Two posts within less than a week’s time period? And both of them are Halloween-themed?? Well definitely true for the first part. The latter could be up for debate. It just so happens that this shoot coincided with Halloween; however, it was a labor of love that has been in the works for entirely too long.
Whether it be Halloween or not, I have always been fascinated with doing shoots that would coincide with some of my favorite cinema classics. So many movies have either memorable cinematic moments or very memorable movie characters. Sometimes both. And things like that are just too good to pass up when it comes to shoot ideas.
This particular concept came from the 80s cult classic “The Warriors”. I’ve been a huge fan ever since I first saw it on VHS years ago as a kid. Of course it doesn’t hold up that well now. As with many movies from the 80s, it now looks a bit cheesy. It tried to come across as gritty back then and probably succeeded. It would seem very much tame in comparison to today’s R-rated fare. Which is probably why there is now blasphemous talk of remaking it. But again..I’m getting sidetracked. Let me stay on course about what went in to the making of this shoot…
First and foremost there was getting the costume. You would not believe how hard it is to get pin-striped baseball gear. Sure, I could have easily gotten plain pinstriped and then shopped in the logo on the back, but I wanted it to be authentic. There was only one place to get the entire get-up through Amazon. Of course just my luck, it wasn’t eligible for Prime two-day delivery. Because it was on backorder, it almost didn’t make it in time for the shoot. What should have taken 3-4 days to get to me took nearly two weeks. Good thing I was thinking ahead when ordering it anticipating such a delay so that it did ultimately get here in time.
Then there was the question of who I would get to play the gang members. Well getting a few people to do it was out for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s hard enough trying to get one schedule to gel let alone several. No way that would work with the way people’s schedules are these days. Then there was the issue of the pinstriped jersey. It was also too much of a chore getting just one. Definitely didn’t want to get more than one. And again, especially not if it meant running the risk that someone would flake out last minute. So I went with someone I knew I could count on and that was Julie.
Reliability wasn’t the only thing that factored in when going with Julie as the model. She also had very similar bone structure in her face as the characters in the movie. Because let’s face it…they were a little effeminate. But more importantly, she’s a trooper. To pull this off, she would have to get in makeup for one character, shoot quick then take it off and get in makeup for the next. A total of 4 times during the course of one shoot. Not every model could pull that off, but Julie nailed it like a champ.
Then there was the MUA and of course there was only one that came to mind: my go-to MUA Alex. You can see it’s not an elaborate look; however, it’s a look that had to be flawless and quick. The MUA had to be able to get the makeup on photo-ready, then get it off and get the new look on. A total of 4 times during the course of one shoot. Actually, it was originally my idea to just do it a couple of times. Nope. Alex made it clear she could do it that many times with ease. And just like my right choice for the model, Alex knocked her role out the park too.
Last but certainly not the least most important part of pulling all this off was the editing. Because I was only using one model, I would have to do a composite edit of one image and multiple versions of her in it. I made sure she had a different pose with each different look. Then of course, one pose to show off the back of jersey. But the biggest challenge was getting all the images to come together as one composite. I may not have gotten all the shadowing just how I wanted, but I still think it came out rather nicely. Although everyone won’t appreciate this as much as I do, it was a personal project YEARS in the making that I’m so glad could finally come to fruition.