Behind-the-scenes: Soviet Summer Collection 14/15 Shoot

01:13 1 Comments

We are fast approaching Summer again (yay!) and the new Soviet Summer Collection is on it's way to being released in stores nationwide. The Soviet team and Decimal Agency got together and brainstormed the new Summer Collection campaign. The Journey. A trip with friends to your favorite holiday destination. A place to get away from the city life and be free, surrounded by our beautiful nature. 


Two weeks ago, the team went on a journey themselves. Magoebaskloof, Nelspruit. This was the chosen location for the shoot of the new campaign. We were a team of 16 including the 6 models that we had for the shoot. We all met bright and early at the Soviet Headquarters and made our way to Magoebaskloof. Now, like most shoots, it is never smooth sailing from start to finish, but that is the joy of these exercises, right? 

After 3hrs on the road and about 2hrs behind schedule we arrive at our accommodation. Not to our knowledge, we are faced with a 30min "mountain drive". Prepared? Not quite. Let's just say that a Golf 7 is not exactly equipped for a drive like this but it made it. This has now put us even more behind schedule and the stress levels start rising. 

We unpack the cars and now rush to a location to fit in some photography before the day becomes completely unproductive. Our Art Director, Jarred has a 1970 motorbike (a prop) and decides to ride it to the location. Let's just say, he didn't make it. On top of that, another prop (the prop of all props), a 1960 VW Camper van almost loses it's tyre. Could it get any worse? To add to the stress levels already, the weather was not on our side and had to make do with what Mother Nature decided to give us. Bear in mind, we're doing a Summer shoot, the area we were in felt like we were in some 1960 horror film where your vision is completely disarrayed by the thick mist. Some were saying it was a perfect scene out of that cheesy horror flick, Wrong Turn. 


We lose the light and it is time to call it a day. Mother Nature decides to open the Heavens. Our VW van decides to ignore the functionality of it's headlights. The adventure just keeps getting better. About an hour away from our accommodation, we slowly drive behind the van with our hazards on, guiding the old classic home safely. We eventually arrive at "home" and all unwind in front of a fire inside a 1930 built house. 

The hostess and her chef prepare a meal no one will forget, it was absolutely delicious and a great way to end the evening on a high. The team then sit around the lounge area to converse in stories and getting to know one another.

Call time is 6am and we have a lot to get through still.

The team meet around the breakfast table and get to indulge in yet another great meal prepared by our hostess and her chef. We have a lot of work to do before we all head back to Johannesburg and guess what? We walk onto the patio and we can only see about 5 meters in front of us. The mist has come and it looks like it is not going to leave. Stress levels engage! 

Our photographer, Aubrey decides to take two models to the forest to capture a few photographs - we were not letting anything get in our way. We are then informed that we need to travel about an hour away to get some decent lighting and mist-less surroundings. Off we go. 

Where the hillbillies at?


As we drive down the valleys of Magoebaskloof, it starts getting clearer and the smiles on everyones face starts to appear. This is going to work! Sun is out and the photographer is happy. We start putting together a few scenes for the shoot and things are starting to look great. As we start nearing the end of the day, Mother Nature decides to give us pat on the back for soldiering through the miserable weather we had to deal with. And then there was light, bright, beautiful light. We pull over on the side of the road and we shoot like crazy, this is what we have been waiting for for the last day and a half. Soviet Summer Collection shoot: Success! 

What an amazing journey and it definitely showed in the final product, which is what we wanted to achieve. We had a great team and we all worked so well together to make it happen. 

Keep your eyes out for the new upcoming Summer Collection range and just know how much blood, sweat and tears were put into it (wink, wink).

The prop of all props.


Soviet Denim Summer Collection out in August 2014.

1 comment:

  1. Did you know that you can create short urls with Shortest and make $$$ from every visitor to your short links.

    ReplyDelete