I’m continuing my experiments on how to do an effective model portfolio shoot on video rather than still. Earlier this week I worked with Briauna and Stace and we shot the entire 4 hours on video with a variety of poses, lighting setups, camera movements. All to a pre-selected background track to keep the rhythm in synch.
There are some interesting challenges which I’m still working through – one of them in the picture format. Most model are tall and featured in a portrait orientation for that reason. While it’s simple to turn a still camera, there is no such move on video. That means frame a very wide shot on a very narrow subject, resulting in much negative space, and in need of a big background.
But it’s an adjustment for everyone involved. It took Briauna a bit to get used to the action, and since there’s no skin retouching in video the make-up has to be spot on in front of the camera putting extra pressure on Stace. For a model portfolio shoot the video really should be a fluid sequence of standard still poses, something that takes extra focus on part of the model and directing from the DP. I’ve seen good progress on that front, but more fine tuning is needed to nail this.
Earlier this week I attended a talk by Nick Onken hosted by the Portland chapter of ASMP. Nick talked about the need to shoot with different cameras and techniques regularly to break the inevitable rhythm we get in if we do things the same way every time. I definitely feel that getting into video, apart from being fun and exciting, opening a whole new world of opportunities, is also a great way of breaking the rhythm of my still work. The rhythm of the work, the ability to work with both strobe and hotlights on set to name just a few.
Here’s the video hosted on Vimeo, and a few more freeze frames:
And two behind the scenes shots taken by Stace:
Credits: Briauna Graeber (model @ SMG), Stace Quach (hair & make-up)
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