Behind the Scenes – Styling for Hypnos Photoshoot
Last week I had the pleasure of joining Hypnos on a Photoshoot for their international lookbook. Five days, three locations, lots of steaming and copious amounts of coffee. What a week!
This was the second shoot that I have assisted on for Hypnos, the first being back in July, so I knew exactly how the week would plan out and what to expect…again, lots of steaming! I was assisting Sarita Sharma as a stylist who has taken me under her wing as a regular assistant – she’s incredibly talented and we share the same love for chocolate and coffee which can be kind of dangerous on a long shoot like this one, those 4pm chocolate snacks on my lips are beginning to take toll on my hips i’m sure…
This particular shoot was aimed for the international clientele so the shoot was taken in three different locations, all of which had stunning features and bold architecture which pretty much allowed the location to do all of the talking in the shots (so to speak). Throughout the week I was taking some amateur snaps to create some behind-the-scenes images. Chris Ward, the marketing director of Hypnos was also taking some photos and we ended up having a ‘battle of the snaps’.
Throughout the week we shot six different beds, each dressed with a range of different bedlinen and matching accessories to show off the headboards and bed frames. We used a limited amount of props not to distract attention away from the bed but to add a little reality and create a ‘lived-in’ look.
Once the sets were ready it was time to take the shots. Dominic Blackmore, the photographer on shoot would begin taking a series of shots each with different exposure times to get different lighting effects. Well, at least I think thats the right term… I’m extremely amateur at anything photography related. I’m generally always baffled but also very intrigued at how the shots are captured…Waving bright ring lights around to create different shadows and highlighting certain elements in a shot… it’s pretty amazing!
Now, I don’t like to call myself a model (because y’all know just as much as me that I’m not!), but I did have my first taste of what it could be like in the modelling world on this shoot. I can honestly say that I would NEVER want to be a model. Just for the record, (incase you hadn’t already guessed) I like chocolate way too much.
On the second and third bedroom scene I was asked to step in as a ‘model’. At first it started off as an ongoing joke but I soon realised that I was probably the only one joking. So here we have it. My extremely embarrassing but ‘look at me I’m a model’ shots…
In the second location I was also asked to step in on the background scene. ‘Pour a cup of tea’ they said, ‘Read the newspaper’ they said. Gosh modelling is exhausting ya know…
The scene shown above was probably my favourite from the whole week. This particualar location had a very ‘loft-apartment’ feel and it was SO SPACIOUS. It was almost as if we were shooting in a studio, but it was actually someones home.
SIDE NOTE: We were hunting for a kettle in this location for about 10 minutes in need of a cuppa. Apparently kettles are no longer a thing here. They had a boiling water tap!!?
It was great meeting some of the Hypnos team who followed us around on truck for the whole week delivering the Hypnos beds to the locations. Alex and Tony were helping us on shoot but spend the rest of their working time actually making the beds and mattresses! It was pretty fascinating hearing how they are manufactured and also seeing this WHOPPING 12 inch needle that they use to stitch the mattress together.
I’ve added in some final shots below of any extra snaps that I captured throughout the week. My camera roll is seriously overflowing with oodles of pictures from different shoots.
And finally, on the last day I was asked to make a short video of some behind-the-scenes action. On this particular day we were shooting two different scenes.
Fun fact: This is the same location where the BT Infinity advert was shot!
Another successful shoot complete and many more booked in! Watch this space!
