Strip-Club Alley

The "Reality Creeping In" project was all about composites. This image is one from the set of 18.

The entire project was an amazing experience. With costume creation and creative direction by Janet Loyst, we created storyboards, sets, selected models and locations, and shot for almost 6 months. Almost 13,000 images later, we had a sufficient selection to create composite images to tell a story. Each of the 18 compositions took approximately 2 weeks of post-production work to complete.

The story is about a faerie in search of a little girl who asked for her help. In an attempt to understand "why" the little girl is in need, the faerie decides to examine the human landscape. What she finds is not pretty. In the above shot, the faerie happens to come upon an alley-way where other faeries have been lured... and they've dangerously adopted the vices and habits of mankind...

The alley was difficult to find, but downtown Toronto delivered! The characters were all shot in the studio with all key aspects of the final shot simulated. A green backdrop was used to facilitate the removal of the studio background and each character was overlaid into position. Shadows, blending, sizing, and depth-of-field were all created in Photoshop.

By the way, the multiple instances of the young girl (prostitute) were purposely created to highlight or stress the perception that all in such a calling look or are the same...