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Copyright Nick White

Had a great shoot yesterday. A new collection with genius barber, Chris Foster. The shoot, amazingly, started life 3 ½ years ago!

Following on from  a shoot dubbed “Gentry” (there are shots from it in the ‘editorial’ section of my galleries), we wanted to extend the idea and create something a little more adventurous. I came up with the concept of a ‘steampunk’ inspired duel (to be fought to the death for the honour of a fair maiden). In April 2008 I took the initial sketches and produced a folder full of ideas, notes and shot lists. I ended up with a 48 page document (!) that detailed all aspects of the shoot. More like a film script than a moodboard, it was the first time I’d treated a shoot with this level of detail and thought. Yesterday the effort paid off.

Things inevitably get in the way, funding isn’t in place and shoots get delayed. When this project finally got the green light, the notes proved their worth. I’ll never do a shoot as complex as this in the future without a similar level of pre-production.

The shoot has scenes and the shots in each scene are made up of montages and composites. It can quickly become very complicated, so every shot needs careful thought and composition. The notes allowed me to shoot out of sequence (which I needed to do, to fit in with the models’ booking times and the schedule of make-up and hair) without dropping a shot. There were 27 shots in total (I shot about 750 frames) and, although we originally aimed to complete this over a three day period, being super organised allowed us to get it all done in one day, without running over and to stay within budget.

Definitely a team effort.

Copyright Nick White

Not the biggest crew I’ve worked with by any stretch, but certainly a good size. We had 9 models, including a model from France and a model that travelled to the shoot by coach from Belgium (!), 3 hairdressers, 2 make-up artists, 2 wardrobe stylists, a video crew, runners, my assistant (Tom) and me. Around 24 people in total. It was a blessing to have a studio that was up to the job. My grateful thanks go out to Nick White at Pramdog Photo Studio in London (http://pramdog.com/) for all his help, the use of his wonderful studio space and the photographs shown here.

My notes made briefing the crew a really easy task and everyone got onboard with the concept straight away.

Though the shoot was initially inspired by steampunk, I wanted to move away from it ever so slightly and more toward mainstream fashion. Our stylist, Darren Knight pulled out all the stops , blending great designers such as Vivienne Westwood with vintage Victorian outfits and a few pieces that I borrowed from friends in the music industry. This, and make-up by the very talented Keiko Mizuno, complimented the style perfectly, giving the shots a real edge.

Now I have the task of compositing all of the shots from the day into backgrounds and pulling the story together. Looks great in my head at the moment. Just need to get that onto a screen!

Here’s an unedited shot of our villain. Look forward to posting more soon.

Welcome to my new website. A big step forward from my last one. More than five times as many images for a start! More things will be added as time passes and a few bits will be tweaked and changed, but for now, enjoy. Please explore the site, I welcome your thoughts, comments and sage advice (!).

The site would still be a sketch on a piece of paper if it were not for the efforts of my good friend and ace designer Dave Baker at Falcons and Allies (david@falconsandallies.co.uk). Thanks Dave!