Adidas Lions Tour
Adrian Recently shot a series of images to promote the Adidas lions rugby kit for the current tour of South Africa.
The brief from Mark and Sam at Brothers and Sisters was to capture in game moments that showed power, determination and plenty of sweat whilst being well lit and crafted in the studio so the shots could then be combined with stock footage to create the final images. And of course we would only have 20-30 minutes with the player!!
The idea was to allow the players to run along the matting while handing off assistants with tackle bags and to then hit at as close to full speed as possible the "Moof" as if they were running into a South African player during a game. This involved a couple of half speed test run's to ensure the player and crew knew exactly where to be and what to expect. Then we would go for a full speed take. The players initially were a little concerned for the assistants but after a couple of takes they seemed to get into the mood and the hits came in thick and fast. We needed to shoot using high speed flash and plenty of it so that we could create sequences for each of the players from start to finish. Also because we wanted the players moving over a large distance Adrian wanted to create walls of light for the players to move along and through.
The make-up artist would dirty the player with the earth and grass as well as add some sweat and a little baby oil for good measure!
20 mins later after several sequences and a variety of different angles it was all over done and dusted and on to the next player.
Looking through the lens with Paul O'Connell charging at you at full pelt is pretty scary but then at the last minute he would jink left drop his shoulder and charge into "Moof" who would then fly through the air and land on the crash mat. I'd like to say it hurt me more than him but that would be a lie!! We couldn't have done this shoot without our crash test dummy (and of course Michelle, Billy and Dee who all stayed un-battered) but boy did he love it especially when Andrew Sheridan walked into the room!!!
