Blairquhan BTS

My BTS photos for Blairquhan Mineral Water.

It was a delight taking photos of French model Lioudmila Nesterov during the filming of Blairquhan mineral water advert. She was a delight to work with. She also knew when I was framing her up. Even if she was shivering with the cold, she gave me her full attention.

The slideshow is best viewed in landscape

Lioudmila is no stranger to the cameras. However, it was her first time to Tenerife. Her brief was to be playing a cello in a forest in the pouring rain in a thin dress! Cold rain is not what you expect in Tenerife, sun and heat yes, but not rain and cold.

The mineral water is produced by the Chinese company Blairquhan. As a result, flowing water was the underlying theme. The Mercedes Forest in the north of the island was the filming location. As the rain wouldn’t come to us, we had to bring it. Under a full canopy of trees, the rain machines were installed. To provide atmosphere, a full bank of lights and smoke machines were also prepared.

Production

Filming took place over a couple of days. It amazes just how much work goes in to an advert lasting seconds. My job was working as DIT. This involved taking the disks with the rushes and transferring them to computer. I scrubbed through them to check they were OK. Then backing them up of course. In between that job, I had my cameras with me.

Although you can’t tell, Lioudmila was shivering most of the time. In between takes, she was covered in a heat body blanket to keep her warm. The Canon 24-70 and 70-200 lenses were ideal, especially with so much water and moisture in the air. There were puddles and soggy people everywhere! However, we also filmed in a warehouse to provide close ups of the mineral water bottle etc. This was a good opportunity to take some shots of Lioudmila when she was actually dry!

A very enjoyable shoot. Some of the photos I was really pleased with.