Occasionally you get assigned a task that is just pure, unadulterated fun. In this case, when Nandor transforms Guillermo's old bedroom into a workout area in the What We Do in the Shadows episode, "Sleep Hypnosis", the director and production designer wanted to tap into the homoerotic subtext of the 1980s weightlifting subculture. I spent more time than I care to admit trying to find the perfect combination of search terms to yield the exact right results for our stock image site.
Then I went through the process of editing the photos to have the correct photo grain and colour balance to look as though they were taken with a film camera in the 1980s.
before and after editing
It took a few tries to find the look and feel that they wanted, but I love the alternates too much not to share them.
Later in the episode, when Lazslo takes over the space, we replaced the posters with pin-ups of his own, from a much older era, and were able to use the photo of a real life turn-of-the-century body builder, Eugene Sandow.
I added the fig leaves to the photo on the left to comply with the studio's nudity guidelines. Eugene (right) came with his own fig leaf.
