Cinefleur Creates Cinematic Settings for Ilonka

Cinefleur magazine shows interesting stories, creations, and products from the world of flowers and plants. That’s why we love it when we get to work with interesting new products. You really get the chance to experiment and do something special. This is exactly what we did with the chrysanthemum Ilonka in our Texel island edition.

Inspiring Stories and Creative Designs

For the people who don’t know us yet, Hello! We are Cinefleur magazine, the digital magazine for floral and green pros and enthusiasts. We love to tell amazing and inspiring stories with and about florists. Our aim is to inspire florists with our creative, fun, and skillful designs. If that sounds amazing to you, then subscribe to our magazine here. Every two months we travel to an amazing location within Europe to tell strong and inspiring stories from local florists, floral designers, and garden centers.

Texel

When we first heard we could work with the Ilonka we immediately started thinking of the best ways to showcase this flower. We wanted to take a break from our usual busy city landscapes this edition, which is why we decided to go to the Dutch island Texel this time around. Texel is the biggest of five islands in the Wadden Sea in the northern part of the Netherlands. It is a beloved place for both the islanders and tourists loving the sea, nature, and cozy towns.

So, what could we do on Texel that would best suit this amazing flower? A couple of ideas popped into our minds. The Ilonka is both a classic and stylish flower, but can also be painted which gives it a playful and happy quality. We wanted to show both sides. In Cinefleur flowers and plants are often used in unconventional ways, to bring out something unique. So we were looking for ways to bring out the unique qualities of the Ilonka.

A Traditional and Romantic Decor

We rented a typical Texel island vacation home and decided we would do different shoots around the house. We would go with a more traditional and romantic decor for the white Ilonka and we would do more creative and fun experiments with the colored Ilonka to really show the different styles of the flower. Once we had our location down, it was time to work on the concept of the shoot.

Very Expressive Flower

One of the most important qualities of the chrysanthemum Ilonka is the fact it can be used in a lot of different styles. It is a very expressive flower for photography. Classic, playful, it’s really up to the designer what to do with it. We wanted to explore these different aspects of the flower.

For the white Ilonka, we went with a more traditional style. Based on photos of our rented house, we chose the bedroom as our primary location for this shoot. There was a lot of light entering the room and the white color and wooden textures really helped bring out the best of the Ilonka.

A Romantic Feeling

We discussed this location with our florist and decided it would be best to create three entirely different arrangements, all in the same classical style. We wanted a ‘romantic getaway’ feeling, without getting too extreme. Serenity and beauty were some of our keywords.

Our florist made a small concept beforehand of the different arrangements, which would be one horizontal piece, a heart of flowers, and a big centerpiece bouquet.

Our Process

The bouquet and arrangement were made before the day of the shoot and were completed on set. Once the flowers were there, we styled the room a bit further to our liking and set up lights in the room. We try to incorporate as much of the natural light as possible, but it was a rainy day so we had to set up some extra lamps. After the lights were set up, we started working on the photography and started filming.

Our on-set process with Cinefleur is always the same: First, we film any interviews needed. Then we switch to two different cameras, one for film and one for photography, and start shooting all the material we need for the magazine. Working with two cameras, doing photography and film at the same time, really allows us to work at a faster pace, without losing any quality. It takes some practice to do both at the same time, but it’s definitely worth it. After we’ve made sure we had everything we needed we moved on to the colored Ilonka.

A Fun Color Spectacle

Next, it was time for the colored chrysanthemum. We’ve made one big bouquet and placed it on a pedestal. That way, we could place it anywhere in the house. By that time, the sun had started shining, which was perfect for our shoot.

After some last-minute styling to make sure the bouquet looked its best, we opened up the big doors to the yard, letting in a lot of sunlight. The sunlight really made the bright colors feel even brighter. After taking our time with the big bouquet, making sure we’ve taken enough pictures, from a lot of different angles, we moved on to smaller pieces.

Playful Vases Fit with Ilonka

We had some small, playful vases and boxes that fit perfectly with the Ilonka. So, we put a lot of different colors together and started placing them at interesting places around the house. We even placed some of the flowers in the hedge, to create a large contrast between the dark green of the hedge and the light colors of the Ilonka.

When you have such a creative flower on your hands, and enough time during the shoot, you can really play around with the flowers to do some photography you normally wouldn’t be able to do. The result is a very inspiring and fun video and series of photos.

When All Is Set and Done

After our adventures on Texel, we went back to the mainland, where we started working on designing the page, color grading the pictures, and editing the videos.

We always try to create the best story in this step of the process. We really want to make the florist and the flower shine as bright as they can. After two to three weeks in post-production, Cinefleur magazine, with the Ilonka chrysanthemum by Dümmen Orange, is ready to inspire the minds of florists worldwide!

More Cinefleur

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