Last year we had the privilege of collaborating with Cakes by Robin and Boggio Studios to produce our latest photoshoot campaign. Today, we wanted to give you a sneak preview into what goes on behind the scenes.
Moodboarding –
As you can imagine – a photoshoot takes some organising! It is important to ensure everyone is on the same page, and that everyone has the space to collaborate creatively. A great way to do this is through moodboarding. The first step in organising our 2015 campaign was getting together with Boggio Studios and Cakes by Robin to discuss our ideas.
This is when crazy ideas like the cactus cake and the larger than life insect mounds popped out, and everyone started getting really excited about props, photography, and a shed load of cake.
Concepting Shots
Once all of our ideas are out in the open, the next stage is to get something solid on paper and start organising. With a lot of fantastic creative minds on board, it is important to get a solid plan together to ensure everyone is on the same page and focused on a general goal.
At this point, we created our party theme list. We came up with eight party themes that we wanted to explore – Cookies and Milk Bar, Under the Sea, Pantone, Fashion in Paris, Wild West, Insects, Space and Artists. Once we have our themes we can make more specific moodboards, and start organising set and casting models.
Casting
The key to a fantastic photoshoot is a great team. The creative team is incredibly important, and it’s essential to find the right people for the job. We collaborated with Julia Boggio, a fantastic photographer, Cakes by Robin, one of the most creative bakers in London – and the tastiest too, Hannah Coates, a wonderful Art Director, Jo Sawkins, a fab stylist, and Kaz Fernando – a first rate hair and make up artist.
The next step is finding the right models for the job. For this, we worked with Creative Kidz. They have a fantastic selection of talented children, and helped us find the right child for each theme.
Making Props
The next stage is physically creating everything – and everything is A LOT. We hand made party bags, wrote up invites, sourced the perfect balloons, hunted down the best bunting, created pin wheels, made 56 life size pantone swatch trays, and more!
Meanwhile, Robin was busy baking up a life size poodle, huge cacti, clam macarons (complete with pearls) and edible bugs too! Hannah was creating larger than life insect mounds and cutting bespoke colorama backgrounds and Julia was commissioning carpenters.
Shoot Day (or two!)
Shoot day – the day when everything comes together, arrives incredibly quickly! At this point, everyone is briefed, the clothes are in, the make up is ready and the props are being styled on set. The models arrive and are dressed in their outfits, and you can finally see all of your ideas jump off of paper and into real life!
We had so many ideas that the photoshoot ended up spreading over two days to fit our 8 party concepts in! Over those two days we all put in a great deal of hard work, had a lot of fun, and ate an appaling amount of biscuits.
Editing
After the shoot, the images are in the trusted hands of Boggio Studios to post process, retouch and prepare for print. We couldn’t wait to see the finished product, and are very pleased to show you too –
Birthday Boy / Oscar
Theme / Pantone
Birthday Boy / Thomas
Theme / Insects
Birthday Boy / Calvin
Theme / Artist
Birthday Girl / Emmie
Theme / Western
Birthday Boy / Cameron
Theme / Paris
Birthday Girl / Julianna
Theme / Milk & Cookies Bar
Birthday Girl / Charlotte
Theme / Under the Sea
Birthday Girl / Demi
Theme / Space
We hope this gives you an idea of what goes on behind the scenes, and shows you just how fabulous our team was on the day. We have a lot of talented individuals behind Les Enfants, and together, we can create parties (and photoshoots) that are bespoke and fabulous!
