The making of.. Photoshoot DVD cover - behind the scenes :)

Hi all,

As promised, a 'making of' recap of the DVD cover photo shoot from this April.

The photographer we worked with was Rodolf Noël, from Montréal, CA, who also created Aziza's latest DVD cover and promotional pictures. The makeup-artist we invited had worked with both of them previously as well.

This was the first time for me to work with a complete 'team' for a photoshoot, and I have to say: The results were amazing :)

Here is a preview of the completed covers:

PS: Both DVDs are now available for pre-ordering at www.khalidashop.com!

But first of all, the preparations :) Photoshoots require some careful planning, so on advice from Aziza we bought some good-quality self-tanner a few days beforehand, and I made sure my nails were done the day before the shoot, drank plenty of water, and did some extra 'shred' workouts in the weeks leading up to the shoot ;)

We also made sure all costumes (two for each cover, and a spare just in case), jewelry, props (veil, wings) plus makeup were neatly packed and prepared.

Hair (best trimmed and colored a few weeks before the shoot!) was prepared with a volume shampoo (like 'Big' from lush cosmetics), volumizing spray (from John Frieda), careful brushing and then hot rollers in the morning, which had to stay in all the way to the studio and even during makeup, as you can see :)

For this day we had a few 'missions', first we needed some 'casual' shots with natural makeup and hair for the back cover of both the Shimmies and the Isis wings DVD. For each of the covers we used a different shirt (blue for shimmies, white for wings) and makeup was adapted accordingly.

All shots were done at the photographers' home studio with a white backdrop to match the clean background used in the DVD, and lights were setup on both sides to make the pictures 'pop'.

The end result: Serious Khalida! :)

Our second 'mission' was to get a good promotional shot for the front cover of the Shimmies DVD. For this part of the shoot we used 2 costumes, fuchsia and purple, which meant makeup and hair had to be adapted accordingly. We opted for eye shadow and lip gloss in the same shades as the fuchsia costume first, and my hair was 'fluffed' a bit at the crown to give it more volume.

The poses we used for the Shimmies cover had to be 'long', to make sure they would cover enough of the DVD area. In the end we chose the picture with one leg out to the side, because it created a nice diagonal line around which the logo and DVD title could be arranged more easily.

Next up was the Wings DVD. For the cover the costumes would be copper and gold, so the eyes, lips and cheeks had to be adapted to match. Plus more hair fluffing!

The makeup artist used mac eye shadow in copper tones and black liner all the way around my eyes this time around, and a lipgloss mix that matched the costume perfectly. A few extra layers of mascara were added (no fake lashes!) and the result looked like this.

For the wings pictures we had to do a small 'crash test' first, to see if we had enough space for the poses without smashing the lights or stereo system. As it happened, that very first test picture made a good cover candidate too.. Quote the photographer: 'Tabarnac!' ;)

Our favorite picture pose for the Wings DVD was the following one, which turned out to be even slightly more spectacular than the 'test' shots :) Plus the circle of the wings made a very nice match to the shape of the DVD label.

After that we did a few 'bonus' pictures with a new costume as well as portraits to use as background pictures on the new homepage and promo material. For this we chose the second wings costume, by Asi Haskal of Israel. Eye makeup stayed mostly the same, only the lip gloss color and jewelry were adapted.

Mission(s) achieved! We concluded the shoot right on planning with some well-deserved snacks and a final pose with the photographer himself.

All in all it was an amazing experience, and I feel very lucky to have been able to work with such a great team. Aziza was there as well the whole day, giving moral support and great tips on posing and styling, and Eric was our 'back stage photographer and manager', he assembled the team for the photo shoot as well as for the actual DVD recordings and he took great pictures of the picture-taking and preparations along the way :)

Check out all currently available DVDs at www.khalidance.com/DVD