March 6th, 2010 Here's some behind the scenes from today's new Gertrude Zachary billboard and print ad campaign. We had an 8:30 am start time, and basically went all day shooting about a dozen or so different styling concepts for their various ad medias. I know the quality of these behind-the-scenes shots kind of sucks, but the battery in the little camera we use was dead (forgot to charge it the night before) and so some of the shots I had to take with my iPhone.

They brought in about a hundred pieces of jewelry ranging in stone type and color. The jewelry is just gorgeous by itself, but when we put it on our beautiful model Alma, it really gives it life. The makeup, hair and styling can take some time, and amounts to about as much time as the actual shooting of each sequence. As part of my job I decide whether the hair should be still, fanned, wet or brought up. Our makeup artist for the day Whitney works on all the makeup designs and touchups, and Gertrude's staff does the jewelry selection and styling, with input from me on what's going to work best with the general shot concepts or sequence themes. The model follows the direction I give to bring out the energy, mood and overall essence of each shot as I see it in my head. Is all a collaboration of creative and technical aspects that molds together to become what you see out on the freeways and in magazines. Around noon we broke for lunch and had some pizza brought in, which always makes everyone happy.

As always, big thanks to the crew for such positive energy on set and for doing such a stellar and professional job. Look for the finished billboards up around the end of March or so I'm guessing. :)

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