How To Do A Facetime Cover Shoot With Andrea Brillantes

art by Alliah 

Last June, I was able to work with Andrea Brillantes/Blythe and shoot a cover issue with her over Facetime. This post may be way overdue but a lot of you have been asking how we were able to do it so here are the deets!



The fashion industry has really been badly hit by the pandemic. In the first few months of quarantine, a lot of brands have stopped operating and a lot of people have lost their jobs. It is a very difficult time for everyone. I have been working from home since the initial quarantine announcements and I consider that as a blessing — that I still have a job, you know!

(c) STAIL.PH

A strict quarantine hindered a lot of opportunities in the industry — no events, no photoshoots, no special features, and not being able to be with my team. Staying at home was indeed a challenging time, plus all the sad and bad news we hear online. The future in fashion was such an uncertain topic back then. But not until I was able to talk with my friend, Charles Rodulfo, a fashion photographer. We were talking about a video he sent me where a facetime shoot could actually be possible! Everything suddenly became so exciting. We planned with the STAIL Team and also thought of raising awareness on Mental Health. You can view the full issue here: https://stail.ph/home-issue/.

(c) STAIL.PH

How We Did It

Our call time was 8am so our team was already ready at 7am. Kudos to Blythe for waking up early and prepping for the shoot. We had a quick briefing and she's just so easy to work with, very professional! Our whole team was in a zoom call while Charlie Facetimed Blythe. She also had another gadget with her where she's part of the zoom meeting so she can hear our comments too. So basically, live photos were shared with us but not all are clear because of internet difficulties. Who would've thought we could make a cover with Facetime and Zoom, right?

What I love about shooting with Blythe is that she is so "game" with everything! She's so polite and she's willing to do what she's told. She's always "yes po" and "ok po" but she also adds some ideas and suggestions as to how to pull off the cover shoot.

A whole production team from different parts of Luzon worked for this shoot. I sat from home from 8AM to 5PM just to get the shoot done. It took so much time because it was the first time we did such a thing. Charlie was in Cavite, Blythe in Makati, Vincent and the rest of our team were in Manila too. We were able to work on the June cover shoot while everyone is just at home.



Hair and Makeup
If you're wondering about the HMUA of this shoot, let me tell you this: it's all Blythe! She did it all by herself! The look is simple but she pulled it off. Her brows are a-ma-zing!


The Red Dress
The famous red PPE-inspired dress was created by AJ Javier. You can even get a similar one! Just contact him here.


Photos and Videos
I don't think everything would be possible without Andrea's mom! She's very supportive and also, she's the one who held the camera for Blythe. For the short film, Vincent just used the back camera of Andrea's phone (with higher resolution) and had it sent over.


Just to have a clearer idea of what happened on our cover shoot, check out these BTS photos: (If you have more questions, just comment down below and I'll answer them!)

Watch our Short Film Here:

Credits:

Photography and Art Direction by Charles Rodulfo

Video Produced by Vincent Sy

Video Producer Assisted by Gabe Gavina

Designer: AJ Javier

Final Artists: Louie Romantico and Nic Ariston

Stylists: Jasmine Gagarin and Ian Vill

Shot with an iMac through Facetime with an iPhone XR