One of the amazing finalist images that appeared in the Advertising & Fashion category of the inaugural Capture Awards had us puzzled as to how it was shot. Initially, this comedically inclined ‘stunt photo’ for the Weather Anything campaign for Macpac, looked as if the image was cobbled together in post.
In a conversation with outdoors / lifestyle New Zealand based photographer Vaughan Brookfield, we learnt that it was actually done for real on location using ropes and safety harnesses.
Vaughan has kindly taken the time to give us some insight into the production side of what could be seen as an extreme lifestyle comedy shoot.
Pre-Production
Are there any other photographers or specific sources out there you glean inspiration from?
So many. My inspiration comes from everywhere - old books and illustrations, amazing talented photographers and filmmakers, artists, and creatives in agencies. It’s always great checking out Luerzersarchive.com. It has really interesting articles, and if you’re looking for guidance with pricing yourself it’s worth checking out Rob Haggart’s Instagram. There is so much in there.
What is your typical creative process when planning a photo shoot?
Every photoshoot has a different process. It totally depends on the brief, and at what stage you become involved in it. Sometimes I’m involved from the concept stage when you are just throwing around ideas, and trying to figure out if they will work, and sometimes I am handed a very polished brief from a creative standpoint. I like to be involved as much as possible and as early as possible.
Who came up with this concept?
Hugh Gurney & Joe Sibley from The Monkeys. Those guys are amazing talents and this idea was all them. Along with I’m sure a lot of input from Damien Shatford the director.
Who is in your team?
My team was super small for this. I was shooting on the side of a TVC so they had done all the leg work on this. I try to be as low key as possible and not be much of a hassle. I shot this while Damien directed the TVC. I had one assistant/ digital tech.
Great location! Did you already know about this cliff face, or did you have to scout numerous ones to find one to suit?
The local scouts here are great, they found this spot. It’s just off the top of Coronet Peak so It worked perfectly, had easy access for all the crew and had the perfect spot to shoot from that makes the talent appear as if they are really high up.
Describe the pre-production process for us. Casting would have been difficult as you need models who fit the part, but also have some experience in rock-climbing perhaps? Also, as it is both a stills and video advertisement, they’d need to have some speaking performance.
This was all covered by The Sweetshop, Katie Kempe (producer) and Damien are extremely experienced and found excellent talent. No climbing experience was needed for this one as we had an amazing stunt team who had all the crew rigged on ropes that could be lowered or brought up from the ground on a motorised pully setup.
Shoot Day
What gear did you use? Were you shooting from a helicopter at any time?
No helicopter was needed for this shoot. We had a perfect ground position right across from the talent which made everything a lot more straight forward. I shot tethered on a medium format because we needed high resolution for the outputs. The final image would be going up on the side of buildings and printed very large. I shot extra plates where required to cover all outputs. The detail is immense in this image. It was great having so much time with the talent as it gave me time to get them in many positions and I was able to check everything was just right on the monitor.
How was the talent held in place?
Ropes – lots of ropes. Each talent was held separately on their own rope that could be adjusted on a pulley. It was a very technical setup by the stunt crew.
Did you use any / much lighting? Or just shoot on an overcast day?
I didn’t use any lighting when shooting the talent on the cliff. I did use some lighting to replicate the light on the day for detailed shots of the jacket in case we needed to comp it in to the hero images if we couldn’t get the jacket in the right position on the day.
Were there any funny / memorable moments that happened on the shoot day?
Just the dialogue was amazing, I love that dry New Zealand humour, everyone was in a happy mood on the day and the shoot ran very stress free.
Have you moved into video or are primarily stills?
I primarily shoot stills. When I get requests to film I generally feel they are asking me to film because of the style of my work, so I tend to be more interested in directing that style rather than operating the camera. I only shot the stills on this production. The TVC was directed by Damien Shatford and produced by Katie Kempe at The Sweetshop.
Post Production
Apart from removing the cables, was there a lot of digital work in post?
All images were shot on the day at this location so that made things a lot easier at the back end. It gave Dave the ability to make it look as natural as possible and not overly “fake” or stitched together out of studio. It was mostly cables removed, colour correction and extending more background to increase the quality.
Tell us a bit about your process or attitude towards photography.
I thrive in the outdoors, around nature. I love the process of creating and if someone can look at my work and it takes them to a certain place or gives them a deeper feeling, I feel I have done what I set out to do.
Any interesting personal / commercial projects coming up?
Lots! I have a few projects I have been sitting on for a while that have already been shot – one is a project I have been working on few a few years now about plant collectors, I will be release some images from that project very soon and I just finished a rather large global campaign that is in the final stages of retouch before it goes live.
You can see more of Vaughan's incredible work here.