More Transformable...

Behind the Scenes for Ximena Valero project. (Photo by Sandra Jara Photography

As the the campaign for Transformable Fashion continued, I was more than happy to learn that I would be working with entrepreneur Victoria Parker of Simply Artrageous.  Victoria's store is dedicated to providing high quality, hand crafted, women's accessories at more than affordable prices.  Each piece is simply a work of art.

This wouldn't be our first time working together, you can see her in my short films Hallow and  What's The Last Thing You Remember?  It has always been a pleasure working with her and I was excited to see what this new venture would bring.

Our day began in Ximena Valero's studio, I wanted shots of Victoria journeying through the clothing racks in search of the perfect outfit.  I mostly experimented with tight shots and movement, I tried my best to avoid anything stationary.  One of the best things about shooting in Ximena's studio is the great source of natural light.  It's a corner studio with windows all around, I didn't have to worry to much about dark spots or hard lighting.  The buildings surrounding us became a diffuser for direct sunlight.

As that part of the shoot came to a close it was time to venture out into downtown Los Angeles.  A good amount of filming took place in Pershing Square.  The open space and architecture gave me plenty of opportunities to set up shots.  Luckily the sunlight wasn't too harsh so I didn't have to worry about the footage getting blown out.


Photos by Sandra Jara Photography

When we began shooting the final scene, a.k.a. the big reveal, an issue surfaced. As the day came to a close so did the natural light.  Normally this could be resolved with artificial lighting, unfortunately it wasn't in the budget so I had to work with what I had.  Literally Victoria and I ran all around downtown trying to capture any remaining rays of sunlight.  The tall buildings I praised earlier for being great diffusers during the interior shots, now become our archenemies. 

I know magic hour would have been great to shoot in, but as I said, the buildings eliminated any efforts for this.  Luckily we were able to get the remaining shots and wrap just before the darkness took over.  

In the end I was happy with the final product which can be seen here.  I felt the voice over provided by Victoria, really helped to shape the pace and feel of the video.  The voice over in this and other Transformable Fashion videos were not scripted, they came from an interview recorded later on with the subject.  The idea behind this was to get a natural and genuine opinion on the subject of beauty.   I believe you can hear this in Victoria's words and that of the other participants.

- Manuel Montanez