So over the last few weeks I’ve been working with a local rock band called “Sinister Moustache” on some promotional images for their press kit. Their music really can’t be categorized, though with my limited knowledge on the topic, I’d say they sound somewhat metal. They define themselves on their Facebook page simply as “Other (Prog Rock/Jazz/Metal/Nintendo Music Hybrid Monster).” Haha.

Anyway,  they are really into sci-fi and comic book style villains, that sort of thing. They also didn’t want the images to focus too much on the guys themselves so much as their ideas and sense of humor; in the words of their agent: “yeah they’re not models.” So we knew we wanted it to be an open, narrative scene with the band members in some sort of funny scenario. And robots. They wanted robots.

Robots? Sorry, I’m fresh out. No, but really, it took some thought. First I came up with a rough sketch of the scene I envisioned. A very, very rough sketch. Let’s just say there is a reason I put my hands to work with a camera and not with a pencil. Luckily, I happen to be friends with an extremely skilled sequential artist, Andy Hirsch (another recent SCAD grad, already published and trying out for Marvel as we speak– go check out his site!). I sent him my sketch and some directions and he produced something much more helpful:

I showed it to the band and they loved the idea. Basically all the guys have escaped to the wilderness outside a city under siege by evil, mustachioed robots. They’re out in a field at dusk as they find that the horde of metal monsters has caught up with them. They are not defenseless, however– each wields an improvised weapon of some sort: chainsaw, shovel, baseball bat, molotov cocktails, etc.

Okay, fun shoot. The location is not a problem; there’s plenty of options here around Savannah (incidentally we shot on Hutchinson Island) for something like this. Props: again, no problem. I can either rent or borrow all of the weapons, and the guys will just wear whatever clothes they’re comfortable in. Lights, well I’ve got lights and and a battery pack. So that’s a check, too.

Robots? Not so easy. I racked my brain for costume ideas but nothing worked. I didn’t have the time, resources, or skill to pull off anything convincing and this shot’s humor did not rely on a low-fi aesthetic. Tin-foil-covered boxes were out of the question.

While looking for ideas at a local costume shop with a friend of mine, he suggested CGI for the robots. The thought had never crossed my mind as I had never done something like that before. But right away I could think of a few different friends of mine who were great at rendering in 3D. I got in touch with another friend, Jackie Wu. Jackie works at a motion graphics firm called UBER in London. In addition to being a very talented photographer (that’s how I first met him) Jackie is brilliant with 3D modeling. I told him about the project, sent him the sketches and he agreed to help me out!

Everything fell into place and we set a shoot date for February 28th. My friend, An Le, and I got there an hour and a half early to start pre-lighting and found our location to be overrun with rednecks. Turns out this is the weekend spot for everyone in the Savannah area to come and race four-wheelers, motorcycles, dune-buggies, and anything else with four-wheel-drive. And they had a barbecue set up right where I wanted to shoot.

These things happen. We must adapt, and that’s what we did. It took us about twenty minutes but we improvised a new location that may, in fact, have worked better than the original. We couldn’t escape the roar of their engines, but we did have plenty of space to stage our lights. Adapting the setup took some time and the band showed up twenty minutes early, but all in all, it was going as well as I could hope. The wind that threatened my softboxes several times even died down after the sun started setting. My other friends/assistants showed up and we got things rolling. We had fire for the molotovs, smoke for ambiance, and gels for the lights. It was looking good! We shot until the light was uselessly low, and then wrapped. And the reason you’re reading this post– My good friend, photographer Chris Hannant, filmed the whole thing in gorgeous HD with his 5D MkII (I’m picking one up this week!) and has done a great job editing it together to make me look much cooler than I actually am:

Chris New – Behind the Scenes from Chris Hannant on Vimeo.

Hopefully that got you hyped up! I’m currently working on the compositing and retouching for the final image and I’ll post it up here before the end of the week. Stay tuned and check back later!

UPDATE: It’s done!