A while back I started shooting for the Clocktopus Cabaret and started thinking about creating a poster / social media image for use by the show. As the show has a steampunk backstory it had me thinking about gears and metal as a basis for the image. However, I needed to get some base shots of Captain Bang Bang and her first mate Miss Stormina Teacup.

I used the same studio for the recent NOVA Halo shoot. I say recent…. it was literally straight after! The two shipmates wasted no time getting ready, making full use of the mirror facilities.

The green screen was already up and we started taking shots with the Captain and Stormina separate and then together. I already had an idea for the poster, a central gear which would be used to frame the curvaceous Clocktopus crew, with titles and information around the top and bottom.

With the shoot over, and after I watched the decimation of the biscuits we found, it was homeward bound to work on the shots. All shots were sent to the Captain and Stormina for approval, then I worked on removing the green screen from each potential shot for inclusion in the poster template.

My first ideas were very busy and had too much going on, the premise of the poster was just to attract attention and provide information, with too much included the eye could easily wander.

So after consultation, we decided to lessen the effect and stick to the above premise of the poster above. Remembering the steampunk theme I first added the original metal background then added a custom smoke texture which was replicated on each corner to keep it symmetrical, then added the redone gear wheel with additional gears inside the background.

From there I added the selected shot for the respective show. Title text was added with the name of the show, in this case Second Helpings and the bottom quarter of the poster is reserved for show information.

This shoot was a lot of fun, half the time was spent laughing and playing with nautical props, and as you can see there was a generous amount of arsing about but I like to think that my shoots are very relaxed. I never rush during the time involved and would rather take it slow to get that perfect shot I was looking for.

I also make sure there is time to allow for the tasting of plastic toy weaponry.

You can follow the tenacious tentacles of the Clocktopus Cabaret on their Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clocktopuscabaret/