Music Video , Behind the Scenes
A day of unit stills on a rap music video, shot on set in London, 18 July 2022.
Photographed and directed by Etienne MoraxBehind-the-scenes photographer, unit stillsLondon, 2022
Project Snapshot
Outcome
Full-day behind-the-scenes coverage: set, crew and cast, shot and graded in-house.
Case Study
Director Anastasia Raykova brought me onto the shoot of a music video for a Ukrainian rap artist as the stills photographer. One day, three set-ups, a full cast in couture, and a crew running a RED on a gimbal through hazy, gelled interiors: a bar under candlelight, a green-panelled room with a banquet table of rotary telephones, and a red chamber for the closing scenes. The brief was to come back with the film and the making of the film in the same set of pictures.
The Brief
Cover the shoot day end to end for the director: the frames the camera is making, the crew making them, and the cast between takes — usable for the artist, the director and the crew as promotion around the release.
The Challenge
- A set is lit for a cinema camera, not for a stills photographer: heavy haze, deep colour gels, candlelight and practical lamps, with almost nothing left over for a second camera.
- Stills have to be silent and invisible. No flash, no repositioning anyone, no asking for the take again — you work in the gaps of the schedule, from wherever the camera crew is not standing.
- Three very different set-ups in one day, plus hair and makeup running in parallel, meant the shoot never stopped long enough to set anything up.
- And two jobs sit on top of each other: document the production honestly, and still bring back frames that look like the film itself.
The Approach
- Fast primes wide open, high ISO accepted as part of the look, and the set lighting used exactly as the director of photography built it — the haze and the gels are the picture, not a problem to correct.
- I stayed on the operator's shoulder for the frames that match the film, then stepped back for the wider ones that show the rig, the monitors and the room around the shot.
- Between set-ups the reportage moves to hair, makeup and the cast waiting in costume, where the day is at its most human.
- The grade is left warm and filmic, close to what the RED was seeing, so the stills and the video read as one release.
The Execution
One photographer, one bag, the full shoot day: 74 finished frames covering the three set-ups, the camera department at work, hair and makeup, and portraits of the cast in character. I selected and graded the set myself and delivered it as a single web-ready series.
The Outcome
A complete visual record of the shoot day, handed to the director and the production: promotional stills around the video release, portfolio material for the crew and cast, and a set that still reads as one film four years later.
Shooting a music video or a campaign?
We cover shoot days as they happen — unit stills, crew and cast — and hand back a graded set ready for the release. Tell us what you are making.
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