I have not worked on many personal creatives lately.  On this day I had a last minute cancellation leaving my makeup artist and myself to some dark imaginings.  With Teal as a willing subject we were able to explore a concept that I have long wanted to do.  Brieanne Zellinsky  did a great job with bringing my ‘pale face’ bloody nosed concept to life.   An authentic top hat from nearly 100 years back made of the fine fur of Canada’s emblem… the beaver complimented my evil creation.  Faux fur would not have readily added equally to the horror.

At Bazaar Novelty in Vancouver I  discovered fake blood that coagulates .  It’s about 4 times more expensive than standard fake blood, but for a nosebleed is perfect.  Teal’s natural fair complexion was further paled using hue/saturation in photoshop and pulling the saturation down (95%) in all colors but red (reduced 45%)  The natural Catch lights in the eyes are created by a large disc reflector  reflecting light from my downward aimed 10′ octobank set high and behind me … I love how the lover catch lights make her stare more evil.

This shoot has peaked so much interest that i have decided to explore a ‘dark series’  stay tuned for more to follow!  It’s very subtle but did you notice the coke on her nose?   {no it’s not real}

Well its’ been a banner year with studio rentals… I think i had my favorite last week when Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood were in shooting covers for their new movie ‘Donovans Echo’.  In the hopes of getting more of these projects I thought it was time to update some of the studio images.

As you may have read in a previous post,  the studio has had a major sound upgrade including a sprayed ceiling and sound insulated walls.  Not only have these products proven to be very effective,  I think they give the space a great ‘aesthetic’. (click above image to enlarge)

It was hard to give up my gym,  but let me introduce you to the new media room.  This space is adjacent to the studio and makes a great multi purpose room for an additional makeup station, change room, meeting area, or to simply hang out.  You are also able to connect your peripherals to the monitor for presentations and access the internet.

Above is the south facing view as you exit the studio with the media room to the right.  At the end of the hallway is an additional common area which is  just off the entrance of the building… another great multi-purpose room with a kitchenette attached.

This is the north facing view looking into the studio  giving a glimpse of the newly renovated bathroom.  Custom rubber backed matting eliminates  sounds from those hard soled shoes during audio recording, and just looks good when you’re walking in for a photoshoot.

Here is my most recent photoshoot for Rosebud magazine taken at ‘Granville Tattoo’ downtown Vancouver.  I was having a heck of a time finding just the right location for this shoot.   My original pick was ‘Next’ tattoo, but their bad attitudes and simple lack of professionalism kept that from being a possibility.  Granville Tattoo ended up being a great locale for the shoot and they are simply a great bunch of guys.

For fun I added another tattoo to Pinky (digitally) with the impression that she did it to herself.  If you’re not familiar with the process… no, the tattoo guns don’t smoke in real life.   BTW, the chair she is sitting on is 300 lb!!!!!  I’m not kidding.  I saw the chair when i first scoped the shop and thought it would be great to shoot on.  Come the day of,  I seriously thought it was bolted to the floor it was so heavy.  It had to be moved clear across the room.

photoshoots are always full of surprises!

It was a challenge lighting the room.  I was hoping to get some daylight through the front windows for a brighter background, but it turned out into a dreary typical Vancouver fall day.  I went the opposite direction (low key) and focused all the light on Pinky .  An ambient  light bounced off a wall in the background but this did not seem special enough…  I added a blue gel to create separation of her from the background and that gave me the look i was after.

I love mirror shots, I just don’t like the extra retouching

Sheena Marie did most of the styling on this photoshoot.  I made her push the limits into ’sexy’ from what she normally works with. When we went back to the studio I was aiming for a decidedly ’sexy fashion’ look.  Props to her stylish ostrich dress on the final shot, and a special thanks to Sylvery Grey for fashioning the sexy red bikini.

The following image was a 2 part overlay.  This image was first first converted to a standard B&W…  The layer was duplicated and set again to B&W but with ‘maximum blacks’ set.  This gave the ‘tanned’ and shiny appeal to the skin but made the cape too dark.  The top layer was set to 70% and masking was done with the airbrush tool around the cape and some darker areas of the skin which created this alluring image.

Yup,  can’t do a studio shoot with at least one of my signature shots

I’d like to send a special Thanks to Granville tattoo for being so helpful, friendly and generous with their space and time.  Thanks Steve for getting up so early and letting us in the shop.

If you walk through their doors,  remember to say ‘Bryan sent you’.

In my earlier ‘Precious’ post was the complete Music video filmed at at the studio.  I filmed some behind the scenes on my own camera and finally found some time to piece them together.  The quality does not come close to the Red Cam original, but you still get a good idea of what went on off camera.  One additional note,  The audio represents the studio before all the sound baffles were installed.

Life is never boring.   On this day we had a ventriloquist, ‘Dumb’ Blonde, bodybuilder and wrestler vying for a spot as the new Yamaha Representative bringing their owns sets of special skills.  I’m saying this ‘tongue in cheek’ as this was the the theme of the latest Yamaha Commercial.

This was the first rental since all of the sound upgrades and we received two enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ on the sound quality from their audio engineer.

Originally a half dozen Yamaha bikes were coming on set.  Considering they had a 35+ crew and 2 grip trucks, it probably worked out better scrapping that idea.

Thanks to my gracious neighbors for giving up their parking lots for a makeshift outdoor restaurant.  I’m surprised how much better dinner is from these catered food trucks most restaurants.  P.s.  Thats my dog Nena.

Welcome to Vancouvers best soundstage!  I have put a great deal of effort this year improving the studios sound absorbing abilities and sound barriers.  One of the big challenges has been getting rid of the echo of cinderblock walls in such a large area.  The Monoglass on the ceiling made a huge difference in echo reduction but there was still a subtle reverberation in areas.  It’s a challenge when you have a big open area without carpets and soft furniture to block the waves.  I looked to a studio solution with sound absorbing walls.  These materials were quite expensive and had to be shipped from the US ($$$).  I quickly learned that even mattress foam can be packaged and marketed as a ’sound wall’.  I decided to create my own custom solution and specialty ordered my own foam design to spec.  Most of the products out there are only a medium density foam cel and none had any fire rating.  My panels are fire rated, one of the highest density foams, and 40% thicker than most of the options i found online.   More density = better sound absorbtion.

It was notable that the minute the bundles were brought into the building that there was an immediate ‘buffering’ of the interior noises.  I was getting excited to ‘hear’ and ’see’ the placement on the walls.

Each panel was sprayed with ‘Super 77′ as well as the wall where it was to be placed.

The panels are turned alternately to best ‘capture’ the sound waves from all angles,  that plus i think it gives a great aesthetic!I wrapped the whole perimeter of the studio from the ceiling down 8′,  excluding the cove.  I would have brought it to the floor but that was not practical within a working space, that and the fact that people would probably be touching and tearing them (human nature sucks).   Each 10′ section between the pillars (24 panels) was  $720 ($30/panel).  If you would like any of this product for your space, feel free to contact me.

Next to the new Roof,  this simple enclosure was one of the most expensive jobs i have taken on.  The City of Vancouver sure Sticks it to you with permits and shirking responsibility.  Apparently any wall over 6′ has to be engineered… And engineers aren’t cheap, even for the simple jobs ($1000) .  Then you have to get your building permit and construction permit ($860).   These permits used to include inspections, but on this job my engineer was the one who had to come and inspect the job on 2 occasions ($567).    $2367 and i had not even started the job… for filling in a hole in my wall!!!

Three loads of cinderblock in the truck, and three more loads for concrete and sand.   All these were loaded into the studio when i had a flash of intelligence… I picked up 8″ blocks instead of 12″ blocks.  I forgot my building had an oversized rear wall! -  oh well, i just write it off as needed exercise.

In a photography studio your great enemy is dust.  These are not exactly my favorite projects because of the mess, and that they take so long to complete.

I don’t know what was more painful,  seeing this huge mess,  or seeing this huge mess on my brand new driveway!  The wall had to be built with rebar and filled with concrete,  I think there were no less than 20 bags of concrete, and 40 of sand!

This made an amazing difference for soundproofing the building.  Once the doors were put in and closed,  all the outside noise was cut off… far superior to the garage door!

2010 is most definitely the ‘year of the reno’.  For my 20th anniversary the studio got a major facelift.   This has been a big project i was wanting to tackle for years.  I’m so fortunate to have friends like Gary and Ildyko from Concrete Concepts who did an amazing job for me.

This little beast worked for two days digging up the back lot and leveling the slope.

His crew worked fast, there was not a great deal of set up time as as the concrete had to be at an ideal firmness for stamping.  Fortunately it didn’t rain and wasn’t overly hot.

This is a pretty thick pad,  Probably at least 8-10″ thick in some spots.  I hope i never need to dig this lot up again.

Gary tried a new technique on my driveway,  he pre-coated all the stamps with a dye that colored the concrete.  Previously they used to powder the concrete directly.  This technique worked really well as the dye concentrated at the creases which really emphasized the natural stone look.

Studio 31 is popular as one of the quieter production spaces in Vancouver… I figured it was time to dive in head first and make it the number one sound stage.    This latest project was so daunting, I have been putting it off for years.  I had a faulty monoglass installation from 10 years ago that needed to be stripped out and resprayed.  The studio had to be emptied,  covered in poly and sprayed with fibreglass impregnated with glue and black paint.  You can only imagine how messy this endeavor was.  Not only is the sound quality improved, but this added R20 insulation to the new roof which now totals about R40… yet again reducing our carbon footprint.   Monoglass is also inert and guarantees a minimum of 37% recycled content which is good for the environment.The studio was completely enveloped with Poly

this was the first half of the process – pulling down the faulty insulation.

Although the spraying was messy, itchy, sticky and dripped black paint for a couple of days,  the sound quality of the shooting space is now perfect for my video rental clients.  This will be further perfected with the removal of the garage door and installation of  sound proof steel doors… more blogs to follow.

A total of 4.5″ was applied to the ceiling (over double the listed amount in the above chart)

Here is my latest water shoot.  I took about 65 shots in this series with two people throwing water from either side.  It takes some time to get the throws right and timed.   This is one of the images that immediately caught my eye and actually gave me a chill.

You can click on this image to see it bigger.  With the exception of some dodging/burning and   the ‘highlight /shadow’  filter,  this is a raw image with absolutely no digital manipulation.  I’m sure that you as everyone else sees the ominous skull forming in the middle of the image.  This was a random fluke of water hitting in the middle… wow!