LPA Production / Conran Design Group / Cow & Gate
LPA Production is a division of the Lisa Pritchard Agency here to deal with all your shoot production requirements, whether you are a photographer or a commissioner.
Our experienced team are on hand to take care of every last detail of your shoot, from working out initial costs, to arranging the models and locations, to hiring all the crew to managing everything on the day, and everything in between!
One of LPA Production’s latest projects was this super Cow & Gate shoot with Conran Design Group. Conran had found their photographer of choice, specialist kids photographer Lisa Tichané, and called on us to arrange the shoot logistics and to see the whole process through, including being on set to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Working with one of our favourite Creative Director’s Keiron Molloy and Account Manager Isabella Hurst, the aim of the shoot was to capture images of ‘the weaning journey’, i.e. lots of babies with lots of messy food! Our brief involved sourcing a location house in London, casting six adult and twelve child models, booking and briefing all the crew (stylist, hmu, home economist, first aider and baby wrangler) and sorting out all the details for the day including call sheets, catering and transport.
© Lisa Tichané. Conran Design Group. Cow & Gate.
We held an online casting, calling on some of our regular agencies including Norrie Carr, Bizzykidz, Elliott Brown, Elisabeth Smith and Beautiful Bumps. Where possible, we were looking for babies and parents from the same family to model together - this would not only make for more natural interaction between the models on set but also fulfilled Cow & Gate’s brief to show real people and real stories. We presented casting options to the client and asked them to pick a few extra favourites, in order to have back up on the day in case of any tired, unwell or unhappy babies. One of our jobs as a producer is to pre-empt any issues and prevent them happening, and there can be a few potential hazard areas when working with babies!
Another important part of the pre-production process was to brief the home economist on ‘weaning friendly’ foods - not your average brief, as the goal was also to make the ingredients look as though they had been half eaten by the babies. We hired fantastic home economist, Loic Parisot from Hers Agency, who also had a hygiene certificate. A hygiene certificate was quite important as the babies had to also eat some of the food, the home economist wasn’t just required to make it look pretty!
Two final necessities for a shoot with babies were a first aider, which is a legal requirement, and we also brought in a baby wrangler from Kids on Set. As the parents were modelling as well, we felt it was important to have someone else on hand to make sure the babies (and their parents) had everything they might need and were all feeling upbeat and comfortable so we could get the best out of them for the final images.
The styling team consisted of LPA Style’s HMU Erica Schlegel and advertising stylist Andie Redman. Colour played a key part in the prop styling of this shoot in order to ensure that the brand colours were portrayed consistently throughout the shots and we also asked if the props stylist could bring lots of toys to keep the babies entertained and smiley during the shoot. When drawing up the shoot schedule we were also very mindful about model performance times, as babies can only work a certain amount of hours (which is fair enough!) and we were careful to factor in enough time for regular naps.
© Lisa Tichané. Conran Design Group. Cow & Gate.
The 2 day shoot ended up being in a location house in Peckham, and was a great success. Everything ran like clockwork and even with a few baby tantrums here and there, the team managed to have fun and deliver a brilliant set of images to fulfill the brief perfectly.
© Lisa Tichané. Conran Design Group. Cow & Gate.
© Lisa Tichané. Conran Design Group. Cow & Gate.
So don’t forget, if you need help on your next shoot - just call on LPA Production!