Voodoo Queen — William Henry Photography

This shoot was a special one for me because I had wanted to add a Voodoo Witch to my series from the beginning but had to keep pushing it back till I found the right person. What made this shoot so special was that behind wanting to shoot a Voodoo Witch I have been wanting to shoot a dancer for as long as I could remember, I’ve photographed dancers in the past but never captured one in motion so I was excited to be able to combine the two on this shoot.

The first step was to start researching Voodoo, it’s stories, myths and truths. As I delved further into the world of Voodoo I saw how vast this world was, it was fascinating but as per usual by this time I had gone too far for what was required and so once I felt I had done enough research I created a mood board of images that incorporated the feeling I wanted to come across in the shoot, I had separate mood boards for both imagery and video.

The next step I had was to find the right model that could bring this character to life. After a bit of searching I came across a model named Kessi who looked perfect for what I had in mind, after looking through her portfolio I was over the moon to discover that she also danced. So when I reached out to Kessi asking if she would be interested in working with me on this project I also asked if she would be interested in dancing as well. Kessi’s response was incredible, not only was she enthusiastic about the shoot but she wanted to know more about the story and the background of the character and how she could help bring the vision to life. We spoke about the style of dance I was looking for and after sending a few videos and ideas over to Kessi she explained that the dance ideas had a lot of Hofesh qualities which is what she mainly trained in so it was a lucky surprise.

I started prepping by sitting down with my partner Georgina to decide where the shoot would take place and how it would be set up. I already knew of a forest that I wanted to use for the dance ritual scenes but the real issue was where we would set up the Voodoo Queens ‘Workshop’ where the spell would be cast. After a lot of discussion around what would and wouldn’t work we decided that it might be easier just to build the set we needed and so the shed that we usually store some equipment in became the empty canvas. I discussed my ideas with Georgina and she got to work turning what I had in my head into a reality. Candles were to play a big part in the lighting and atmosphere of the scene, although we initially thought we would only be able to place candles on the floor, table and shelf, we came across some beautiful lantern style holders which were perfect and really added to the scene. We used gold cable and cut them to different lengths before hanging the lanterns in various positions, this was trickier than we thought which we discovered when doing a test walk through for the filming portion of the shoot. We found that Kessi would have a difficult time not hitting her head on at least one of the candles and so we had to cut a few of the candles down and rehang them in places that would not effect filming or put her at risk. I also wanted the inside of the shed to feel alive and so for the background we decided to use fake vines which we stapled along the the ceiling, letting it hang down to give an overgrown effect which I think looked incredible.

We then hung some artwork along the wall to make the space feel more lived in, now that I look at it I can tell where looking for suitable artwork took a left turn and I grabbed the nearest thing that I just thought looked cool, I wonder if you can guess which one it was :)

Next we got to work on the furniture, starting from the left of the scene we placed a small box in front of a large potted plant and placed an old fashioned vinyl player which I borrowed from my dad for the day on top.

Next to that we placed a small stool where the Voodoo Queens spell books would sit. On the subject of the spell book I don’t mind saying that it was the hardest part of the shoot to put together, after scouring the Internet for fake spell books I found that none of them looked the part either in presentation or materials and so I found a book with parchment like pages held together by string and metal hinges. I originally asked Georgina to individually sketch out the Voodoo Witches pages but we quickly realised it would take far too long and so luckily we had another idea and decided to take the book apart instead and create the pages using a word program, adding diagrams and making small sketches for each individual page. Georgina did a fantastic job of putting them all together, even adding crossings out and circles around specific words to make it feel more authentic. In the end we ended up with over 30 pages of designs which not only looked great but meant that during the filming portion of the shoot the model could flick through the book freely without worry of hitting a blank page.

Moving on to the rest of the room, we next placed a large plant beside the spell books to fill the scene and create some interesting shadows along the back wall which you will see later on. We also placed a doll from my mothers collection that always terrified me as a child and still does a little bit to this day.

In the middle of the room we placed a low table, this was to be the main area where the Voodoo Queen would prepare and cast her spells, on the table we placed candles which we later melted down for a used look, dry flower petals, spell papers printed as extras from the book, sage and other little items.

Lastly to the right we placed a shelf which was filled with various ingredients made up of herbs, spices, fake blood, a fake eyeball and different colour paint. Again Georgina did an incredible job and I remember looking at it all and instantly feeling like I was really standing in what could be a Voodoo Queens workshop.

Now that we were happy with the set the next thing to do was to light it. As this was meant to be an outdoor workshop I knew the main light had to come from outside the window, I wanted this light to be warm but unfortunately it was forecast to be a grey London day. Luckily being born in London I was more than used to this and have been using CTO gels for many years now as a result. I placed an Aputure 300d II continuous light wrapped with two CTO gels outside the window, raised the light up high and angled it down to try and replicate the angle of light that would naturally fall through the window if it were a sunny day.

The result was better than I had hoped, it worked perfectly and the effect from the shadows of the tree became an integral part of the lighting.

Next I knew that although it was now exactly how I wanted it to look the main light was creating too much shadow on the scene so I added another light inside the workshop. With space being so limited inside I decided to use a Profoto B10 on a C Stand with a boom arm so that I could place the light above the subject without getting in the way of filming. See the results below:

(If you’re wondering why the colour shift below is so dramatic, it’s because the shots above were taken with my Fujifilm camera using the Classic Chrome Film Emulation and the images below are shot with my Phase One XF Camera)

This first images shows the lighting prior to the addition of the second light.

Here is what it looked like once we added the second light, I continued to make adjustments to make sure the light would fall nicely over the objects on the table as well.

Happy with the second light I had Georgina stand up so I could make sure the light worked for both sitting or standing. The set up worked great especially when standing as the light hitting Georgina’s face felt like it could be coming from the candles surrounding her.

I then got Georgina to practice some of the poses I had in mind for the day of the shoot to make sure the lighting and composition would work.

The light was almost where I wanted it to be but there was still one more thing missing, we had placed a lot of candles in front of and around our model but with the other light now shining down light from above we needed another light to help boost the warm light that would be coming from the candles. For this we decided to use a Falcon Eyes F7 Video Light which is a small inexpensive light, as of writing this blog post it can currently be purchased on Amazon for £110 making it the cheapest light I own. I can’t say enough about this little light, it’s small, magnetic so it can attach to surfaces, allows you to choose the Kelvin you want between 2500-9000 Kelvin, has 20 stage lighting effects and allows you to control the brightness from 0-100 for extra control.

We placed this light on the floor directly in front of the table and subject and set it to around 2500 Kelvin. The orange light illuminated the skull and underneath Kessi’s chin perfectly, filling in the shadows with an orange hue that would be present if the candles were emitting more light, this effect was more evident in the short film, especially during the candle dance scene where Georgina shook the small light off camera generating a flickering candle light effect along Kessi.

Here are the final images from the 1st room set up:

I originally settled on the image above as the final image but after some time away I came back and decided the image below felt better, I picked it because of it’s closeness to Kessi and I actually prefer that her eyes are open, I still like the first image and the composition but the second image has grown on me.

Once we had all the images we moved onto the filming portion of the shoot, for the film I knew I wanted to add more atmosphere and capture the light falling through the window in a more cinematic way and so I brought a haze machine along to add some depth and interest to the shots. For the filming we used a Blackmagic Pocket 6K Camera which helped create a beautiful cinematic look with it’s super 35mm sensor, I used a Canon 24-105mm zoom lens for these shots.

Here are some behind the scenes images where you can see more of the set including the placement of the haze machine.

Here is a still from the footage after colour correction, you can see that the haze effect is subtle but it creates a nice atmosphere.

Here are two more images showing a behind the scenes shot and a still from the final footage:

After these images we moved onto the final shots with Kessi which were to be the candle dance scene. For this set up we removed everything from the room leaving only the stool which the books were sitting on, the roses and candles which we placed around the stool in a circle. We then draped a large gold sheet over the chair and had Kessi sit on it as if it were her throne. Georgina then painted gold brush strokes along her body arms and legs.

Here is a quick behind the scenes image where you can see Georgina applying the makeup, you can also see the Profoto B10 we placed on a boom arm just slightly away from the model to create a nice fall off of light. The light had also been moved further into the room to help create a softer wash of light over Kessi.

Here is the final image - Kessi still had the contact lenses in which lent itself to the gold effect nicely. You can clearly see the effect placing the light above has on Kessi and with the light being fairly close the fall of is soft and gradual. For this shot I created some images with the haze and some without, in the end I decided that the shot with the haze was far more interesting and created more mystery and malevolence to the image and so I went with that. If you look closely you can see the orange glow from the Falcon Eyes F7 light along Kessi’s legs giving the impression that they are coming from the candles surrounding her.

For the dance scene we removed the stool and laid the cloth on the floor, we then dismantled the roses and spread the petals all around her and the candles, all the lighting was kept the same.

Here are images of Kessi dancing with the pentagram necklace on, in order to get these angles I stood on a small step ladder.

After this we shot the motion parts to this scene using the haze machine for continuity with the earlier film shots. See below:

This was the end of the shoot for the main parts and we said goodbye to Kessi after what was a great and productive day. We then started the long process of tiding up :), the only thing we didn’t pack away was the skull as we still had to film it for the fire section of the film.

So a few days later I set up a fire pit with some coal and a few logs, placed the skull on top and set it on fire. The idea was to film the skull on fire and make cuts during Kessi’s dance scenes and spell casting with the skull flashing in and out creating a more powerful effect. We then planned to show the fire burnt out and the skull resting on the hot coals to end with the final scene.

Here is an image of me filming the fire along with a still from one of the final shots below, for this shot I used a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS Lens to really get close to the fire without melting:

The fire pit scene turned out great and I couldn’t imagine the film without it, if there is one thing I would have liked to have done it would have been to have Kessi dance in front of a larger fire but unfortunately there weren’t places near us I could do something like that without proper planning and permission and so for this shoot I think this worked out perfectly.

This was one of my best experiences whilst working on the Dark Series, it was fun to research and plan this shoot and then to see it all come together in the end. Writing this I can’t even remember the insane pressure to finish editing everything before Halloween so that it could be shared, all I remember now is how much I enjoyed this shoot and the fun I had along the way.

A massive thank you to Kessi for being an amazing subject, making me and Georgina laugh throughout the shoot with her infectious energy and for giving so much care and attention to help bring the Voodoo Queen to life.

And as always thank you to my partner in crime Georgina, this shoot truly would not have been possible without her support, Makeup and set design.

I’m so happy to finally have included motion into my workflow and I think it really helped to raise the bar for the Dark Series this year, I’m looking forward to what 2021 will bring.

Check out the short film here, there is an extended cut where you can see more of the room and the spell being made:

P.s. You might have noticed that I didn’t speak much about the outdoor dance scene in the forest, that’s because we didn’t have any time to grab any behind the scenes shots but here is a brief rundown of what I did.

For the outdoor section of the shoot, I had scouted a location not far from where we had shot the workshop scene. Before we headed there Georgina did the makeup, for this makeup I researched some designs, most of the traditional face paint I found represented a skull but some showed different types of brush strokes with more of a tribal look which is what Georgina and I decided to use. See the final portrait below:

This image was photographed using one Profoto B10 high up and off camera left.

Once we got the portrait we moved onto the dance scene which Kes absolutely killed. For this scene I had not planned set steps with Kes, instead I knew how I wanted the dance to feel and so I gave Kes an idea of what I was looking for and left it to her to interpret and she did an incredible job. My main job was making sure to keep up with Kessi as she moved through the forest, the whole time recording I made sure to keep the burning skull scenes in my mind which helped me picture everything as a whole and make sure it would work together later in post.