Rock of Ages

When I was contacted to do the promo pics for Rock of Ages I thought, “now this is up my alley.”

80s rock star look in a rock bar? Yes, please.

Some of the challenges with this shoot was that there were mirrors all over the place and I didn’t want to get the strobe or the camera caught in the mirrors. There also wasn’t any cool graffiti or rock posters anywhere so I had to add those in post-production along with some additional smoke effects.

Of course, no one in the cast were actual rock stars but lucky for them, in my past I may have dabbled in the rock lifestyle. So, I brought in my 7-string bass, 8-string guitar, and other little additions.

You might be saying, “Now, Jay. No one in the 80s had 7-string basses or 8-string guitars.” To which I respond, shut up.

Special thanks to Radio Bar in Baton Rouge for hooking us up with a cool place to shoot in.

In addition, I was inspired by the movie’s poster art and did a second day of shooting at the theater to try and duplicate some of those “Brady Bunch” style character shots that could be combined together or ran individually on Instagram.

These involved a black background, a strong strobe behind them, a strobe to the side, and a big ole leaf blower for the rock and roll hair effect. I’m particularly happy with the stage lit silhouette poster that came out.