Behind the Featurette

Monday January 3rd, 2011

Los Angeles-based photographer Christopher Kilkus is a multi-tasker. He manages to produce still shots and video in a single fashion shoot, and he uses the video format to produce something beyond the old behind-the-scenes format.

Take, for example, a recent video shot for the Canadian brand Urban Planet, part of a company called YM Inc., which operates several large chain stores across Canada.

Christopher sent this over, explaining that while it may have looked like a behind-the-scenes video during filming, he edits these shots later on into “little movies.” He explained, “we have been shooting these just like we would a behind-the-scenes video, but concentrate on cutting the crew out of it and taking the models aside any chance we get to capture a little footage just for video.” Though Christopher describes some of the production process on his blog, I wanted to know more about the concept.

The basic goal, as Christopher explained, is to capture the brand effectively:

This brand likes to have a bit of drama and sexiness in their campaigns, so we give these videos a bit of that, as well as maintaining the “flavor” of what we are doing for the still campaign. The story and look for these videos often develops organically based on our situation during the still shoot, but we always keep these two points in mind while shooting.

To pursue video while doing the still shoot is complicated. “We frankly don’t have a lot of time to devote to the video on these shoots,” Christopher said. “It’s almost a matter of luck as to when we will have time to pull the model aside to shoot a video segment.” With this spontaneous format, it often turns out that “we have captured a different story than what we planned.” This means that the story really comes out in the editing process.

I got in touch with Ian McLelland, art director for Urban Planet, to get another perspective on Christopher’s work. Here’s Ian’s take on the use of the video:

The main reason we produce these videos, or ‘featurettes’, is to have a brand presence and new content generated for social media sites such as Facebook & YouTube. Aside from that I believe the video really gives our brand marketing another dimension—it gives life to a series of static images. Video editing can be far more persuasive than a single image, so it really affords us the opportunity to create a very specific mood.

Ian told me that he’s a fan of Christopher’s photographic style: “he’s always able to adapt well to any concept thrown at him, as well as remaining flexible to our demands.” Because of this flexibility, Christopher really does make the most of the circumstances: “his team is great at sneaking in and getting what they need to create something in post production, especially because we don’t dedicate any time specifically for video at all. ”

-Asad