Carnval de los Sueños - photo shoot

The idea for The Carnival of Dreams is almost as old as Carnival Studio and has taken over a year of pre-production, shooting & retouching.
What began with the idea for a single image of a woman who wanders off from a travelling circus evolved into Carnaval De Los Sueños - The Carnival Of Dreams, a rag-tag collective of acrobats, dancers and mystics with entertainment in the blood. It was decided early on that we would traverse one day in the life of our troupe, and it would be a peek into the real performers away from the lights and music of the show.

We've treated our troupe as a metaphor for the design studio, and while their craft is the trapeze, chinese wheel or dancing - we're both essentially performing for an audience. And while the shoot was developed as the backbone of the studio's rebranding, it also became a deeply involved & rewarding labour of love for all the creatives involved.

A new day yet secrets weigh heavily on Madame Emmanuelle.

With a handshake that says a thousand words, Carlos is welcomed to ‘The Carnival of Dreams'

Luka recalls to Marlon and Ms LuLu his induction into the circus with impersonations of the troupe.

“Lola, you ain’t seen nothin’ - we’ll be the greatest double act the world has never seen.”

Two new songs learnt and a setting sun, the scent of sweet spit-roast beckons rumbling bellies to camp.

El Hombre Volador lights up the night sky, while Luka hustles Jacques yet again.

The Professor prepares dinner for the exhausted troupe.

Demi Hopkins took the concept to photographer Mark Rogers, who has worked on countless Australian film & advertising campaigns and quickly ideas bounced and the project began to take life. The time and place for our troupe is not specific but somewhere across Europe between world wars, when the travelling carnival was a thing of wonder, fear and excitement to be eagerly anticipated. Production Designer Ingrid Weir (The Chaser's War On Everything, .30 Seconds) came on board and together with Demi developed a strong eclectic style which brought together props, weathered period costume & created a perfectly believeable and immersive environment.

With two months of pre-production planning, including casting, location scouting and extensive talks with Centennial Parks Trust (to gain permission for hanging trapeze from 100 year old figs) we had narrowed down to two day shoots featuring professional actors including the rising star Maeve Dermondy (Griff The invisible, Black Water, Beautiful Kate), stage & musical theatre extraodinaire Josephine Ison (The Wiggles), Panda Likoudis (My Place) and legit circus contortionists and trapeze artists.

From L-R: Panda demands attention from Maeve, Ingrid makes adjustments to Marcus' jungle outfit, Matt & Panda getting 'in character' over a beer & Sunny applied scurvy to Panda.

Shooting on location at Weber's Circus and Centennial Park in Sydney, Demi, Mark & Ingrid worked closely with a hard working crew and captured what would become The Carnival of Dreams.

For a further six months the images were sorted, selected, rejected, re-selected and slowly corrected to a set of seven final images. All images are a composite of two or more images, and an additional mini-shoot was done to gain clean locations without cast. Colour grading & texture were carefully considered and applied to find a balance between historial photographic accuracy and vibrancy.

Mark Rogers has since entered the series into the Albury Art Prize and a number of photos have appeared in their original form as part of the 2010 Head On Photo Festival.

It must be said again that the project has involved over a dozen people who have given their time, expertise and passion to create something special, and it would not have been possible without the brilliance & support of Mark & Ingrid. We would also like to thank the cast involved including Matt, Cristian, Webers Circus (Daokta, Herwin & Natalie), Panda, Marcus & Jaye at Meissner, the lovely Maeve & Josie, pyro-man Craig - and the crew including Sunny, Cath for the beautiful vintage wares and reigning in the chaos, Abby & Craig at Aerialize Circus, Debbie for the gorgeous accordian & entertainment, MJ for the brilliant imaging, and of course Panama.

CAST

Madam Emmanuelle - Maeve Dermody (Dancer & lead acrobat)
The Lovely Ms. LuLu - Josephine Ison (Burlesque dancer)
Luka Laurant - Panda Likoudis (Bonneteau master, womaniser & accordianist)
The Mighty Marlon- Marcus Johnson (Strong man & horns section)
El Profesor Mistico Cristo - Cristian Vizcarra (Circus Master & sometime Chef)
Jacques - Matt Hamilton (The Foreman)
Lola - Dakota Weber (Contortionist)
Carlos - Herwin (Acrobat/Chinese Wheel)
El Hombre Volador - Craig Hull (Trapeze)

CREW

Art Direction: Demi Hopkins (Carnival Studio)
Photography:  Mark Rogers (Mark Rogers Photography)
Production & Costume Design:  Ingrid Weir
Additional Production Design:  Cath Wadling
Make-Up:  Sunny Saady (So Sensational)
Photography Assistants: Carlo Lina, Iva Vopěnková 
Retouching & Compositing: Michael James, Demi Hopkins

Lastly, thanks to Natalie Weber (Webers Circus) & Bernadette (Centennial Parks Trust) for being wonderful location hosts, it could not have been done without your generous help.

All images can be viewed in full screen splendour at Carnival Studio's website (click the ball icon below navigation).