This is a collection of images we did with fashion designer Anthony Franco.

It follows the story of a special training facility for the “lethal arts & sciences”. It’s not every day you get to depict assassins and gun-play in a commercial shoot, so when the chance arises one needs to make the most of it. This is what we did with the opportunity.

It was a large team working on this from wardrobe, to casting and talent, to set design, production, and the assisting team. And that’s just for the still photography part of the shoot.

We shot in several locations — most of which was in the building where my studio is. But we transformed several of these spots, even people who know the building well would not recognize them. It always helps when the environment is physically built rather than doing it digitally in post. I think it leads to better images, and is certainly a more engaging experience on set.

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Here is the behind-the-scenes video from the recent Louis Verdad Fall 2011 shoot, showing more of the team in action and more clearly revealing the production process.

Lighting was explained a bit more in the previous post with the time-lapse video, but you can see the tools in action more clearly in this one. The final images were included in the first post on this project. This is the third of the three part series on this shoot.

In the comments section of the time-lapse post, Greg asked some detailed questions which I answered there.

What comes through most clearly in this video is the range of people and talents involved in a shoot. What is not shown is all the preparation by the fashion team getting the clothes finished, and then selecting the looks and finding the right accessories. Nor does it reveal the concept development by the hair and makeup team, or the set design and construction. But seeing the results of those efforts here is a hint at the process that went into getting to this point.

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This is the first of a couple views behind the scenes of the Louver shoot that I recently posted images from. The time-lapse covers most of the shoot with a frame taken every 10 seconds. It was a half day shoot with just a few looks, which is relatively short.  It gives a sense of the process on the shooting stage in my studio.

Lighting was very simple in this shoot, we wanted to clearly light the models to show the details of the clothing, though also wanted some drama with deep shadows to create mood and give the images some geometric shape.  I used a grid on the soft box and feathered it to limit the spill of the light and create some quick fall-offs into shadow on the wall. Lighting was a Broncolor Unilite and Verso pack.

A second light was used to create a pattern of light/shadow at an extreme angle on the back wall adding to the geometry and the dramatic effect. This was done with a Broncolor Pulsospot4 strobe (you put metal patterned slides inside between the lens and the flashtube, then focus to the desired degree of sharpness with the lens on the light).

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We recently shot campaign images for the LOUVER label by fashion designer Louis Verdad.  Louis and I have been working together on campaign images for years, as well as on creative projects beyond the seasonal lines. It’s always great to get in the studio when he has a new collection.

My team and I painted the set a blueish-green and splattered a deeper, bluer shade of paint over top to give it some texture and a worn, messy look while maintaining a vibrant graphic quality.  The color went beautifully with the Fall 2011 LOUVER designs — thin stripes of the same color were woven into some of the plaids.

Then we brought in some furniture with a rich golden yellow tone to liven-up the palette and give it a regal spin. The vibe felt reminiscent to me of the Hermitage museum and the city around it (St. Petersberg) where you see a place with an ornate decor and a grand history, but in a state of decay.

The floor is a painted hardwood, originally created for the previous shoot that I will elaborate on when that one is ready for release. The gold flourishes came from an elaborate wrought-iron mirror, an equally grand picture frame, and a chair with rich yellow upholstery and clear signs of wear.

Within this context, I wanted the models to portray a pride and nobility that the once newly decorative environment surely possessed in its prime, oblivious to the erosion of time.

Photos below. “Behind the scenes” media will be posted soon.

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We shot the Anthony Franco short fashion film over three days in late January and we’re deep in post production now.  Needed three days because it called for numerous location changes and a good number of wardrobe changes. We had a cast of five, a lot of logistics, and some effects to coordinate.  Looking forward to sharing more of that here when we get closer to a release date. We shot a ton of behind the scenes video as well, so will be releasing that around the same time. But in the meantime, I can share these two fashion images from the shoot (we did some quick shots of the outfits that don’t reflect the story elements).

As always, time management has been the biggest challenge, especially for personal creative projects since client gigs get scheduling priority. Everything moves at a too slow of a pace, and the film projects have even more stages and complexity to keep on track.  But I’m excited that the wide range of initiatives we have underway, including the most ambitious ones, are all making steady forward progress.

On the near term calendar I’ll be speaking at the Palm Springs Photo Festival at the end of the month on a “Convergence Consortium” panel about moving into motion work from still photography. The panel will also include Vincent Laforet and some prominent people from various areas of the industry.

Also have a couple ABC Family commercials to shoot this month, and just completed a fashion campaign shoot which I’ll be sharing here soon along with some behind the scenes material.

I met today with Anthony Franco, a top-tier celebrity stylist who up until a few years ago had his own designer label with collections at Fashion Week every season.

His collections were fantastic, but the demand for him as a celebrity and entertainment industry stylist exploded and he went in that direction — working for a roster of A-list stars that reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, and styling for studio films like “Catch Me If You Can”, “Star Trek”, “X-Men” and many more. He has also worked in the music industry as the stylist to artists ranging from Christina Aguilera to Outkast to the Pussycat Dolls to Leona Lewis and “Panic! at the Disco” — quite a range.

This year Anthony Franco is back with a new collection, and it’s extraordinary. I was at the runway show and it just floored the crowd. He called a few days later and said let’s shoot; I said absolutely. We’re planning on doing a short style-film and a small collection of dramatic images. Hoping to shoot in December, starting on pre-production today with the first priorities being concept development and location scouting.

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