Welcome to The Director’s Cut, an interactive column featuring fashion, beauty and career advice from RGNN Director and Founder, @isabelevabohrer.
Did I just write a poem about a lipgloss? Yeah, I guess so. In fact, we produced a mini movie about the Rabanne Glowies lipgloss in shade Love Language, so let me take you behind the scenes. Whether you’re just curious as to how we put this together, or if you are planning a content shoot yourself, be it for your personal social media or for a brand, all these tips can come in handy. So here goes…
The final result
Before we get into the BTS, here is the final video so you know what we are talking about. As usual when we shoot content, we also shot a bunch of TikToks as well as the behind the scenes content on those days. You can watch all of them on my TikTok here.
Step #1: The concept
Love Language is the name of the shade of the lipgloss. It gives you these amazing, glassy lips. And while a lot of other Rabanne beauty products are a lot more sparkly, this lipgloss can actually we worn on the daily, so that is definitely something we kept in mind throughout the video – everyday glam, in this case a trip to the post office.
Step #2: Research the brand, the product and create a moodboard
Rabanne is all about supporting creativity and diversity, which is great when creating content because it gives you a lot of artistic freedom. When researching the brand and previous campaigns they have done, be it in general or specifically for the lipgloss, we took note of the following:
- Mixing silver and gold hardware/products/metallics. Rabanne has done this in numerous campaigns and that is something we also wanted to incorporate throughout this video.
- Gigi Hadid starred in a recent Rabanne campaign as the face of the “Million Gold for Her” perfume. In addition to the quintessential gold Rabanne metal mesh dress, which we all love, she was also shot in a black blazer, another aspect we kept in mind when choosing the outfit for the video.
- A trip to Sephora to get to know the rest of the Rabanne beauty products never hurts. The lipgloss in shade Love Language is definitely one of the more classic, neutral Rabanne beauty products.
Step #3: Write the poem
We have found that whenever we ask viewers a question, it makes the content a lot more engaging. In this case, the question was, “what’s your love language?”. Recording the audio at this point will also help you figure out how long it is and how many shots you will need. We wanted each sentence or phrase to mark a different shot, and decided to split the mobile screen into two, so double the shots.
Step #4: Buy the props
Better safe than sorry – we definitely ordered more disco balls than we needed. But you never know, and we also weren’t sure which size would be best for the lipgloss, so in the end everything worked out. We initially were going to purchase a series of envelopes as well for the love letters, but decided to use the Rabanne card as a letter instead. Also, we happened to stumble across this heart mirror, which worked perfectly (in gold!) for applying the lipgloss and matching the “Love Language” theme.
Oh, and of course, we wanted to include my Rabanne 1969 limited edition make-up clutch, which is actually a highlighter, which you will have seen on my TikTok before. Such a collectors’ statement piece, I will never regret buying this. It happened to coincide that I had chosen the heart charm for the clutch, which again fit in perfectly with the heart mirror and the overall “Love Language” theme. Sometimes life just comes together just as you need it, right?
Step #5: Pick the outfit, the hair, the make-up and the nails
As mentioned above, Gigi Hadid starred in a recent Rabanne campaign in a black blazer, so we opted for this black hourglass blazer dress and glammed it up with some lace tights. Rabanne is all about glam, right? If you have seen me wear this fit before, yes, I wore it to the Louvre’s first fashion exhibition, so it was a no brainer.
As for the hair, make-up and nails, we wanted to keep it simple and neutral so the focus would really be on the lipgloss. In fact, a lot of brands request neutral nails for beauty campaigns, so neutrals it is. For the BTS shots, we also incorporated these silver Rabanne no crease hair clips – and yes, I went out and about on the streets in these, you don’t want to get your hair all over the lipgloss, right?
Step #6: Storyboard or make a list of shots
I’ve said this before in a BTS video explaining how we shot this red-carpet leg routine editorial – plan out your shots in advance, and better yet, the order in which you will shoot them. We shot the exterior shots on one day, and the interior shots the next day; it was the middle of fashion week and there was no way we could get all this done in one go.
Fun fact: always leave some room for improvisation; the shot of this blooming tree was not planned but we came across it serendipitously and it ended up working perfectly to create the mood alongside our other shots. (And the flowers were pink, like the Love Language lipgloss!).
Step #7: Go and shoot the content
By the time you get to this point, you should have a solid idea of what you need to shoot. Again, we always make sure to capture BTS content while we are at it, you never know what you might ended up using and viewers on TikTok, and social media in general, love outtakes (and all the times when you mess up – life is not perfect and I think it is important to show that).
Step #8: Edit, add the music and publish
This would require a whole other guide, so I am just going to leave it at that. But if you have done your homework and planned adequately as above in advance, your life will be so much easier. Recording the audio in advance was the biggest time saver. Let us know if you have any questions and I hope you like the final result!
Questions or comments? Follow me on IG @isabelevabohrer or TikTok and say hi! See you soon!
