on assignment : cardboard cut-outs on a windy day
March 9th, 2009 | Published in featured, on assignment
A client asked me to shoot some promotional pictures for a new campaign. This involved shooting life-size cardboard cutouts of children, placed in realistic looking situations around Cardiff Bay and in Swansea city centre. Fortunately for me, they supplied a van and an assistant for the day…
So, what are the worst possible weather conditions in which to shoot cardboard cutouts? Hmmm, wind perhaps? Yes, the day we shot these pics was INCREDIBLY windy with just a little bit of torrential rain!
We started down in Cardiff Bay and did our best to tie the cutouts to railings, benches and lamposts, whilst still making them look “real”. Not easy. With Jack, the runner, helpfully running around picking up the cutouts every time they fell over, we managed to shoot a few decent pictures, but decided that we would head to Swansea and see if the weather was any better over there, then come back to Cardiff later in the day, when frankly the weather couldn’t have been any worse than it was already. Nothing to lose.
The rain didn’t stop but the wind was less of a problem in Swansea’s Castle Square and we got a nice range of different shots there. And quite a few funny looks from shoppers!
Back to Cardiff and still it rained, but we’d had a bit more practice now, and managed to find a few spots that were sheltered from the worst of the wind. A couple more goods shots and we were done. Wet, cold and tired but successful!
This is a perfect example of a job which I simply could not have done single-handed. Having an assistant to help carry and arrange the props, keep an eye on equipment and provide a second pair of eyes when scouting for locations was invaluable. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to set up one of those cut-outs and run back to the shooting position, only to have the cutout fall over and have to repeat the process over and over again?
Here’s a few of the pictures…
