Child of Light
A few years back I was working with a production company in the UK who approached me with an intriguing project. They had a fantasy short in production and not only did they want me to edit it, but they wanted a series of portraits made of the main cast for the promotional materials.
The challenge was that due to the nature of the shoot the cast would never be in the same place at once so on top of location stills, the studio portraits all had to be done on location with a portable studio. Whether in ancient halls, towering hilltops, windy beaches, or cold forests, we had to overcome the obstacles and come away with the imagery.
This meant planning. What to bring to get the job done, but also making sure it was portable enough that we could get it to our locations. Power would be an issue, both having enough of it to overpower the ambient light on location, and having a source. To go ultra lightweight I could have used battery powered speed light flashes. But these wouldn’t be able to confidently overpower the ambient and would give little ability to add modifiers to sculpt the light as I wished. Not ideal.
Instead I chose to use Einstein studio flash units with large battery packs from Paul C Buff (who I later found are serendipitously based in my new home of Nashville, TN). It was an increase in weight and size, but manageable enough. This afforded me everything I’d need to get a consistent look from the varied environments we’d be shooting in.
The shoot lasted 4 days across 5 locations. I was able to schedule the cast between scenes and bring them to my portable studio as the crew setup what came next for the production. Working closely with the film’s director I was able to apply the vision for the short to how I worked with the actors and highlight those traits desired in their performances.
You can see the portraits we produced below, as well as some behind the scenes of our studio locations. And if you want to see the trailer for Child of Light, you can jump over to my Drama Showreel page to see it.
