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Bond No.9 which has up until now only created fragerances with a NYC theme with names such as Park Avenue, Madison Soiree, and Andy Warhol/Lexington Avenue, has stepped off Manhatten and crossed the pond for the first time. Three fragerances have been released, Harrods for Him and for Her, with the Harrods Swarovski Limited Edition incorporating the exterior of the knightsbridge store on the unique shape of the Bond No. 9 Bottle.
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We wanted to do something a little different for the fashion pages with this story. Having shot the images Billy then set about creating brush strokes and paint splashes over each image. We had to add a couple of background features in two of the images but other than that the photos had little manipulation other than the illustration.
Check out Billy's website for more of his work www.vpazionis.com. Here's to our next project together.
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These images all feature Sea Cadets from around the country on the Training
Ship Royalist. Nigel spent a week on the Tall Ship sailing around Devon and
Cornwall. The series will run across all media over the next year...
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The main campaign consisted of images made up of various urban landscape elements, which were shot in the cities of Paris and Lyon. These elements were then put together to create an almost surreal environment. Using the latest 3D CGI techniques, the cars and typo were finally created within these scenes.Additional landscapes were shot using a dolly and travelling rig, for the remainder of the project. However, unlike the main 'static' campaign, these landscapes were shot to give the impression of movement, such as 'panning' or 'car to car' effects. The cars were then created in 3D within these scenes, as above. Finally, a spinning movement was added to the wheels using traditional 2D techniques.
My experiences with 3D CGI to date have all been with personal projects, which I have followed through from conception to realisation. Although I have always worked within a team to create these images, I have always had the supervising roll on these projects. My learning curve however, was about to change direction radically with the arrival of my first commissioned series for the Renault electric campaign.
Various solutions had to be found during the project, due to the large number of elements needed to fulfil the brief and layouts that had been sold to the client. (It was impossible to find real locations to comply with the briefs, which is why they had to be shot as individual elements).
The buildings in the background of 'Be Zen', for example had to be shot at a certain height and distance to be credible within the final image. Choice of optics, light and time of day were also important details, especially in terms of perspective and continuity with other elements such as the foreground. This was perhaps the biggest problem encountered during the shoot. Initially, suitable buildings had to be found, but gaining access to a building opposite to shoot from, at a suitable height and distance, posed the greatest challenge.
Interestingly, the static images for the French campaign, were all conceived with advertising slogans in English. These slogans were designed to highlight and promote the green credentials of this new range of electric cars.
During proposals at the initial meetings for the project, it was quite interesting as an Englishman, to hear the perception of the French creative team, regarding the English language. For example, I tried to explain that 'Be Electric' was ok, but that 'Its Electric' was better! 'Be Zen' had already been proposed and ok'd, therefore to use 'Be' a second time seemed repetitive. However, 'Be' it was and 'Be' it was going to be - so much for an Englishman's proposal!
As with my personal 3D projects, I fought for the right to place each car individually into each scene or location. This was fundamental to the success of the project. I have learnt through experience that composition and perspective are extremely important when composing an image. Time and patience should always be respected whilst placing an object such as a car into the landscape.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this project. It was very hard work, but the feeling of satisfaction at the end of the campaign was well worth the effort. Working with the creative and retouch teams was a pleasure, even if we were tested to the limit at times.
In hindsight and concerning a future project, I would definitely try to keep the number of different elements to a minimum within each final image. Personally I prefer, the reality and simplicity of the movement images. They remain dynamic, whilst the static images promote a more surreal look.
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The new images are for the Cafe and Food To Go departments and will be featured in the run up to Christmas. The ever popular burger will have stilton to tie it in with Christmas and the mince pie.... well Christmas isn't Christmas without a mince pie!
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We held a casting for shadows, which was a little odd as trying to direct a shadow can be entertaining, and we really needed to make sure we had a model who could move very well, oh and a sense of humour.
The shoot was helped out by a great team from InStyle, Roberta ( our stylist ) proved to be a master at shadow direction, while our model Simona went from wondering what on earth we were up to, to fits of giggles. Aaron managed to create some wonderful styles with Simona's hair that actually translated into a shadow extremely well which looked a little tricky at times.
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Paul recalls... "after much manipulation of landscapes shot earlier this year in Iceland, I was left with an intriguing series of images that I really wanted to use, but 'lacked a little something'. Together with one of my favourite retouch companies in Paris, we decided that these images would make a great bases for a 3D CGI series"
One idea from Paul's retouch colleges was to construct a giant floating bubble within one of the scenes, created in 3D. All agreed that this would enhance the rather surreal atmosphere of the original images. An alternative idea was to do the opposite & try to create a heavy engineering theme within the scenes.
He continues... "I personally found the real pieces of ice in the pictures so incredibly pure & beautiful, that I needed to find a contradiction to challenge the viewer. Thinking along engineering and apocalyptic lines, I came up with the idea of trying to create some abandoned disused oil pumps. The feedback so far has been very interesting, with some creatives believing that the ice had been created in 3D! Seriously though, the ice really is real...."
Technically, the project was very challenging. Paul had already completed various 3D car projects, but had never attempted to create objects other than a car.
The oil pumps in particular were tricky for the retouch team. The construction of the objects was time consuming, but the real difficulty was with the texturing of the forms themselves. Both oil, rust & weathering effects had to be created & applied to the structures to help with the continuity of the images. The final apocalyptic touch was to add a broken oil-rig platform in the background of this second image.
In comparison with the oil pumps, the bubble shot was more straightforward. Texturing the surface of the bubble was done in four layers however, including an important reflective layer.
Above is a close up of the second image to show detail of the 3D construction
Look out next month for Paul's campaign on Renault electric cars, which were launched recently at the Frankfurt motor show.
Purple Creative commission Nigel to shoot the launch of a 50-year old whiskey...
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Working with Creative Director Gary Westlake from Purple Creative, the series was shot on location at the Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland and details the people and processes associated with the making of the most expensive 50-year old Scotch whiskey.
The whiskey, released in 500 individually numbered, hand-blown glass bottles with labels crafted from silver retail for around £5000 each!
These images feature the Coopers and the Warehouse where the barrels have been stored for the last fifty years. More from this series can be seen in 'portfolio three' on the web site...
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Working
with
Food
Stylist
Lizzie
Harris,
these
over
indulgent
desserts
are
truly
mouth-watering...
yum!
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Working closely with freelance Art Director Billy Allinson, the brief was to link Barbour with the environment in a dramatic and natural way...
Nigel's crew, comprising Producer Christine Harding, Hair & Make Up Mini Magan, Nigel's assistant Mike and models Rob Barnes from Oxygen and Ruby Kerr all worked their socks off as the locations faced either East or West - meaning 03.30 alarm calls and 21.00 wraps! Although the crew did find time to relax...
The full series of images from this campaign can be seen on the web site...
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Adrian shot Ryan Giggs on Location in Spain for the September issue of Men's Health. This was a relatively straight forward shoot save for the fact that we had to interrupt Ryan's family holiday in Spain.Ash wanted to produce some images that communicated skill and agility but in a location that didn't shout football so we found a fantastic villa located in the Marbella beach club which had plenty of space and was very secluded.
Some sharp time negotiation meant we ended up with a two hour slot including our interview time so with a couple of hours to pre light and get well prepared, we were well on our way.
As ever, it's the small things that slow us down and on this occasion it was the arrival of the trampoline which was cutting it a little fine. With 20 minutes to spare it arrived and was put together and tested in record time.
We even got a rare few minutes to relax by the pool before heading off to catch the plane back!
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These shots were taken during a days shoot at Jamie Oliver's HQ in North London. The feature was about hollandaise sauces and the recipes included a mouthwatering steak with the ubiquitous hollandaise sauce
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