Flow Productions Presents: HYLKY. This is the poster image for the upcoming immersive performance. It’s shipwreck-themed, both actual and metaphoric. How was this image created? Read on!

HYLKY is a new immersive performance from Flow Productions and it is set to premiere August 26, 2020. The piece will be performed in one of the buildings at the old Army Garrison in Hiukkavaara, Oulu. As always, the piece features a number of performers: actors, dancers, acrobats. The work is built around a central theme of shipwreck. There are actual wrecked boats on set and some of the scenes deal explicitly with shipwrecks and being marooned, but there are also many different levels to the work. It’s shipwreck as an actual event and then it’s shipwreck as a metaphor, emotional survival in a tumultuous change. It’s about reconsidering nd re-addressing one’s values and looking forward.

So, it’s great stuff as always from Pirjo Yli-Maunula and crew. I have been a part of the team as photographer, creating behind-the-scenes photography, press photos and such, and also the promotional photography like in previous shows (The Secret Garden, Torni, Villa.) This time I had the world’s best assistant, a wonderful friend, and a great artist in his own right, Juha Penttinen, help me out in the shoot and make a behind-the-scenes video about the shoot. Take a look!

We had three lighting setups for the shoot. The very first one we did was this:

This was the first shot we set up with our models Kira and Tuukka. The boat is a real wreck which was burnt and Flow Productions was able to scavenge it for the piece as props.

We lit this with two lights. Key light is an Elinchrom strobe with a gobo I made out of a cardboard box by cutting some thin-ish rectangular hoes in the bottom of it. Then I just taped it on the strobe. Nothin’ fancy! There’s a piece of black foamcore acting as a flag, which throws a little shadow on the bow of the boat.

Fill light is a gridded Elinchrom (regular 30 degree grid) camera left, pointed at the models and the shirt at very low power. At least a 3-stop difference from the main. I laid a piece of foamcore on top of the light to keep it from spilling up in the shot.

We started with this, but found the light shining through the hull (left) a little distracting:

Notice the concrete beam and fluorescent lighting fixture in the ceiling. We covered those with gaffer’s tape and black paper. Shining a light through the hull of the boat resulted also in reflected light from the bottom of the boat, so nix that.

Next up we did the shot that we ended up using as the #1 promotional image for HYLKY. This involved having Kira and Tuukka find a spot near the destroyed part of the boat. We dressed everything up with smoke to communicate fog (thank you for the smoke machine, Acke Salo!)

This ended up being our choice for the poster image. It is slightly more pared down, with less set design and props, but it does communicate the emotion and the feel of the piece.

This was a three-light job. Up top is a gridded Elinchrom strobe on a C-stand, pointing down at the models. There’s another gridded Elinchrom camera left, lighting the burnt wood and giving it outlines (also lighting the smoke). A third one is camera right, low-power, giving detail in the wood of the boat, the rib cage -looking inside part of it.

Now, smoke is tricky. First you have to fan it around just so that it doesn’t just block everything and turn into a white wall of smoke. Also you need to backlight it or sidelight it for the same reason: you light it from the front and your flash is reflected back, creating the aforementioned wall of smoke.

I had the camera on a tripod because I knew that I would have to layer a few images into the final one, just because it’s really difficult to have the smoke exactly how you want it in one exposure, no matter how well you fan that crap. So I built this image from four images, masking in the smoke from the different photos. That was the plan going in and it did work out.

Third image, a horizontal version. You always need horizontals for online stuff, your Facebook event banners and whatnot. So this is the third one, a detail shot.

For the last image, the gridded Elinchrom was moved to the other side of the boat, still keeping it up top. It lights the texture of the burnt wood beautifully and also Tuukka’s and Kira’s hands. There’s a second light at camera right acting as a rim light. (In the background, Juha and Heidi Kesti were standing with black foamcores, blocking the windows that would have otherwise been in the shot.)

This was probably four hours of time spent on the day, two for the models and four for me and Juha and Heidi setting up and tearing down. We did plan everything beforehand, practicing with Tuukka and Kira to see how they would position themselves and where the light would be:

Not even in focus, this is just a visual note.

Figuring out the horziontal image. Windows in the background!

The photography was done and then it was a question of selecting the poster image and handing it off to graphic designer Tomi Hurskainen, who did a great job with it. This is how the final poster turned out:

After putting in logos, information about upcoming performances and such, the shot became the official poster.

And that’s all she wrote! A great day working with talented people. It is now roughly two months before the premiere and we have released the PR images for the piece. Can’t wait to experience HYLKY in its entirety!