This is the behind the scene story of the recent Friday the 13th Pink Backwoods photoshoot from Bear Skn. We wanted to do something fun for an upcoming Friday the 13th email campaign. I had the idea to paint a Jason mask pink and run around with the pink ax from the original Bearbie photoshoot we did. It felt like a fun extension of “on Fridays we wear pink” but it's also the 13th.
It was this silly idea and it came together beautifully. It was such a last minute shoot I just decided to model it myself, leaving me to be both the director and the model. Normally I do not do this as my ADD brain can’t juggle that much. We did have the monitor set up so I could see what we were shooting. The only issue is that I tend to forget things when I am directing and modeling. When I am just directing I can see and make adjustments as well as remember all the coverage we need to get.
I was very happy with how it all turned out. We got access to a friend's back yard and the photographer Mikey Duran to make it happen. I did forget that Mikey being from Arizona doesn’t do well in the cold. I grew up in the cold weather snowboarding so it doesn’t really faze me. I learned that we need to get the photographer a heater on the next frigid shoot.
The most awkward part for me was my sister was the PA on set and kept laughing when she saw my butt. We don’t show butt in any of the photos but when I was running around modeling the jockstrap it was hard to hide. I think it was the first time since we were kids that my adult sister saw my adult butt.
I have been really into shooting with a modified Canon GL2 camera I got off ebay. I love the way the footage looks. It was a camera that I shot skateboarding with as a kid with my friends. My rich friend had one that he let me use a lot. I recently found out that nobody wants those cameras anymore so I can get them cheap. I got a monitor from the camera and used that to record with the camera just on standby. I don’t have to use tapes, I can just put the SD card right into my computer to edit.
And here are some of the images we got from the shoot:
Final Promotion
Final ads!
Photographer Mikey Duran.
PA and secondary photography: Ilsa Ambika Ryan-Gorman
Model and Director: Bjorn Ryan-Gorman.
Article by: Bjorn Ryan-Gorman
Hi I am Bjorn the creative director at Bear Skn. Basically anything visually that comes out of bear skn comes from my brain. I am also a comedian and writer. I love long walks with my dog and going on too long.
