Shooting Benedict Cumberbatch in the Woods (and Water) for Vanity Fair [RF Video of the Week]

In the spirit of our February Fashion, Beauty and Glamour Issue (where cover photographer Lara Jade breaks down a high-end fashion shoot she did for ELLE Singapore), here’s a different look at a magazine editorial shoot from start to finish. New York and London-based celebrity portrait photographer Jason Bell leads this Vanity Fair production featuring Emmy-winning Sherlock star (and recent Golden Globe nominee) Benedict Cumberbatch. (The Imitation Game actor, who lost the Golden Globe last month to The Theory of Everything star Eddie Redmayne, still has a chance to win Best Actor in a Leading Role this Sunday at The Oscars.)

Bell made the most of the shoot’s scouted spot, Wimbledon Common in southwest London, by coming up with two different locations and two scenarios: in the woods, Cumberbatch poses holding two leashed hounds and climbs trees, and at the lake location he semi-undresses and jumps into a lake. Shooting with a Phase One camera, Bell created nighttime scenes in broad daylight by using a few Profoto heads as well as smoke machines and mist to make the scene a bit moodier and more haunting.

“My favorite part about working for Vanity Fair is the creative freedom; they’re fantastic at saying, ‘What do you want to do? Okay, do it,'” Bell says in the video. “That’s obviously an exciting thing as a photographer, to be allowed to do what you want.”

What’s perhaps most interesting to observe in the film is how Bell handles all of the people on set, from the assistants and lighting crew to the makeup artists, stylists and dog handlers, and then, of course, Mr. Cumberbatch. At times the actor offers his own ideas, which Bell says he always appreciates. He rolls with Cumberbatch’s request to keep his first outfit done up versus disheveled (as the photographer had originally imagined), and it was Cumberbatch’s idea to jump into the lake. Like a true pro, Bell runs with it, making some visually engaging and creative shots leading up to and after Cumberbatch’s plunge.

Check out more Videos of the Week, and email Libby Peterson with submissions.

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