This month we had the pleasure of sitting down with the creative minds behind Toronto’s HangLoose Media, a new production studio facility /event space located in the heart of Toronto’s Studio City. Having completed a recent Cinemagraph campaign using Cinemagraph Pro for Tequilla Tromba, we were eager to take a look behind the scenes and learn what it took to craft this compelling hybrid campaign.

How do you see Cinemagraph images contributing or changing digital advertising as a new storytelling medium?

The advertising industry is an ever changing business – one that is continuously trying to keep up with the newest trends. Cinemagraph pictures have elevated photography allowing for a more engaging and compelling output. A new way for us to tell our stories visually.

How would you rate their effectiveness?

We love that a Cinemagraph image can highlight “a motion enhanced focal point” in an otherwise still image, accentuating its importance. We see their viability across a wide range of categories from travel, fashion to automotive etc..

Tell us how you captured these living photographs ?

We wanted to capture the highest quality video footage. For this, we used the 4K Black Magic cinema camera. For lighting, we tried to keep a pretty basic lighting plan. The location we shot at was full of skylights and flooded the room with natural light.  Step one was to black out the room.We kept a rather simple three point lighting system.  Our key light was a 2K HMI.  We bounced it off of an elevated 12×12 white reflector from a three quarter frontal angle (looking at the picture, left of frame). This light provided the key that we would work off of.

Next, with a 1.2K HMI, we filled the subjects faces from the right side three quarter – looking at the picture, to the right of frame.  Both the Key light and the Fill light were covered in CTO 1/8. With a couple of 100W and 150W ARRI’s, we back lit the bartender and moulded certain backlights around our other subjects.  We also back lit the Tequila Tromba bottle and the stream of liquid pouring into the glass. The final touch was using a small Rotolight with a hint of CTB, directly under the Tequila bottle, which really made it pop and stand out from the warmer pallet we used throughout the piece.

Describe your experience using Cinemagraph Pro as a new post production tool for living photos? 

We found that  Cinemagraph Pro was very easy to use  requiring little to no learning curve. The interface is very user friendly and allows for any creative to produce beautiful hybrid content. We used it in conjunction with other tools. The ability to easily extract our still frame to enhance it was a major plus in creating this hybrid imagery.

What pro tips can you share with our audience? 

Stability is so important!  Make sure your actors or models understand how to adjust their bodies and poses, especially when the creative requires an isolated part of their body to move.

Thank you Hangloose Media! Click below to view the entire commercial:

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