Stills + Motion For E-Commerce Product Launch - Sexy Gulls
Overview
Sexy Gulls is a new brand of eco-friendly, sustainable swimwear designed and manufactured in Spain and Portugal and sold in the US and Australia.
Launching their new brand and first products they needed a variety of imagery and video for social media and website. Since they were located in Australia we handled all of the production details for both of the photo shoots: creative direction, production schedules, model selection, crew, photography, videography, and post-production* (The client requested some images unretouched to be used by their marketing team at later date)
Part 1 - Marketing Launch Stills & Motion
Location:
The client wanted a luxury location, but not too “modern” so we scouted for a colorful, location with a European villa feel. Originally, we discussed a beach location, but to keep production costs lower, we decided to keep the shoot local within 30 minutes of the city.
For the first part of the project, the client needed marketing images with a model to show the luxurious quality of their swimwear with a target market of 35 y/o+ with expendable income for high-quality, sustainable, eco-swimwear shot outdoors at a pool or beach.
One of the challenges we faced with a new brand was getting the correct sizing and samples from the factory. We were photographing their first 7 key swimwear pieces as soon as possible to begin their marketing and pre-sales. As is often the case, it can take 3-5 samples to get a final product from a factory. In this case, we only received black color and the fits were not final. Knowing this we arranged for the garment designer to be at the shoot to help with fitting and to ensure the garments looked the best given the challenges with the fit of the sample garments.
SHOT LIST:
7 SWIMSUITS
2 MAKEUP / HAIR LOOKS (WET & DRY)
STILLS & MOTION
7 HOURS AT THE LOCATION
Our team created two looks, Wet and Dry and we had 7 swimsuits. We shot photo and video. We wanted to shoot everything in one day to maximize the budget. 7 changes and two looks were going to require a lot of focus from the team, so we hired an experienced agency model, a production assistant, and video assistant. I shot photography and the video assistant followed each scene with video.
In the end, we were able to overlap the two most important swimsuits in their product lineup with both a wet and dry look. We were able to achieve 9 overall sets of images and video, with two suits being shot with both wet and dry looks in a seven hour outdoor/indoor photoshoot.
Part 2 - E-Commerce
The client needed e-commerce images for their website, product pages, and social media. They wanted the images to have a clean and simple catalog feel on a clean background to be able to change backgrounds in post for a variety of uses.
We wanted to show variety in body type and skin tone, so we had two models with different body types and skin types. The client wanted a natural feel to the images so we went with natural makeup, a white seamless backdrop to allow for cutouts or backgrounds to be changed in post, and two lights with no diffusion for a specular light that felt “sunny” and warm.
The client requested limited retouching so we edited for color and basic retouches only. Video was not a priority, so a simple 360 view of the 7 primary looks and one GIF were shot during the session.
The second part of the shoot was for ecommerce use. My Team handled all of the production details and shot in our studio. This shoot was for 24 combinations of their interchangeable swimwear line and we shot all looks in one day with two models.
Marketing Ad Tears
Team:
My team and I were able to capture a wide range of looks to give the images cohesion, but not feel too redundant. We worked with a modest budget and a fast-working team to exceed the client’s expectations and give them enough content for their launch.
Production / Creative Direction / Photography: Aaron Jean
Designer: Annette Linnerup
Models: Blanka J (Tribe Models) , Michelle Alexa, Sofia Cocola
MUA: Luca Calo
Hair: Aaron Barajas
Videography: Neal Fagan
Production & Photo Assistant: @cheekydays, Willow
Client: Sexygulls.com
Behind The Scenes - On Location
Behind the scenes on location for Sexy Gulls marketing campaign shoot.
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-Aaron
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