Five of us from Tens (Kris, Tom, Iain, Taylor & Marty) flew out to the east coast of Mexico, meeting up with the most incredible team out there to help us pull together the campaign. We worked with an old friend Bex from Luna Negra, photographer Omar Coria, his assistant Izack, and Frank & Esperanza on hair and makeup. We could not have asked for a better crew!
We landed in Cancun, and picked up our rental for the duration - a 15-seater V8 bus that was definitely the largest thing we'd ever driven. Vehicles in the Americas are just on another level of huge. Adjusting to the automatic gearbox, reverse parking the thing, and driving on the other side were the first of many, many challenges. These included, but were not limited to stolen plates, various cop pull-overs / searches (we had a LOT of kit), mosquito bites, painfully spicy hot sauce, tequila, tropical downpours and our lack of Spanish lingo.
For our scouting and shooting days, we set up headquarters at an Airbnb in Playa del Carmen. The location was ideal as we were right in between Tulum (where we were filming), and Cancun airport. Having to pick models up and drop them off there everyday meant having to find a suitable midpoint.
Once we had adjusted to the time difference, and our stomachs adjusted to the (super) spicy cuisine, we called up our friend Bex, and started off the trip with 4 days of location scouting around the truly incredible Tulum.
We explored the beaches, resorts, jungles, cenotes, highways & the Caribbean Sea - mapping out our spots for each of the six models we were shooting with over the next week. Once we had a rough idea of where we were shooting, we got started.
Despite the 30ºC heat for most of the day, we didn't have as much sunlight as we thought. Each shoot day we were up at 5am to head down the highway to catch the sunrise and get the most out of the daylight. Luckily the team, and our models (from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia & Holland), were incredibly easy to work with - making even the toughest moments feel effortless!
View our BTS 'Handycam' movie above, and take a look into how we created our 2017 film.
Visit our Kickstarter page here to pre-order our new collection.