How To Produce A Combined Print And Motion Fashion Campaign

Douglas: We were given a date to pitch our concept against other fashion photographers and filmmakers. We were given very little to go off of, but mainly because we didn't have a huge portfolio of fashion content, we decided to self fund and capture an entire mock fashion campaign, in the same style that we would suggest to shoot Lily. We even created a rock solid keynote presentation with video and oversized poster prints to mount on the wall. Thankfully we made a good impression and got the job!

Nicholas: I took lead as the director of the campaign whereas Douglas took lead as the still photographer. We put together our regular 8112 Studios team and went to work.

Douglas: Now that we had a location and the stylists were arranging clothing and going through fittings with Lily, the intense planning process had begun on our end. We tried to map out and schedule each look, leaving time for photo and video. At first I thought I would shoot strobe while video would be required to work with constant lights, but it became apparent right away that in order to save time and space in our 1300 square foot location with 30+ crew members and clients, we were going to have to stick with one light source for most still and motion shots. The problem was, this was a private residence and the fuse box didn't have the capacity to handle really powerful lights like we wanted. We normally would just arrange a generator truck to pump in power to the lights on-location, but the building was a high-rise and its configuration didn't allow for that. So our grip and lighting team had to assess the fuse box to see how powerful we could go with the lighting options. It seemed the best option for the quality of light we were trying to achieve was going to be Briese lights.

File photo of a Briese light similar to what we used

Nicholas: Because we knew our shoot day would be very high pressure and very tight for time, we budgeted in a pre-light day to do an entire run-through of the actual shoot one day earlier (except with a stand-in model). This test day was CRUCIAL. We were able to figure out the best lighting angles based on the space, furniture and prop placement, and also see how accurate our schedule was. We also were able to run through video movement with our steadicam operator. We ended up hiring a steadicam operator because it would take too much time to setup and move a dolly and track, plus we didn't have enough space in the venue. Besides, the steadicam allowed our video to have a more dynamic and fluid movement. As you can see in the BTS video, I was able to watch a wireless monitor to help in directing camera movement and Lily.

HD wireless monitor setup

Douglas: The video portion was captured with the RED Epic, which with its 5k resolution, wide dynamic range, and native 800 ISO creates such dynamic and beautiful footage.  We also had a RED Scarlet on set for additional shots. We chose Cooke S4 lenses for the RED (which we love by the way). The still portion was captured with the Phase One IQ260 60 megapixel medium format. We needed the wide dynamic range and big resolution because the client wanted to make huge in-store prints from this campaign and the 260 was perfect  (thanks to Digital Transitions for helping arrange the back for our shoot). Also, with the IQ2 series built in wifi, I was able to transmit my images to an iPad3 that was in front of the clients so they could review and rate the images as I shot the still images. I also had a digital tech running the new 15" Macbook Pro and Capture One Pro 7 tethering / RAW processing software to do rough edits on the client image selects right there on set as well as check focus and exposure as I worked. We wanted our clients to have the best of the best technology to capture this campaign.

Image the Phase One IQ260 transmitted to our iPad using the Capture Pilot app

Nicholas: We set up 8112 Studios to be able to do just these types of shoots. Douglas and I literally have the same thoughts at times on set and so with him shooting away with the Phase One and me with the RED, we took turns capturing Lily in a variety of poses and looks. I have to say that she was amazing in the sense that what I noticed with her was her immediate ability to turn it "on". She could go from laughing and having fun when the camera was not running to absolute killer model mode within a split second. Directing her was easy because of what she brought to the table. On the video side we mixed the steadicam shots with some handheld and shot everything at 120 fps. I'd go in and capture content and then Douglas would be right there to shoot away. The RED and Phase One match up pretty well in their dynamic range and although the native ISO is lower in the Phase One, we weren't lacking any light and everything had a nice consistency to it.

Douglas: Thanks to an intense test day, our actual shoot day was very easy because barring any freak accidents, we were completely prepared and ready for everything we needed to shoot. Every still and motion image we needed to capture was storyboarded out and marked down on our finalized production schedule. For the most part, everything went as planned on the big day and Lily Aldridge honestly made our jobs really easy. Who knew working with a supermodel would make the imagery immediately that more awesome? She was a great sport considering it was her birthday!

We wrapped on time and were in and out within the 10 hour window. Best of all we came to NYC and showed a fashion brand what we could do. A fully integrated and combined motion and still campaign that also elevated their look from previous campaigns without straying too far from what the brand represents.