months, I’ve been constantly on the lookout for interesting locations. All these refferences were carefully scanned, considered, shifted, matched and digested.

My masterplan is simple. By the end of 2010 I want to have 20 images that are like nothing else coming out of Cape Town. 20 images doesn’t sound like a lot. But I’m sitting with a PDF of 10 Big Productions on my hands. I only want to use 2 final images per shoot. Each shoot is a completely different imaginative and intricate mix of people, poses, colors, wardrobes, locations, make-up, props, cars, flowers, light-shaping tools, reflectors, wind-generators, smoke machines, c-stands, battery changes and permits. Imaginative concepts have very practical implications. The skill in being a great photographer is fast becoming a skill in being a great producer, organizer, project manager, director, negotiator.

Production started this morning with a very successful meeting with model Donnet Dumas, who I’m working with on my first shoot. Over the next few days I have various meetings with agencies, models, and other artists to get them on board. Watch this space.

Creative Director Mark Stead Tweeting while on Location. Official hashtag was #jwshoot

The Jonnie Walker shoot was a great opportunity to work with local creative talent, including Art Director Mark Stead from King James, Director Sarel Esterhuizen from Wishbone Productions and the debut Director of Photography Jean-Mark Ronlando. The campaign ‘depicts the journey of a Walker, who is a symbol for the everyman who strives to make his journey in life one of meaning and enduring legacy. From rural South Africa moving into the city, the commercial uses a metaphor to take the viewer on a journey of personal progress that brings to life the pioneering spirit of Johnnie Walker.’ * www.celebratingstrides.co.za

Setting up the shot.

When I saw the Director, Sarel Esterhuizen’s first sketches of the campaign, I was immediately in love with his vision. Sarel has a talent for hand sketching ideas that makes me incredibly jealous, and I can hardly compare his gift to my shaky line-drawn stick-men I usually draw for mock-up shots. But this also means, using my raw sketches as their only refference, the client wont expect the final shots to be exactly framed as the mood boards, which gives me more flexibility to find the right shot while on location. The agency and client had agreed on a film grading that was a rich monochromatic golden yellow, artfully shot on 35mm film. I followed the cinematic treatment for the stills in the wide-angle crop, deep moody colors and crop.

An example of the final warm grading of the stills.

During an interview this week about commercial vs personal shoots, the interviewer asked whether I have separate attitude towards my commercial shoots, which I do for the money, and my personal work where I really pour my heart into. My answer was that I put my energy and heart into both, and with shoots like these for Johnnie Walker, I could easily do it for my personal portfolio with pleasure.

The gallery of images from the shoot is here:

Some people you can follow on twitter that were on the shoot:
Creative Director; Mark Stead
Producer: Kathi Jones from Cocoon Productions
Copywriters from King James: Paige Nick and Alex Van Tonder

Links:
King James Advertising
The Johnnie Walker Campaign – Celebrating Strides