STUDIO GLAMOUR (using continuous lighting)

LEFT: Actor > Nick Soldatos RIGHT: Actor > Rosie Noone

In photography, the mind creates it's own story from a still image. It's a beautiful thing. In cinematography, it's not all that different (other than the obvious) because even though more of the story is being told with the addition of sound and movement,  the mind still tries to relate and associate what is happening on screen with its own experiences - distorting and fabricating it's own version of the film's story. That pesky mind....always doing it's own thing. Anyway, I love capturing images - moving or still. Photography and Cinematography both share one HUGE element of design, and that is...LIGHTING. in fact, I'd say that it's the single most important aspect of the two crafts....although lately I'm beginning to notice how important blocking and composition is when it comes to cinema...but that's another journey, and maybe it will have it's own blog section one day :) I should also mention, that on a shoot like this, MAKEUP is so damn important. We were lucky enough to be working with Maryana who did a stunning job :) Thanks Maryana! You absolutely nailed it :)

ANYWAY! As much as I love lighting and shooting as a cinematographer, there's something magical about stills that I'll never let go of. I really enjoyed this shoot! These images (and two more) will be used for a poster and promotional material for the up and coming TV pilot comedy, written and directed by Thomas Petrakos 'Make or Break'. 

Thomas and I talked about how we wanted the poster to look and quickly began Googling "Movie Poster" for inspiration. We decided that because of the nature of the show (comedy), we would go for a glossy, glamour look, rather than the moody, edgy and dark (teal and orange) posters you'll see if you Googled what we did :) This is the third studio style shoot that I've done (here's the one I shot before it). I don't have experience with flash units so I decided to stick with what I know - continuous lighting. After analysing some of the posters in our search results, I got an idea of how to light these portraits but let's be clear, I was only guessing! I didn't walk into that studio knowing exactly how to light it, nor did I know exactly how it would turn out, but what I am good at is being super critical of my own work, looking at it objectively and fixing what I don't like. Luckily, we had the day to shoot these four shots so I had time to make those changes...unlike a film set ;)

A big thanks to Matt from Barkly Street Studios for the great space, and my awesome crew Jessa Rose and Glen Cook :) I'll be sure to share the finished poster and other portraits when they're done. Thanks for visiting and if you'd like to see more lighting diagrams, please visit the LIGHTING section above, or just click HERE :)

Posted on February 26, 2015 .