Evening guys, tonight I'm throwing it back to the summer and talking about Mounir Ghazi - The man, not the brand. I want to share Mounir's film which hopefully by now, most of you have seen already across on my IG as well as give you a little insight of how the film came about here on my blog.
Mounir asked me to film across in Paris earlier this year and it's ONLY now I can talk about it and show you guys what we created together. The brief was to come up with an ultra premium film covering a little more about Mounir himself. From his passions, his background and his roots to what his life looks like now, living in the capital of France. He also wanted to show his journey of becoming a fashion designer, soaking up everything from personal inspiration, his taste in music and of course the design process of crafting one of his stunning leathers.
I remember heading to Mounir's pad for the first time after meeting him just off the Champs-Élysees, walking to his killer studio which was a short distance from the bustling street, past a few fancy wine bars and restaurants, through a large, green, locked double door. A tight Parisian wooden staircase leads off a huge cobbled courtyard up to his apartment, which opened out to an airy, bright, living room with the most amazing marble fire surround slap bang in the middle. This was where the shoot was to take place.
The past shoots Mounir and myself have created have been very late nights indeed. A few years back in London, after a wild penthouse party at a hotel in Marylebone, we decided to create this crazy film using the down right cool aesthetic surroundings of the hotel we'd been invited to and then subsidently crashed at after. I remember leaving the party of passed out people upstairs, having a coffee and shooting in this deserted hotel lobby bar at like 4AM in the morning, it was epic! Myself fully dressed in leather - the coolest trousers and biker, taking shots in the corridors and then heading out onto the streets of London until the sun came up.
The Paris shoot timing was no different, we just work better in the dark. I had to include this shot (from said London shoot) which Mounir now has blown up and framed on his wall!
Now off and running, we had the candles lit we'd bought earlier on in the day, the red roses we also picked up earlier were a main feature on the fireplace, the studio was looking amazing. I'd also brought my smoke machine, which always adds such a mysterious air to things whilst shooting, not to mention making everything look cool as fuck - I knew that pairing this with my strobe was going to give us some cool effects indeed! By this time the Moroccan tea was brewed and the Stones were supplying us with the best soundtrack, all inspiring us creatively to get into the groove. Mannequins shadows danced on the walls, smoke hung in the air, guitars were being passed and played room to room, amps lay on the sofa's, Mounir's leathers now scattered the studio and I knew at this moment, the film was going to be exactly what we'd set out to create. Legendary.
We didn't wrap the shoot until 5:30 in the morning but we both knew one thing, when we said goodnight, magic was made. I flew back a few days later and edited it all up. The final stumbling block a few weeks in was capturing everything in a such a short sequence. I had disregarded the bits I didn't want, but the problem now was - I had too much good footage! I was stuck and the only thing I knew that would get me back into the right frame of mind was where the pure essence of the films personality originated - to somehow find Moroccan tea in Scotland. After a little googling I headed into town, collected all the ingredients, arrived back to the flat and poured myself a few cups, lashed it all out in an seven hour edit of craziness, into the early hours of the morning, the perfect accompaniment to finalising the film. September rolled around and Mounir had the film in his inbox. That's the way I roll, done.
Check out Mounir's blog here & make sure you check out his article I created the film for his article The Flowers Of Evil, across at - Electric After Dark
Cheers for reading,
