How to Shoot for Adidas in China, with Monte Isom

I had an illuminating conversation the other day with photographer Monte Isom. Isom recently returned from China, where he created several Olympic-themed ads for Adidas. The one above is the big kahuna. See all those people in there? They’re real people. Who needed to be cast and wrangled and directed. And then be put together all pretty through the glory of post-production.

How long did all of this take? Isom was in China for six weeks, start to finish, between pre-production, shoot days, and post-production.  And it was a production: “we shot the podium, every individual piece. We shot a scaffolding in the same way. We shot the crowd on a soccer pitch. We shot the athletes in two different cities in different takes. We shot three hundred people in the crowd and built the podium out of 60 people, and 28 extras on the podium.

Wow. What’d that all look like? Funny you ask! We’ve got some behind the scenes goodies. Here are the actors on the scaffolding:

Wow, how’d they get such athletic models? Here’s a video of the casting session (Monte is thorough in his documentation.)

The agency Monte worked with on this project was TBWA Shanghai, and they didn’t find him through Photoserve; Isom is incredibly proactive about seeking out work. He actually flew to China months before:

“When i’m not working, I go seek out work. I went to every agency in Shanghai in March, and set up meetings with art buyers and creative
directors. Because in an Olympic year, everyone will use an athlete to
sell a product. Going personally makes a huge difference. They’re not just buying the
photography, they’re buying the photographer. An agency wants to know
what they’re going to get. I got China because I got off my ass and went to China to get work. if
you want to recession-proof yourself, go to foreign markets.”

Amen. Here’s the soccer field where they assembled the actors:

And here’s some of the shooting, in real time.

After the shooting comes the post-production. Here’s some of that (it all started with a sketch):

So, we saw the finished image above, but how did it appear in Beijing and Shanghai? Here’s an example:

This is one billboard. And then, Adidas got serious:

Wow, that’s a big ad. Adidas created 20-story building wraps in Shanghai and Beijing.

Isom was psyched about the client’s enthusiasm, and the media buy. He says it’s “what you hope the client will step up and do. Start to finish, it was
a cool project.”

Cool indeed! Isom is now off to Europe, to meet with more creative folks and charm peoples’ pants off. He must have a rep, to help him out with some of this stuff!

Nope:

“I don’t have a rep. I’m repped by basically
everyone I’ve ever met. I sleep well on planes, so it’s not a big deal.”

Sweet dreams. Here’s one more video of Isom at work, just for fun.

See more of Monte Isom’s work here.