Magic Mike’s Makin’ a Move
Creating movement-infused stills & motion for a new campaign for Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike Live, as it heads to New York. And maybe feeling just a little inadequate…
Body Movin’
Last autumn, I was tapped up by my old friends at Spotco to shoot an exciting new motion-blur-based worldwide campaign for the phenomenally successful Magic Mike Live shows.
Already well established in London & Las Vegas, the production is heading to New York in autumn 2026 & the team wanted dynamic new stills & motion to capture the colour & energy of the show, not to mention making those finely-chiselled bodies look amazing!
Tatum-Flavour Stills
My team set up at Holborn Studios, across two of the larger spaces.
In one, we combined continuous light with flash light to create dynamic motion-infused portraits of the guys in all their glory, with purply-pinky lighting brief echoing the brand colours of the show.
There’s obviously a lot of of muscle-bound flesh to light, but it was important the imagery reflected the Tatum-inspired wholesome sexiness of the show, so we worked closely with the original movie choreographer Alison Faulk to keep the movements on brand too.
Channing-inspired motion
Meanwhile, in the second studio, DOP Ollie Craig & his team were taking the colour / lighting pathways of our stills & under my direction, creating similarly Channing-inspired movement sequences in high fame rate capture that would allow for motion-blur style post production.
Pretty. Big.
Once ace retoucher Matt Brewin had brushed up the stills & the Spotco team had finessed the motion work, the campaign was ready to drop across Las Vegas, London and New York.
Check out a selection of the key art & video below.
Waterloo Station Takeover
As well as wide OOH placement across the tube network, there was also the huge Waterloo Station Takeover which ran in March.
The Team
Photographer / Director: Michael Wharley
Photo Assistant: 1st Scott Hobson Jones & 2nd Ruben Davies
Digi: Tristan Fennell
DOP: Ollie Craig
1st AC – Peter Swinford (@peterswinford_ac)
Gaffer – Casey Jo Grosso (@caseygrosso)
DIT – Michael McDuffie (@k1llamike)
Playback – Nat Valente (@natvalente)
Hair & MU Lead: Becca Lymbourides 2nd: Martin Carter
Costume: per MML production
Choreography: Alison Faulk
Co-choreographer: Ross Sand
Agency: Spotco NY.
Callie Goff: Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer
Steve Sosnowski: Managing Director, Chief Client Officer
Tom Coppola: Sr. Director of Production
Frank Gargiulo: Creative Director
Produced by the team at Agent at Large. Pete Gearing, Leah & Julie.
Stills retouch by Matt Brewin
Shot at Holborn Studios (RIP)