August, 2013, an email pops up on my phone, “Do you drink? I mean, really drink? we’d love you for the Jim Beam campaign but need to know if you can party?”
So let me get this right, you’re asking me if you can pay me money, legal tender that equates to rent, to drink whiskey and get wild? a few weeks later I was on my way to a remote house in Del Mar, California, to shoot.
It was the first time I have ever known a production company throw a full scale house party rather than set up a bunch of fake, party-like scenarios. Unlike a lot of jobs, we were encouraged to have fun from the minute we arrived. There was a live band, a bbq, campfires, endless supplies of Jim Beam, they even had goldfish racing! The photographer was the amazing Bil Zelman, who is as crazy cool as the concept. To get advertising shots in an uncontrolled environment, especially one that involves inebriated models, is seriously hard work and Bil was the master of it. In small groups he would make everyone interact, make us scream out loud, or throw potatoes at one other, forcing the energy out of us and having just as much fun along the way.
Everything about that evening was buzzing, myself and a group of ten other selected models rampaged about the grounds hunting for snipes. Then we weaved through the crowds overrunning the house to find the makeshift dance floor, all the time with Bil in tow. At one point when I was moshing with a guy in a chicken suit I stopped for a second and thought, ‘This is my job?!’ Bil made me fight the camera, shout at it and throw punches, I can remember falling tits over toes onto the floor, covered in whiskey, and laughing uncontrollably. Even though some of our actions had to be repeated -for example I had to crowd surf at least five times whilst avoiding a ceiling fan to get that money shot, it still felt real and like I was having the time of my life. I believe this really shows in the final pictures and I applaud Jim Beam and Smith X Union, the casting and production company that are geniuses when it comes to these set-ups, for the way they pulled it off (especially by ensuring that no one was drink, driving home). The images capture real emotions and real moments, something a lot of brands try extremely hard to recreate in formal, stylized settings. It’s not often a modeling shoot is as enjoyable as this one was. It took a lot of energy but you can’t beat getting paid to have fun. Even the next day, when I was on a long haul flight to London, as sick as a pike, I was smiling. Making history with such great people was a good hangover cure. That, and the beer I had at the airport.
meat puppet 