A Film-Industry Photographer's Personal History of Digital Photo Imaging--The Famous "Silence of the Lambs" Moth and Other Stories--
20 years of Digital Photo Imaging
As a photographer that has worked professionally for 35 years, I have the particular perspective of having had an approximately equal number of years in straight photography as I have had in digital photography/imaging. Having seen the photographic industry make monumental and dramatic changes as new digital technology revolutionized photography, I am in a unique position to describe some ways that digital photography and digital imaging evolved over the last 20 years or so.
Before this time, I was primarily a still photographer. My revenue came from photographing products along with some live model photography to illustrate a product or service for my clients.
Emerging Technology -- New Emerging Demand in the Movie Industry
My own personal boom came about when Home Movie rental became a huge industry. Video box images were in high demand and the home movie studios wanted them all yesterday. They needed images for every movie they had rights to so that the video store shelves would bulge with choices for entertainment consumers.
After becoming established in home video, I moved on to theatrical releases shooting photos for some movie posters that became very well known and even award winning.
Famous Moth over Jodie Foster's Lips in Silence of the Lambs
One of my early assignments turned out to be the easiest movie poster job and the one that earned the most acclaim. This was the moth over Joe Foster's mouth for Silence of the Lambs. My part was to photograph the moth. The studio sent me the moth in a little box, I pointed a camera down at the moth and took a picture. Simple.
The interesting thing about that image is that the "skull head" was made up of nude humans kneeling in positions that formed a skull-like image to serve as the moth's head, indicating the gruesome nature of the film. This death head was also an homage to Salvador Dali, who had a similar painting. The nudes could not be used however, because the MPA (studio ratings board) would not allow nudes (even though these were so tiny as to be invisible) on a movie poster. Instead, body suits were retouched onto the nude figures to preserve modesty.
Body Double Photography
This became a big niche in the 80's to early 90's. Somewhere around ninety percent of movie posters and promotional materials using actor likenesses are actually body doubles with the actors heads pasted on later.
Typically, the film's star actors were on location for the next movie or otherwise unavailable for studio ad campaigns. So I worked with stills from the movie shoot and used body doubles to create the action shots, poster images and artistic composites that made up some of the most recognizable movie posters created to date.
The new technology of digital imaging allowed for some interesting options in movie poster/video box creating. One of my earliest body double projects needed an artistic rendering of a concept that had the actors appearing to sit on each other's shoulders tiered three men high. The dilemma of how to get that effect was solved by my having the body doubles lay on the floor of the studio, arranging them so that they would appear to be on top of each other's shoulders, and then shooting them from above. The actor's heads were then Photoshopped in after the fact.
As actors had likeness approval, they could nix an image. So some artwork, like this project, were not used... although I still got paid.
Angelina Jolie's action shots for the Tomb Raider movie poster/promotional material series were a particular challenge. Because stars have likeness approval, the challenge is to find a body double with a better body than the actual actor. In her case, this was impossible. So in Frankenstein manner, we had to piece together a kickboxing models legs, torso and arms and use Angie's real breasts and head for the first Tomb Raider billboard image.
An interesting aside is that I used digital photography to capture the images of the legs and arms of the body doubles, but Ms. Jolie's parts were photographed in regular analog film at the film shoot. A certain amount of graininess or "noise" had to be added to the digital parts of the image so they would match the regular film part of the image. After that, it was widely agreed that future photographic stills at movie shoots would be captured using digital.
These and many other stories make up a varied and enlightening tale of how digital photography was first being applied in the highly specialized world of the movie industry print advertising.
Lee Varis has worked in the field of photography for over 35 years and is widely known for his Hollywood movie posters and video covers. Lee´s creative imaging has been featured in National Geographic and Fortune magazines as well as numerous trade publications including: Photo-Electronic Imaging, Studio Photography, PC Photo, Rangefinder Magazine, Photo District News and Mac Art & Design.
He conducts nationwide seminars on the finer points of digital photography and maintains close relationships with numerous hardware and software companies. He is also the president of LADIG (Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group) To see Lee's newest photo tips, projects and photographs visit: http://www.blog.varis.com/
Lee's expertise offers techniques for the intermediate and advanced photo imager seeking to increase his or her competence level. His books: "Skin" and "Mastering Exposure" are essential additions to the libraries of photo-technicians everywhere.
To receive a FREE, exclusive, 2-part PDF tutorial guide that will introduce you to essential and unique photo techniques visit: http://www.varis.com/DigitalZoneSystem/VarisLanding.html
20 years of Digital Photo Imaging
As a photographer that has worked professionally for 35 years, I have the particular perspective of having had an approximately equal number of years in straight photography as I have had in digital photography/imaging. Having seen the photographic industry make monumental and dramatic changes as new digital technology revolutionized photography, I am in a unique position to describe some ways that digital photography and digital imaging evolved over the last 20 years or so.
Before this time, I was primarily a still photographer. My revenue came from photographing products along with some live model photography to illustrate a product or service for my clients.
Emerging Technology -- New Emerging Demand in the Movie Industry
My own personal boom came about when Home Movie rental became a huge industry. Video box images were in high demand and the home movie studios wanted them all yesterday. They needed images for every movie they had rights to so that the video store shelves would bulge with choices for entertainment consumers.
After becoming established in home video, I moved on to theatrical releases shooting photos for some movie posters that became very well known and even award winning.
Famous Moth over Jodie Foster's Lips in Silence of the Lambs
One of my early assignments turned out to be the easiest movie poster job and the one that earned the most acclaim. This was the moth over Joe Foster's mouth for Silence of the Lambs. My part was to photograph the moth. The studio sent me the moth in a little box, I pointed a camera down at the moth and took a picture. Simple.
The interesting thing about that image is that the "skull head" was made up of nude humans kneeling in positions that formed a skull-like image to serve as the moth's head, indicating the gruesome nature of the film. This death head was also an homage to Salvador Dali, who had a similar painting. The nudes could not be used however, because the MPA (studio ratings board) would not allow nudes (even though these were so tiny as to be invisible) on a movie poster. Instead, body suits were retouched onto the nude figures to preserve modesty.
Body Double Photography
This became a big niche in the 80's to early 90's. Somewhere around ninety percent of movie posters and promotional materials using actor likenesses are actually body doubles with the actors heads pasted on later.
Typically, the film's star actors were on location for the next movie or otherwise unavailable for studio ad campaigns. So I worked with stills from the movie shoot and used body doubles to create the action shots, poster images and artistic composites that made up some of the most recognizable movie posters created to date.
The new technology of digital imaging allowed for some interesting options in movie poster/video box creating. One of my earliest body double projects needed an artistic rendering of a concept that had the actors appearing to sit on each other's shoulders tiered three men high. The dilemma of how to get that effect was solved by my having the body doubles lay on the floor of the studio, arranging them so that they would appear to be on top of each other's shoulders, and then shooting them from above. The actor's heads were then Photoshopped in after the fact.
As actors had likeness approval, they could nix an image. So some artwork, like this project, were not used... although I still got paid.
Angelina Jolie's action shots for the Tomb Raider movie poster/promotional material series were a particular challenge. Because stars have likeness approval, the challenge is to find a body double with a better body than the actual actor. In her case, this was impossible. So in Frankenstein manner, we had to piece together a kickboxing models legs, torso and arms and use Angie's real breasts and head for the first Tomb Raider billboard image.
An interesting aside is that I used digital photography to capture the images of the legs and arms of the body doubles, but Ms. Jolie's parts were photographed in regular analog film at the film shoot. A certain amount of graininess or "noise" had to be added to the digital parts of the image so they would match the regular film part of the image. After that, it was widely agreed that future photographic stills at movie shoots would be captured using digital.
These and many other stories make up a varied and enlightening tale of how digital photography was first being applied in the highly specialized world of the movie industry print advertising.
Lee Varis has worked in the field of photography for over 35 years and is widely known for his Hollywood movie posters and video covers. Lee´s creative imaging has been featured in National Geographic and Fortune magazines as well as numerous trade publications including: Photo-Electronic Imaging, Studio Photography, PC Photo, Rangefinder Magazine, Photo District News and Mac Art & Design.
He conducts nationwide seminars on the finer points of digital photography and maintains close relationships with numerous hardware and software companies. He is also the president of LADIG (Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group) To see Lee's newest photo tips, projects and photographs visit: http://www.blog.varis.com/
Lee's expertise offers techniques for the intermediate and advanced photo imager seeking to increase his or her competence level. His books: "Skin" and "Mastering Exposure" are essential additions to the libraries of photo-technicians everywhere.
To receive a FREE, exclusive, 2-part PDF tutorial guide that will introduce you to essential and unique photo techniques visit: http://www.varis.com/DigitalZoneSystem/VarisLanding.html
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