Do a Little Dance, Make a Little Love With Sunbounce's Campaign Featuring Irina Kazakova

It’s widely known in the professional photography business that Sunbounce is the industry standard when it comes to light reflectors. HBI (Hasselblad Bron Imaging, the US Distributor of Sunbounce) recently asked me to demonstrate how I utilize their reflectors in my workflow. I was honored and pleased to know that I had the attention of the world’s leading lighting reflector company. For the past decade plus, I have been an avid believer and user of Sunbouce products.

I remember the very first reflector from Sunbounce that I had in my tool kit. It was a beat up 4x6 GOLD/WHITE that I religiously dragged around the globe on my photoshoots. It was my go-to lifesaving tool. It served as an umbrella, a tablecloth, a bag, a beach towel, a sail, a changing station, a sweater for models and finally found its home in a village in Kenya with a local priest who fell in love with the faded golden surface that was still reflecting light. The village’s high priest could not be convinced, no matter what I said to him in order to keep my favorite tool, that it wasn't a holy gift from the gods. Well, maybe there is a Sunbounce god after all.

Since I miss my Sunbounce reflector, the offer to produce a video for a Sunbounce campaign that would demonstrate what makes my lighting style so unique and makes my images’ colors pop could not have come at a better time. I now own quite a few reflectors that Sunbounce sent me for the production: Zebra, Black Hole, Zig-Zag Gold/White, Light-Grey, Silver, the unique Sun-Strip and the must have Sun-Swatter. (I have not told them yet that I am not shipping them back!)

After watching Sunbounce's existing videos, I realized they had plenty of behind the scenes and educational clips that I should not simply duplicate. I was told that the reason why I was given the assignment was because HBI CEO Michal Hejtmanek was impressed by my video "The Bow" that I produced in Santorini. As a photographer, I say no challenge is too small or too big. But the possibility of making something impressive that would live up to Hasselblad's expectations was another story completely.

Knowing that Hasselblad judges a photographer for their last best creation, I now had to raise my game. The "Bow" video featured beautiful Santorini landscapes which are very impressive and hard to beat. The model sure helped but the creativity and the concept would need to out-do the past and set the bar for the future.

One of my conditions for taking up the challenge was to have full freedom to produce my own vision. I had some soul searching and pondering to do about what would impress viewers. It would have to be something that you don't see every day. After all, HBI’s expectations were sky-high and what else would anybody expect from a leading reflector company anyway?

Most photographers are familiar with Sunbounce products. I wanted to unleash the power of Sunbounce and demonstrate the unusual but common functionalities which are mostly known among professionals. I love using natural light and with their reflectors I can achieve a perfect balance between beauty and performance.

I contacted the world famous dancer Irina Kazakova to see if she was interested in the project. And luck was on my side as she said yes. You might not be familiar with Irina Kazakova by her name and neither was I until I was blown away by watching her Russian national gymnastics team performances on TV. Since seeing those, I dreamed that one day I’d be able to work with a true full-blooded professional dancer of her caliber in a serious project. And that dream was now about to come true. Irina takes her moves and performance more seriously than any other dancer I have worked with and she utilizes it to achieve perfection.

We started with a casual meeting together at the Temple House Studios in Miami. I asked her to show me something impressive after she asked me, "What would you like me to do?” I told her to dance and forget that I was there. I wanted to see how the light and motion was going to affect and accent her beautiful form. I found myself in awe, requesting her to move certain ways while I was taking notes. It was beautiful to watch a world-class artist who has dedicated her entire life to her magical craft.

I was inspired with ideas that just kept flowing with Irina's performance. It was such a beautiful and harmonic dream-like state that I was not able to get enough of it. Some of her moves where fast and some slower. Just like photographers vary with several expertise levels, so do dancers. I was astounded by the realization that she was much better than any dancer I had ever worked with previously.

The longer I watched Irina's performance, the more the challenge grew knowing that there was no way to reflect any light on some of her moves unless I grew wings to fly alongside her magnificent performance. Then again, I thought, Sunbounce might give me the wings that I need. And they sure did.

Photographers live for great light. Everything begins with a vision and without light there would be very little to cherish. Since this project is all about motion and lighting, I wanted to shoot in a location with flat lighting to emphasize how Sunbounce reflectors can be utilized to revive any lighting situation by choosing the right product.

Camera's/ Equipment Used:

RED Epic Dragon
Canon 5D Mark II
iPhone 6
Sunbounce reflectors

Wardrobe also played a big role and who better than Irina herself who gave me a tour of her closet and its contents. You can imagine a woman's closet and her collections of shoes from which to choose. Never underestimate the power of wardrobe and what it can do for your shoot/production. Her red dress and the silver performing outfit as seen in the video were perfect choices to demonstrate form and beauty in motion. In general, the color red is quite difficult to light correctly as it tends to look over saturated. This is where the strength of Sunbounce becomes the king and its selective variety of reflectors is the essence.

Special thanks to Irina Kazakova and her incredible personality and performance. Derrick Doty, Robert Ashby, Joe Tejeda, Temple House Studios, Lenny Routher and his beautiful pool.

For more information on Sunbouce products, go to www.Sunbounce.com

Jarmo Pohjaniemi

An Explosive Afternoon with Director Michael Bay: Truly a Transforming Experience

One of the coolest and the geekiest places on earth for “my” kind is film director Michael Bay’s personal editing studio, especially when Mr. Bay himself is leading the tour and “Transformers 4” is on the cutting room table for a sneak peek!

All this came about when I was asked to shoot a promo for Mr. Bay for his new eight-episode original series on Starz called “Black Sails” (a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island”), and a spot for an upcoming tribute to fellow director and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

It has been said that you can learn a great deal from the masters and Mr. Bay turned out to be one of the most laid-back guy of his caliber. However, don’t mistake his calm demeanor as a weakness because behind the camera, he’s in charge and sets the pace. One of the first things he says before our shoot is, “Hey, I’m terrible in front of the camera.” Well, terrible also comes in different levels of experience! His “terrible” equals what other actors would call a true class act from start to finish.

The purpose of this post is to shed the insights, information and common interests that photographers and cinematographers often share. Actually, Michael also has shot a still pictorial for Playboy called “Lights, Camera, Fantasy” featuring Playboy Playmates and it goes without saying that the pictorial was a hit. Most successful directors have extensive experience in still photography as well.

Jarmo Pohjaniemi on set filming Michael Bay

In case you’ve never heard of Michael Bay, you’ve probably surmised he’s an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial special effects. His films, which include “Armageddon” (1998), “Pearl Harbor” (2001) and the Transformers film series, have grossed over $3-billion worldwide. He is co-founder of a commercial production house, “The Institute,” a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He is also co-chair and part-owner of the digital effects house, Digital Domain. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house that has remade several horror movies, including “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003), “The Amityville Horror” (2005), “The Hitcher” (2007), “Friday the 13th“ (2009) and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010). (And who can forget the scene from the first Transformers movie where Megan Fox is bending over to take a peek under the hood of a Camaro?) Mr. Bay’s superior skills are also behind some of the best commercials ever created, including the hottest Victoria’s Secret commercials seen worldwide.

And today, here he is, in front of my own camera. Who would have thought that I would be shooting men (gentlemen, that is) at some point in my career? Sure, beautiful ladies in various stages of undress outperform any male model or director, but this one was different, not only because it was Michael Bay, but because he is somebody in our industry that we all look up to, as far movie lighting and directing goes.

I must admit that it did feel bit funny to be directing Michael from behind my camera. Who was I to tell him – one of the biggest directors in the industry – how to run the show? However, the fact remains that whoever is behind the camera is in charge and must evaluate each situation as the camera captures the footage. After all, I was not going to disappoint Mr. Bay – not a chance! As things warmed up and we got comfortable both in front of and behind the camera, it was smooth sailing throughout the afternoon, making jokes with our crew and talking guy stuff…

Luciano Alexander 2nd camera. Michael Raveney - lighting.

Michael was telling me about his crew and organization of 3,000 people (give or take) that work on his productions throughout the world. And to top everything, after we finished shooting he invited us to his personal editing studio from where he calls the shots for the rest of his crew and film editors. Stepping through the door of his studio was more like walking onto the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise and it seemed for the first few minutes every other word I managed to squeeze out of my mouth was “Wow!”

Being the “Johnny-on-the-job” that I am, I quickly came to realize that Mr. Bay had at his disposal some components and additional gizmos that I could use in my personal studio, not to mention his uber-fast, full-screen feed to his Los Angeles editing facilities. With the press of a button and in a split second, there was feed and greetings to demonstrate how he supervises his crew when working on a project. What is really surprising is how involved he is with the smallest details of production and editing.

The not-even-released-yet “Transformers: Age of Extinction” was on the computer screens as it was being edited in Los Angeles and updated to Mr. Bay’s personal studio screens in real time. We got see a preview of how it all comes together before it ends up on screen. There was Mark Walberg, in Mr. Bay’s world, running and saving the world from robots, all the while avoiding the cars falling down around him. I was like a kid in a candy store and must say that while watching the preview, I realized Mr. Bay and I shared something in common. After all, it is his baby, his playground.

Michael Bay in his personal editing suite/studio

I appreciated that we; Mr. Bay, my team and I, all shared a passion that spoke the same language. It felt as if we had known each other forever, kind of like when you were a kid and you shared your toys with friends, they shared theirs’. There is a certain bond among people who take either their photography or cinematography business to a certain level where you automatically can relate to and understand each other. Opinions change within the blink of an eye and lighting is not even a question, everybody knows what’s needed as if we have the ability to read each other’s thoughts.

What would I like to learn from Mr. Bay? Gee, that list would be about six-blocks long! Anybody who loves chicks, cool cars and fast action would like to pick Michael’s thoughts and figure out how his brain’s wired. I have come to learn that if anybody can run shows the size of Mr. Bay’s, there’s more there than meets the eye.

Here Are Few Tips From The Shoot

Take it easy and don’t ruin the moment.
Always make sure that the lighting works no matter what you do.
The key is that if you want to sell it, it must look realistic.

While these tips may be nothing new to me or many of you out there, they are the backbone of any director. A person like Michael Bay is hard to impress. What does it take to impress a guy like him? Is there anything that gets his eyes to look twice at something? Well, yes! He believes in great taste and beauty, in case you haven’t noticed!

“Go see one of his Transformers movies or the latest Victoria’s Secret TV spots and you’ll get the picture. There are not too many directors who can mix explosions, robotic entertainment and sexuality as well as Mr. Bay does.”

Jarmo Pohjaniemi, Michael Bay and Mary Alejo

This also was a great chance to break in the STC Shooter rig and to demonstrate its unique qualities to Mr. Bay, like the “Top Stage” quick-release from tripod to dolly or slider in less than 10 seconds! What really impressed me was that no matter how many toys a professional director has, he’s always interested in the newest and best possible solution that gives better results.

Other topics and discussions were photography, videography and what cinema has become. My advice to anyone is to add video skills to your already existing skill set of still photography, because that’s where the visual world is going. You never know, perhaps you could become the next Michael Bay!

Equipment Used:

Canon C300 cinema camera with Zacuto (EVF) viewfinder
Zeiss CP2 compact prime lens
Canon 35mm f2.8 prime
Cinevate slider
STC Shooter shoulder rig
Cinemecanix C1 shoulder rig
Vinten tripod/Vision 3 fluid-head
Arri 1.2k daylight balanced HMI light
Two C-Stands
Two sandbags

Crew:

Camera operators; Jarmo Pohjaniemi and Luciano Alexander
Production assistant; Michael Raveney and Mary Alejo

Welcome to my new website where you can follow some of my adventures.

As they say that shoemakers own shoes are the worse ones and that holds the truth. I have not updated my own website for about 5-6 years, until now! I promise to update at least every few years unless I find something stimulative to share. I hope that you like what you see, enjoy!

Jarmo Pohjaniemi