Behind the Scenes shooting an ad campaign in China
August 14, 2012 2:34 pmLast month I spent 7 days shooting in Guangzhou for China Southern Airlines. The campaign was for the new Airbus A380, the biggest passenger airplane on the planet. It’s a double decker the entire length of the plane and most large airports have made expensive infrastructure changes to accommodate them.
Shooting for an airline is a tricky job for 2 specific reasons: The first being that the airline doesn’t own the airport and therefore security and equipment create a ton of diplomatic hurdles. The second problem is that every minute that airplane isn’t in the air, the airline is losing thousands of dollars – especially during the day when most flights are full. So with the exception of the studio days, most of the shooting started in the evening and went into the morning. Instead of 10 hour days we usually shot for 14, mostly to maximize our time and get the most out of each shoot day.
Someday soon I’ll do another post the the final images from the campaign, but below are a few images from behind the scenes.
My incredible first assistant Lu. He dresses this way on every photo shoot - camelback and all.
The beginning of day 2: making lighting diagrams for my assistants.
Going through layouts
Lighting test
Pizza break in Guangzhou, China during a shoot for China Southern Airlines.
Art directors and talent looking at some of the first day's work.
Group shot at the end of the studio portion of the shoot.
Because of security, we weren't allowed to have any lighting on the ground outside for the first 2 days on location. So we improvised.
The end of the last day. 9 AM finish time.
9 Comments
Extremely interesting, Reed. Thanks for the post! Now I know how hard this work is for you, the godawful hours. Not for the faint of heart or wimps!
Reed,
You are amazing! I simply love looking at your work.
Mary
Love the behind the scenes shots! Amazing work!!!
such an interesting backstage, can’t wait to see rhe final result. Congrats Reed!
Jac
it is nice to see that you and your amazing talent are getting such recognition. i love the pic of you, the model airplane and the two stewardess/models. you have come a long way from shooting pics of hippies in santa barbara 10 years ago! ahahahahhaha
Pretty sweet, Reed! Next time we go out in New York, you’re wearing that captain’s hat the entire night.
I love Lu’s shooting outfit, complete with a backwards American flag 🙂
Congrats! Great work!
you always rock 🙂