Namia River Retreat is a new wellness focused resort in the lovely town of HoiAn, Vietnam. The property is a beautiful blend of heritage. Natural materials, classic Vietnamese storytelling, and modern amenities.
A year ago the General Manager and I met at a hospitality conference in Ho Chi Minh City. The resort had only completed two show villas. And was in need of both updated interior photography. As well as some teaser lifestyle images and a teaser video to promote the property before it opened.
The GM and I had worked together previously on a separate project. In 2010 when she was the spa manager at another resort. We had kept in contact and saw each other often when I lived in HoiAn.
So the meeting at the hospitality conference was fortuitous. After a quick chat and an exchange of emails we had organized the shoot dates.
This project though, was going to be a little different than my usual hotel pre opening shoots.
This project required a VIDEO!! Something I have some experience in but not on this scale. Especially because the pre-opening stage was only the beginning of the project. Stage two would be to create a full image library. Interior design, lifestyle photography and a full video!
As the video element of this size was a little out of my range to pull off well. I enlisted the help of my good friends and business partners The Cake Collective. We had done a few projects together but nothing of this scale before. Particularly not one that would stretch for an entire year. Nor one that had both Photography and Videography as equal components. Usually on shoots like this one element takes precedent over the other. Not so here.
We started with a scouting trip to visit the site and see what it looked like and what had been completed. A nice little write up on that experience is on the blog at The Cake Collective.
Obviously not much was finished. The majority of the site was still under construction. But the two completed show villas gave us a good idea of the future of the property.
After the scouting trip completed we returned home to begin planning the shoot. Here the hotel and management company (Lumina Wellbeing) were very helpful. They had been working on this project for quite some time and had a lot of material to guide us.
Colour pallets, key visual component ideas and concepts. All helped guide our ideas on how to create the best possible photographs and video concept.
Fast forward two months and we were back onsite. Ready to shoot the show villas and focus, for now at least, on the teaser video.
The challenges at this stage were obvious. Aside from the show villas the entire area was still mostly sand, concrete and workers. Not ideal to show a tranquil wellness property.
Not to worry. We are, after all, PROFESSIONALS! Using the major elements that define the Namia brand, Nipa Palms, Water, Life by the river, and Light. We worked our butts off for three days shooting both photo and video. The weather held but was hot, oh so hot.
After the shoot the challenges were not done yet. We still had to assemble, colour grade the video and retouch the photos.
This is where things got tricky. You see, most clients are looking for exact colour accuracy in their photography. Which makes sense because what good are photos if they do not represent what the actual place looks like. Right? Well, with Namia it was a little different. They wanted the photos to represent the brand colours. Which was a combination of warm sand tones. warm wood tones, and a sort of muted celadon blue. What they wanted was art.
Any artist reading this will know, art is subjective. As an artist (photographer) trying to match another artists (designer, creative director) ideas. It can be a bit of a challenge. Not only because of technical issues. Everyone’s computer monitors are slighly different colours. but also in how we all perceive colours. Obviously, not the same as everyone else. Especially with such subtle and specific colour choices.
And, to make things interesting, the video colours had to match the photography. To do this the video Director Kevin, the Video Editor Louis and I at first worked seperately. Sampling colours from the pallets given to us. Afterwards we worked together to align them. It was a time consuming process. But the results are worth the effort. I have included some of my favourite photos from the teaser shoot here.
Stay tuned for part two…..THE FULL SHOOT!!
But for now. Some pretty images and the teaser trailer.
