Pirelli Video Shoot (Behind The Scenes)
2014 was the 50th anniversary of the iconic Pirelli Calendar. So they wanted something really special to celebrate such an important milestone. Who better encapsulates the essence of Pirelli than Helmut Newton?He is probably the most imitated (and controversial) erotic & fashion photographer of his time. Pirelli usually release a video of the making of the Pirelli calendar prior to the launch. But in 2014, as the images were all shot by Newton in 1986, this was impossible. So Pirelli commissioned Utopia Productions to produce a film to capture a flavour of Newton’s style. This would be used to introduce the calendar at the star-studded launch party in Milan on 21st November 2013.
Utopia contacted us as they saw a similarity between our photography and Helmut Newton’s work. They loved the creative lighting we use in our images. We worked with Utopia to style and storyboard the film and we sourced two gorgeous models, Noemi & Bex. We wanted to mirror the theme of some of the images from the Calendar in the film, so we asked Pirelli if they could send us some of their branded tyres to use as props. The next day we took delivery of two Pirelli Porsche tyres and as an added bonus they had sent us an F1 tyre too!! As avid F1 fans we were thrilled to have one in our studio for the shoot (but carrying it around the studio was hard work – those things are mighty heavy!).
The Shoot
The film was shot at the Mighty Aphrodite studio over two days with Leigh taking on the role of lighting director and helping to direct the models throughout the shoot. We shot everything in Mighty Aphrodite’s signature lighting style. It was really exciting to see our work on video rather than stills – we had so much fun! After the first day shooting with Hungarian Model Noemi, Stuart at Utopia sent a very quick edited taster video to Pirelli in Milan to get their reaction. They loved it and wanted to see more! The second day we worked with model Bex who we have worked with for our tutorials many times. We were all exhausted by the end of the shoot we had shot so much material!
The footage was then edited together by Utopia to produce an amazing film. This was shown at the Pirelli 50th Anniversary party in front of an audience of 800 people. The guests included some of the most famous models & photographers in the world from the last 50 years of the Pirelli Calendar. We are incredibly proud to be a part of the history of such an icon of the world of photography.
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