shots Iconic Covers: Sam Walker & Joe De Souza

It's been a month since the announcement that ECD team Sam Walker and Joe De Souza are to leave their roles at Karmarama but in the five years they spent at the agency since 2010 they oversaw a barrage of highly creative work for top brands including Clydesdale Bank, Plusnet, Costa coffee, Virgin Active and the BBC.

Their campaign film for BBC Music, God Only Knows, was particularly notable for its production value and saw a host of celebrity talent from the recording world appear to launch the new brand from the broadcaster.

Below, the pair explain the concept behind the accompanying image for their client profile in issue 153, which was selected for the cover of the magazine back in December of 2014.

Tell us about the concept for your shots cover for issue 153 and how you came up with the idea?

We’d been working pretty relentlessly on our BBC film (below) and faced so many setbacks and challenges that we felt it would take something pretty extreme to stop us. Like if we were on fire, for example.

We shot it on what looks like the back lot of a film studio next to the catering van, almost as if we’re between set-ups or at lunch, having a cup of tea. We spent a lot of the last couple of years doing just that, wondering if what we were shooting would ever actually happen or if we’d fall at the final hurdle - there were many along the way. We had the feeling that whatever happened we had to keep going and so that’s what we did. And the fire is probably the most dramatic visual expression of that feeling.

Did it take many shots to get right?

The shots of me and Joe didn’t take too long as frankly neither of us are particularly good models and the variation of expressions was pretty minimal but I do think that they’re pretty representative of who we are and how we do things. The fire was more dramatic and Nathan Small (our photographer) got as many shots as he could before the suits and mannequins were completely destroyed. Also, we weren’t supposed to be setting stuff on fire at the location so our producer Danny Baylis was pretty keen to get out of there as soon as possible.

Where was the photo taken and what’s going on in the backdrop?

The back-drop is a factory somewhere in South East London and was chosen because it looked like the back lot of a film studio or Alexandra Palace where the BBC film was shot. It was all a bit "skin of our teeth" - we didn’t have permission to set ourselves or anything else on fire, or indeed the money to persuade someone to turn a blind eye. But it turned out to be the perfect location in the end. The van is a classic film catering van, the kind that serves bacon and egg baps in the morning and curry for lunch. The guy carrying the ladder is supposed to be an electrician or a grip from a film set but is actually an art worker called Jim.

How well do you think the image fit with the feature?

The image fits quite well with the film, particularly when you understand the thinking behind it, but it was a deliberate decision on our part to not link them too closely. There were lots of rules about what we could and couldn’t say, which we respected, so this, for us, was much more about the story behind the production than the end result. The suits and the catering van were our little nods to it. We thought about broken instruments lying around but decided in the end that they were unnecessary.

Was the kiosk in the shot real and what was the food like if so?

It was a real kiosk but there wasn’t any food in it. Funnily enough, the guy in the van is our producer, Danny, who happens to be an amazing cook. The food on the table was bloody awful, basically a selection of the cheapest, shittest sandwiches from the local garage, and a couple of Wagon Wheels. To be honest though, when you’ve been standing around for hours on end waiting for stuff to happen, you’ll eat anything.

How did you get hold of the matching suits for the shoot?

The suits aren't matching but they’re the only suits we’ve got. Mine’s dark blue and Joe’s is actually brown but with a bit of Photoshop magic and decent lighting they sort of look the same. 

Can you tell us much about the production technique of the photo, and was it hard to make yourselves look like you’re on fire?

Our producer, Danny, had his work cut out, given that we had virtually no money and (as usual) had to pull in a bunch of favours. Danny approached me at least three times in the run up to the shoot and told me that we simply didn’t have enough time or money to do it and that we’d have to think of an alternative idea or just do the whole thing in post with stock photography. But I just felt he’d manage to work some magic in the end so we just kept going - and true enough he came up with the goods.

And for us it’s definitely worth it. If you fake that kind of stuff entirely in post, you can usually tell. Obviously we were never going set ourselves on fire but we did want to recreate the effect as closely as possible. We had a safety guy who was in charge of the fire and the inflammable gels. It’s amazing how quickly and hot the fire burns, and how rapidly it destroys mannequins. Tim Bird, our retoucher, did a great job but I think he was pleased that we’d actually shot real-life reference for the flames interacting with our suits and faces.

Joe is looking at you in the picture – is there any significance behind that?

To be honest there’s no particular meaning to the look he's giving me. It could be that he's acknowledging the fact that I'm at least two feet taller than him. Or he's thinking we should probably put this fire out and order a curry from the van. Almost certainly the latter.

What was the feedback like from your peers when the issue was released?

It seemed to go down well which was great. Lots of nice messages from friends. It’s one of those things where if you put yourself out there then you have to expect some feedback. You just have to hope it’s positive. Both Joe and I have since got modelling contracts at Storm Models.

Now read the original feature on Walker and de Souza's BBC campaign in this extended piece from shots issue 153.