Sam Hofman

Approach

01Hennessy

V.S · Made For More

Four serves in four places, and no lights on the job at all. The sun did the work and we shaped it with mirrors and negative fill, resetting them all day as it moved.

Cape Town, on the film's own locations, which is what keeps the stills speaking the same language as the rest of the campaign.

A Hennessy V.S bottle on a white ledge beside a tall highball of cognac over ice with a citrus twist, a bowl of lemons to the left and a honey dipper resting on a dish, against a pale blue sky
A tethered camera on a stand with a red cable, shooting a Hennessy bottle, a highball, honeycomb and a bowl of lemons arranged on a white ledge outdoors, blue sky behind
Two crew members on a white terrace holding a large white diffusion frame up against a low sun, white walls and stands around them
A white-walled building with square openings cut through it standing beside a still pool in dry grass, low sun raking across it, eucalyptus on the horizon
A tray of Hennessy serves with limes and glassware arranged on the bonnet of a red vintage car parked on a lawn, croquet hoops and white chairs behind it
A patterned rug on a terracotta rooftop dressed with a green chair and a low table, camera stands and white panels around it under a clear sky
A tethered camera on a stand shooting a Hennessy bottle and glass on a white ledge outdoors, hard sun and blue sky behind
Power cables and a distribution block laid across a white concrete floor beside a stand
White rendered architectural forms in bright sun with a black flag on a stand and a camera rig set up in front of them
A lawn with lighting stands, black panels, cases and a monitor on a cart, a red car and a marquee in the background
A camera on a rig arm low over a green upholstered chair and a rug on a terracotta rooftop, cables and stands around it
A camera rig and crew on a flat rooftop of terracotta tiles, a city skyline and mountains in the distance under a bright sky
02Creed

Ambers · Centaurus & Delphinus

The embers were shot two days before the bottle and played back on a screen behind the set, so the flacon is lit by the thing it's standing in.

Four techniques running together: motion control, virtual production, slow motion and effects.

A dark amber Creed Centaurus flacon lit from behind so the embossed logo glows red through the glass, standing between out-of-focus columns of orange and deep violet.
A studio thick with haze, lit from behind: a cinema camera mounted on a jib arm in the foreground and a crew member reaching up into the light beyond it
Close view of a translucent amber-coloured mass held between two black circular plates on a vertical shaft against a pale background, a hand steadying it from the right
A reference monitor on set showing a frame of glowing red and orange embers against black, with exposure readouts along the edge of the screen
A darkened studio bay lit red: a wide backdrop graded from deep red to white at its base, with two white bounce panels, several stands and a camera rig silhouetted in front of it
A dark red Creed flacon with a gold cap standing on a small metal block on a curved white base, immediately beside a cine lens marked 32
Two figures silhouetted in a studio filled with haze, lit from behind so the smoke reads as a solid wall of light
A yellow builders bucket clamped and strapped to a scaffold pole with ratchet straps and a rigging clamp
A studio bay lit deep red, a graded backdrop behind two large white bounce panels on stands
Two white bounce panels angled toward each other on stands in a red-lit studio, with a narrow gap between them
A darkened studio with lighting stands, a boom and diffusion frames lit warm from one side, the set beyond them
A reference monitor in a studio showing the Creed flacon lit from behind and standing against a background of glowing orange embers, framing guides overlaid on the image
03Dior

Capture Totale HYALUSHOT

Stills and a film out of one campaign, shot as one build. Four days in one studio: stills on the Monday and Tuesday, motion on the Wednesday and Thursday, photographer on one call sheet and director on the other.

The tube is chrome, so most of the work is deciding what it's allowed to see.

A chrome Dior Capture Totale Hyalushot tube stood upright on a clear glass disc pooled with serum and trapped bubbles, its fine tip drawing one bead down onto near-white, the disc rim striking a hard specular arc.
Creased sheet of paper photographed on a black surface: eight framing boxes drawn in blue marker, annotated top light, hero shadow, dolly and ninety-degree roll
Studio lighting cart seen from the side: a crate of small fluorescent lamps, a sheet of glass standing on end, bubble wrap and a rolling stand beside an unlit set
A dark studio: a diffusion frame on a boom, two black flags on stands and a white bounce card arranged tightly around a small lit set, with a camera on a stand facing into it
A darkened studio with one bright circular pool of light thrown onto a white card, a camera silhouetted directly in front of it on a heavy stand
A studio seen from above: crew standing around a small lit set with monitors and equipment carts, the floor dark beyond
Two cosmetic applicators standing on a small white block on a set, an overhead rail and lighting above them
A motion-control camera arm silhouetted against a large softbox in a darkened studio
A studio floor photographed at eye level, an out-of-focus monitor in the foreground and the lit set beyond
Darkened studio: a softbox on a boom, black flags, diffusion frames and a camera on a stand around a small set, with a reference image of the product on a monitor at the left
04Kronenbourg 1664

Good Taste With A Twist

The pour had to be repeatable, and the scene had to be blended afterwards. Registration marks went down on the surface before a frame was exposed, so post had something to line up against.

The pour itself ran off a rig that could do it again, and got reviewed on the monitor at the edge of the set.

Two bare arms twisting around each other on plain white, one hand tipping a cobalt 1664 Rosé bottle into a stemmed 1664 balloon glass, pink beer arcing into a clean white head
A monitor on set showing a pale curved surface marked with a scatter of small blue registration crosses, an arm reaching into frame at the right
A wide view of a studio floor: crew standing around a small white sweep set with soft boxes, flags and stands, a timber frame and cases at the edges
Two people standing at a camera rig in a studio, a bright doorway of daylight behind them and stands around
A figure silhouetted at a camera on a heavy stand in front of a large bright lighting panel in a dark studio
An orange scissor lift raised beside a long timber-framed white set in a tall studio, a ladder against the wall
A wide studio floor with a red scissor lift, black flags, stands and diffusion frames arranged around a white set
A studio corner with a robotic camera arm on a stand, a laptop on a cart, soft boxes and black flags around a small white set
05Something About Rocks

Graff

It ran as six pages in Something About Rocks: Graff jewellery on sets built out of curved paper and ceramic, shot as stills, in camera, for the page.

The motion came afterwards. We animated the finished stills with AI. The pictures were finished, printed work before any of it started, so what moves is a real picture rather than a description of one.

A Graff gold bangle set with a band of pavé diamonds, resting in the fold of a curved sheet of warm sand-coloured paper against a dark graded ground
A magazine open on a pale surface: a dark spread headed Gold Standard, facing a photograph of a diamond and gold link necklace resting on a smooth matte form
A magazine spread showing gold and diamond bangles photographed against curved paper in brown, blue and grey
A magazine spread with diamond and gold earrings on curved pink and brown paper, facing a ring photographed beside a block of pitted stone

Sam Hofman is a still life photographer and motion director.

The stills and the film come out of one production rather than two.

A Dior campaign ran four days in one studio: stills on the Monday and Tuesday, motion on the Wednesday and Thursday. The film comes off the same build as the stills, so the two match without anyone having to match them.

Fifteen years, mostly fragrance, beauty and drinks.

The sets are built and the light set close, which is mostly so that when something happens in front of the camera that nobody planned, it can still be used.

Where a job goes past what a set can hold, the objects and keyframes are photographed and the rest built out from them, in the same light. It answers to the same production and creative limits as everything else here.

CommissionsMaking Pictures
Selected clients
DiorPradaCreedGiorgio ArmaniChantecailleAmanHennessyJohnnie WalkerRoyal SaluteGlenfiddichGlenmorangieRémy MartinRuinartPenfoldsKronenbourgStella ArtoisDesperadosHäagen-DazsPlenishMolton BrownElemisPiagetVashiNikeLacosteAudiFarfetchHarvey NicholsWallpaper*EsquireElleVanity FairWonderlandThe Guardian