When Esquire magazine earned the 2009 Publishing Innovator of the Year Award from Publishing Executive magazine, it was for efforts and ideas like the men's magazine's latest.
For the first time in Esquire's history -- and, the magazine's editors think, magazine history in general -- a cover image was shot as a video. Using the RedONE, a video camera that captures images at four times the resolution of high-definition, photographer-director Greg Williams recorded 10 minutes of loosely scripted footage with actress Megan Fox.
"It allowed her to act," Williams says. "She could run scenes without being reminded by the sound of a shutter every four seconds that I was taking a picture. As in still photography, a lot of it is capturing unexpected moments. This takes that one step further."
He then went pulled out the best images, which accompany the cover story in Esquire's June issue.
Publishing Executive Inbox spoke with two Esquire staffers who played pivotal roles in the groundbreaking project: David Curcurito, design director, and Matt Sullivan, senior Web editor.
INBOX: Where did the idea to capture the cover story's stills from a video shoot come from? Was this the idea from the start (when you first secured the video shoot with Megan)?
DAVID CURCURITO: … Years ago, I had the idea of using a 72mm film camera/Panaflex to capture a scene with a model or actor. I wanted to then publish the shots. That was a really, really expensive idea so it was shelved. One hundred years later, photographer Greg Williams came to my office and introduced me to the Red One and showed David Granger and myself some amazing work he had done with it. Greg showed us stuff similar to the moving Megan Fox cover at the end of our film. It blew our minds. We knew we had to use it immediately.
I don't think we approached Megan with the idea of only [doing] a video. The magazine obviously is our first priority. We approached it as a photo shoot where Megan would be acting rather than just posing. It's a win-win situation. Megan's comfortable acting and we're able to have something great for the publication, and hey, we get a film too.
For the first time in Esquire's history -- and, the magazine's editors think, magazine history in general -- a cover image was shot as a video. Using the RedONE, a video camera that captures images at four times the resolution of high-definition, photographer-director Greg Williams recorded 10 minutes of loosely scripted footage with actress Megan Fox.
"It allowed her to act," Williams says. "She could run scenes without being reminded by the sound of a shutter every four seconds that I was taking a picture. As in still photography, a lot of it is capturing unexpected moments. This takes that one step further."
He then went pulled out the best images, which accompany the cover story in Esquire's June issue.
Publishing Executive Inbox spoke with two Esquire staffers who played pivotal roles in the groundbreaking project: David Curcurito, design director, and Matt Sullivan, senior Web editor.
INBOX: Where did the idea to capture the cover story's stills from a video shoot come from? Was this the idea from the start (when you first secured the video shoot with Megan)?
DAVID CURCURITO: … Years ago, I had the idea of using a 72mm film camera/Panaflex to capture a scene with a model or actor. I wanted to then publish the shots. That was a really, really expensive idea so it was shelved. One hundred years later, photographer Greg Williams came to my office and introduced me to the Red One and showed David Granger and myself some amazing work he had done with it. Greg showed us stuff similar to the moving Megan Fox cover at the end of our film. It blew our minds. We knew we had to use it immediately.
I don't think we approached Megan with the idea of only [doing] a video. The magazine obviously is our first priority. We approached it as a photo shoot where Megan would be acting rather than just posing. It's a win-win situation. Megan's comfortable acting and we're able to have something great for the publication, and hey, we get a film too.
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