This concept production shoot came about after I met Courtney from Hi Flying Dress through a good friend of mine. It was her suggestion that I do a Star Wars-themed shoot based on my IG Profile Pic of Yoda & that’s what got the ball rolling in my head! With the ideas that I had, I put together a 3 man crew, all of whom are amazing photographers in their own right, Brandon Kawamura, Tien Enga & Eric Malina, all very good friends of mine that I trust with my life!
Finding the talent for the shoot was definitely a no-brainer, a beautifully talented singer, actress & model…Melani! Who also is a Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter & Marvel Universe geek!!! We’ve worked on 2 projects before so we are very comfortable working together. She also found a friend, Nate, to play another character in the shoot. I had originally had him pegged as the” bad guy ” but turned it around during the post-processing edits & made her a Sith-like character, a bad guy vs. bad guy struggle.
Another issue I ran into was in post-processing, I didn’t know how to illuminate a lightsaber & have it look like the movies. Originally I was going to have Melani’s saber glow blue but changed it to the color red just because it showed better with a light background. The blue glow was barely visible on any bright background. So that evolved Melani into a Sith-like character with the red sabers.
I don’t do very many of these types of larger production shoots because of the planning, organization & stress involved!!! In fact that very morning, my 1st thought that ran through my mind was “this was the most stupid idea that I’ve ever thought of”, how am I going to light Melani, the dress, the lightsabers?!? Lol!!! That was definitely the stress & anxiety talking! When I arrived at the location at 4:45 am my friends assured me that everything will work out & it did! Surrounding yourself with a great talented team is so priceless!!! Extra Mahalo’s to my buddy Tien for securing 2 lightsabers for the shoot! And lastly, a BIG MAHALO’S to Courtney at Hi Flying Dress for providing the amazing red dress!!! The dress added so much more drama into each frame that I captured!
Disclaimer, for all you Star Wars fans out there, these aren’t traditional Star Wars characters they’re totally made up specifically for the shoot so chill out. Lol!