Murder on the Orient Express

I’m not sure where the text effect idea came from but the idea was to have this neon light type sign in the scene but there only to introduce the characters. These were all shot at a really cool bar in Baton Rouge called Hayride Scandal. Not only is that a wicked awesome rebel country band name, but the place had a great setting that could be repurposed as the inside of the Orient Express.

The challenge was that since I was adding the neon signs in post-production, I would have to add the spill light onto the characters as well. Murder on the Orient Express is a murder mystery, dark, mysterious, and quite involved. The characters had to look like they were in train compartments and lit with minimal lights. It was a tricky shoot with all the glass and mirrors all over the place.

We bounced around some ideas for poster art. I really liked the idea of a doodle on a napkin where spilled blood formed the smoke from the choo-choo train. But they seemed to want a poster with all the cast included. So, I did a few different versions.

This was the most time sensitive shoot I ever did. We only had a short amount of time to shoot each character and group shots before we had to hand the area back over to actual patrons.