This short article discusses the various steps on how the above poster was produced, from the stage of conceptualization to the final production of the publication, giving the readers an insight into the production of such image production and publication.
 

Conceptualization

The first step towards the creation of the image starts with the conceptualization. What is the concept that you are working towards ? The concept and theme must always be in your mind as you work along the creation process, right from the start to the end. For this image, we have started with the theme of montage, since it is the name of the seminar which the poster is meant for.

So now we have settled on the theme of montage. From here, we can start to brain storm various ideas of the image, based on the theme of montage. At this stage, every single idea is accepted and duly noted down. The committee of members were allowed to freely explore different scenarios and possibilities, without considering the cost or technical ability to accomplish it. We came up with a list of ideas, and went through the various possibilities. First, we eliminated the ideas which did not cohere to the theme of montage. Since the final image must reflect the process of montage in some ways, we were working along the lines of combining various images together, or merging various elements from different images.

We ended up with around five final ideas which reflected montage, and from there we eliminated ideas which were too expensive or beyond our technical capabilities. For example, we wanted to do a giant montage with thousands of small images making up a big image when seen from a distance. The technology and software are available on the market, but they were beyond our budget. Next, we wanted to do a photo montage using conventional darkroom techniques, but it limited us to black-and-white images. Finally, we decided on digital montage, and created a proposal of a series of eye-catching images, such as:
 

• - a guy stepping out of a elevator just in time before door of razor blades closes on him!!
• - a girl in a bath tub with a life giant duck sitting in there with her
• - a guy being sucked into a toilet bowl

Production

What we had was the idea and image in our heads, and nothing else. We pitched the concept to the project director, and he approved the concept. Once we had the go-ahead, we had to plan the technical aspects of the image. How are we going to shoot the image ? Are we going to dunk a real guy in the toilet bowl and shoot him, then delete the unnecessary elements ? Where are the arms and legs going ? What equipment are we using ? What is the budget, and will there be any unexpected costs incurred ?

We had to sort of the various elements and steps in the montaging of the final image, by analyzing the image in our heads and working backwards essentially. This stage has to be done in conjunction with the budgeting, and its probably the only boring stage. Once we figured out how we are going to achieve the image, we had to go scouting for the location and model. We were looking for reasonably clean toilets, and we noted that some toilets had just been constructed. So we went to several new toilets and looked for cleaniless and the space to set up our lights and cameras. It wasn't as easy as it sounds - since looking for the "perfect toilet" required that the bowl is centered and the toilet roll holders are in the right place, and that  the walls are free from defamatory messages about political parties.

The model proved to be easier to find than the perfect toilet. We decided that it would be a male model, because many feminists will probably reject a poster depicting a female being sucked into toilet bowls. Furthermore, we decided that a pair of upturned legs would be definitely easier to photograph in a pair of pants than in a skirt. And we had a volunteer in our team to model for this poster. So here we go!
 

I sourced for the equipment after planning the shoot, since I don't usually keep so much equipment for unusual assignments like this.  For this shoot, I figured a 20mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor would be ideal for the task, after the initial scouting of location. The 20mm covered the congested cubicle and gave it a wider perspective, while the close-range correction (CRC) feature of the 20mm Nikkor gave me the edge-to-edge definition I required. An alternative would be the Hasselblad 903 SWC with the superb 38mm Biogon, but we would have trouble in scanning the medium format. A studio flash with umbrella was mounted above the door bar and cable-sync to the Nikon F100. I would have preferred using a softbox, but the dimensions of the cubicle did not allow its use.

But before any shooting could take place, we had some cleaning up to do ! Because we were shooting it in a public toilet, we had to do the photography in the dead of the night so that we will not be interrupted by anyone wishing to use the toilet. The last thing I would want to do is to clean up after someone else !  We did some touching up work in the toilet cubicle, making sure that there were no aweful stains on the walls and toilet bowl. It is crucial to do the initial cleaning up, since the final image would look much cleaner and avoid much digital retouching. A common mistake by novice is to leave all the cleaning up and retouching to Photoshop. Not only is it more time consuming to do it digitally, too much digital manipulation also shows in the final image.

The final shooting commerced after the physical cleaning up.  We decided prior to the shoot that the elements of the pictures would be shot separately, and digitally montaged in to give the illusion that the person had been sucked into the toilet bowl. It is important to plan all these beforehand, because you are giving all attention to the shooting on-location, and would not have time to plan on the spot. Minor modifications are definitely okay, but to plan on the spot is asking for trouble. We started off easy by photographing various views of a empty toilet bowl in the cubicle. We wanted to give the digital guy more flexibility, and so we took multiple shots of the scene. A very important aspect of the shoot comes from lighting. Because the image has to look realistic, we had to plan our elements so that the lighting remains constant. This means that if soft lighting comes from a direction for the empty toilet cubicle, we had to ensure that the same directional lighting is used for the shots of the arms and legs. After we made the shots for the toilet cubicle, we did the arms and legs. The lighting ratio and distance were calculated using a Minolta IV-F lightmeter, and we used the same 20mm Nikkor-AF to retain realistic dimensions of the limbs to the toilet bowl. Because the arms and legs had to be digitally lifted out of their original context into the main background of the toilet cubicle, we had to ensure that we photographed the limbs against a contrasting background of a pure colour. This is like the blue-screen technique used in Superman movies. Finally, the films were sent for processing.
 

The Digital World

After looking through the processed film, we sent them all to our design bureau, Firefish Design. The designers were briefed by us right from the start about the concept of the poster, and they in turn conveyed to us the potentional problems they might face at the digitizing stage. I can't stress how important it is to work with the entire team, because such a production is not a one-man show. If you did not communicate with the rest of the people, you are going to run into problems later on in the different stages. For example, Firefish Design alerted us to the format they required for scanning, and the resolution and size of the final output. With the feedback, we could reorganize our shooting and production accordingly to deliver the best final results. We discussed the final montaged image with the designers, looking at the different elements we had on hand. The images showed empty toilet bowls, and the model posing in various weird positions, looking totally unlike the final image that you see.

Credit had to be given to Firefish Design for doing a fine digital job of montaging. Attention to the fine details differentiate between a realistic digital image and a poor one. The scanning image above is too small to discern the details, and you'd have to look at the printed flyers to check out the image. After the designers chose the various frames to be used in the final image, the film was scanned using a Nikon film scanner. The elements such as the arms and legs were lifted out of their original photos and layered into the image of the cubicle. After positioning the limbs in the appropriate pose according to a sketch, the fine-tuning process begins. First of all, the depth of field is used to create a more realistic image. The shoes are in focus, and the hands at the back of the toilet seat was blurred to give a sensation of depth. It is a small but useful touch in creating the realism required. The toilet roll grasped in the hand was given movement blur to denote some action, and the position of the hands and legs were pre-planned to give an illusion of being caught unexpectedly by the toilet bowl.

Finally, take note of the shadows of the legs on the floor. Because the original image was of a empty toilet bowl, there was no shadow of the legs. The designers added in the shadows to complete the illusion that the person was actually shot in the toilet bowl. The final image was then touched up to remove flaws and jagged images. The end result was so realistic that most people cannot believe that it was a digital montage !
 

Publication

The final image was then printed out and the proof was approved by the project director. Once the approval was in place, the images were then sent to printers via Zip disk or CD-ROM. The printers would then create colour separation plates and send them to the printing press. The first runs were checked for colour register and accuracy, and if everything goes well, the posters will go into printing. And viola !! The poster is up on the walls !

As expected, the poster caught the necessary attention for the event promotion. One of my favorite response came from someone who suggested a even more realistic addition to the poster:

"Ehh.... how come no blood ?"

Welcome to the gory world  !!