In this new installment of Behind the Mark of Odin I am going to talk to you about the production process of the special photograph that accompanies the extended story of Eva: The Tears of Regret. For the first time in our extended content we made the decision to try to accompany it not only with an illustration, but with a real recreation of a scene narrated in the story. That is why it deserves its own chapter within our ‘making of’ deliveries with which you can learn first-hand what the production process we carried out to make it was.
As you can imagine, being able to convey a fictional scene with a photo is much more complex a priori than with an illustration, whose main limitation is the imagination and skill of the artist who creates it. In our case, having Manu Nieto is a blessing since his expertise is beyond doubt and his clear vision of the universe of The Mark of Odin greatly facilitates the work.
For this project we have the collaboration of a team of great professionals. Firstly with Rafael Arbide, a great photographer from the world of fashion and one of the most proactive and creative people in the visual field that I have had the pleasure of knowing. Second with Karolina Matuszewska, an incredible makeup artist capable of doing live magic without using digital effects. Finally, we had the collaboration of the model Vanessa Quiroga, who dared to star in the photo despite the complexity of its preparation and its format so far from the normal canons to which she was accustomed.
The main handicap was finding the right moment that fit into the entire team’s agendas. This fact caused the publication of the content to suffer numerous delays, but as they say, good things come to wait.
Another factor was finding a location that fit the scene depicted. The person in charge of finding it was Rafa, who discovered an area near the Delicias bridge in Seville that was close to what we were looking for, with rubble and a neglected state. The problem came when the day of the photo shoot finally arrived and when they arrived at the location, they had collected the debris. Still, we sharpen our ingenuity to achieve the desired effect anyway.
Once established in the work area we divided into two teams. On the one hand, Karolina started working with Vanessa to give her the makeup and effects we needed. Vanessa’s face when she saw the final result was one of disbelief, as if to say, is this really me? Meanwhile, Rafa and I studied the different options for locations, positions and angles. We did different light tests, since it was already night and we had to try the combination that offered the best result for what we were looking for.
Once Vanessa was ready we started the session at the different points that we had determined were optimal. Her position, her body, her expression were very important, we took care of all the details looking for the best photos. In this phase Rafa was the captain who ordered and directed, while Karolina and I acted as lighting technicians.
After countless photos we did a quick review to make sure there were enough and they met the requirements for one of them to be chosen. It was time to pack up, take one last group photo of the entire team and go home to start the next phase of work, choosing the final photo and pre-production work.
Rafa was once again the protagonist in this stage. After choosing a selection of the best 30 photos, we discussed which one was closest to what I wanted. In the end the choice was obvious, there was one photo that stood out above all the others. It was then that Rafa focused on adjusting and doing a little digital magic to achieve an image that was as effective as possible and that fit as closely as possible with the scene he was recreating.
You have been able to see the result together with the story of ‘Eva: The Tears of Sorrow’, if you have not done it yet, what are you waiting for? Remember, this content is available only to readers who have indicated that they have completed reading ‘Mark of Odin: The Awakening’.