WHAT IS SOAP IMAGES?

  • Marc is also part of a creative team called Soap Images with his photographer colleague Mike Kraus in which he works as an art director and photoshop artist for the film and entertainment industry. (external site)

  • Soap Images is a bureau for professional image creation serving international clients.

    We are a one-stop shop of creative freelancers that offers all steps of image production: from idea & conception via photo shoot to the final retouched artwork. We work for international and national film production companies and distributors to produce high quality images, gallery shoots, key arts and posters for theatrical motion pictures, TV shows and streaming services.

  • The founders of Soap Images are Mike Kraus & Marc Perino.

    Mike Kraus is a photographer, director and art director. Marc Perino is an art director, retoucher, director and VFX artist. Both of them have been working as a team for two decades in the film, TV, photo and advertising industry.

    We concentrate experience from countless projects and we are working together with a network of experts from all creative realms of visual communication. Team spirit, the will to find solutions to complex problems, the enthusiasm for creative visual design and an excellent service are parts of our DNA. If you want to know what fuels us take a look at our portfolio and let us work together on a project.

  • »Daily Soaps« have been developed in the 1940s by the advertising industry (»Mad men«) and their clients in order to sell products in commercial breaks. That is when commerce met art. Although it is an old idea - the approach is still modern.
    Soap Images represents strong visuals that are elaborate and sell.

  • We operate from Munich & Berlin. But we are ready to go wherever you need us. From studios in big cities to remote locations in the desert.

WHAT WE DO!

We do photography and film PR (one sheets / film posters)

DEVELOPMENT

IDEA & CONCEPT
ART DIRECTION
STORYBOARDING

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO PRODUCTION
SHOOTING OF ACTORS &
BACKGROUND ASSETS

FINAL ARTWORK

LAYOUT
RETOUCHING & COMPOSITING
FINISHING

HOW WE DO IT!

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Storyboard above by Christoph “Gogi” Schropp

  • Every key art starts with an idea that corresponds with the content of the movie or tv show. It should visually represent parts of the story or the mood of the movie but it should not reveal too much. It should rather trigger excitement and curiosity for the subject matter. First we read the script and we watch - if that it is possible - a rough cut of the movie and we make notes for certain key elements or scenes that might represent the story. After that we start spitballing certain ideas and we develop written concepts that we run down with the client.

  • After initial approval we then make visual concepts as scribbles that we give to a professional storyboard artist. In close collaboration with the artist we finetune the drawings as much as possible and insert them into “faux” movie poster layouts in Adobe InDesign. Those are presented to the client.

KEY ART DEVELOPMENT

  • After approval by the client we make a breakdown which elements we need to shoot ourselves and what we can take from stock footage or stills photography from the set. If the quality is high enough (4k, 6k or 8k) we sometimes consider taking screenshot elements from the raw footage. Mostly it is a mixture from all sources. We also consider taking background plates and other assets on the set of the movie. That depends in which stage the production is.

  • Although we offer the whole chain of concept development and key art development via photo shoot to retouching and the final artwork we also offer only parts of it if that is the client’s wish. Sometimes a photo shoot is already done by the stills photographer or there is only footage from the film. Or the client does not see the forest for the trees. We enter the scene from beyond the forest and take a fresh look when we approach the project.

PRE-VISUALIZATION

  • Before we take a footstep into the studio we plan our photo shoots meticulously. We use the latest pre-visualization software to set up a virtual studio with virtual lights and models. By using this technology it enables us to preview the exact kind of lighting we intend to use before even touching any equipment. It also provides a list of the equipment needed for our rental houses.

PHOTO SHOOTS

  • Oftentimes the shoot takes place near the shoot of the film production. So we travel to the film locations and scout in advance for a nearby professional photo studio or we set up a “mobile” studio in another part of a film location. From the small cozy studio to the 300 square meter studio hangar - been there, done that. We sometimes build complex light setups with 10-15 studio strobes and either we bring our own lighting equipment with us or we rent it - for bigger gigs - on site. We shoot directly tethered into our computer with an iPad preview for the client. The next day we can provide a password protected link for the client on german servers to preview the images on his/her personal computer/tablet/phone.

  • For background element shoots we are mobile with multiple cameras, an iPad and a Camranger. We have battery-powered strobes, foldable reflectors and mobile computer equipment. This approach is mostly suitable for shooting so-called “background assets”. For the creation of a key art or film poster e.g. you need backgrounds or textures. If it is feasible from a production budget and the logistics we drive to the original film locations in order to shoot buildings or landscapes in high resolution. For the Constantin Film/Netflix TV show “Parfum” we drove to the Belgian marshlands and across North Rhine-Westphalia to capture the raw nature.

CREATIVE RETOUCHING & COMPOSITING

  • Separately - or additionally - to photo shoots we offer creative retouching. Our goal is to optimize the appearance of a person or an object to a degree that results in maximum impact but does not distort or changes the original charateristics. Less is more - but sometimes also more is more.

  • Complex composings in photoshop with 200 layers or more do not deter us. Whether we need location stills, stock photos or our own library of photos we always seek for the best images in the highest quality and we try to merge it into something new and unique. In doubt we shoot the elements ourselves - depending on budget and logistics.

FINISHING

  • After everything concerning the image content has been built in Adobe Photoshop we do the final assembly of the graphics in InDesign and/or Illustrator. Logos, title treatments, billing block and other graphic assets are being meticulously finessed and adjusted to the client's needs and to the overall appearance.

  • In coordination with the client we are then able to output the key art in different formats, sizes and assets depending on the use for marketing. This can be printed or digital posters, banners, flyers or whatever comes to mind.

WHAT WE ALSO DO!

KEY ART from EXISTING FOOTAGE

  • Oftentimes the client can only provide stock footage or location stills from the film shoot and there is no time and budget for exclusively shot material. We then take the already existing footage and craft it into a new cover artwork. Footage that previously seemed “unsalvageable” or abysmally poor on the first glance can shine in new splendor.

  • From the BBC (»Trust Me«) to the swedish TV station TV3 (»The Lawyer«) to Benedicts Cumberbatch’s new production company Sunny March (»The Child in Time«) we created looks, key art concepts and digital/printed booklets.

DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

  • For Tandem Productions/StudioCanal and ABC/DISNEY we did the digital asset management for the US TV show »Take Two« with Rachel Bilson and Eddi Cibrian.

  • The client sent us roughly 16.000 images from the film shoot in high resolution through their servers. Our task was to organize, resize, tag them with new metadata and retouch some of them. We then distributed the final images to our clients (TV stations) in Europe. Among others Vox in Germany and France 2.