Behind the Scenes: Piaget x Vogue Extraordinary Women with Balqees Fathi
A look behind the camera on the Piaget x Vogue Extraordinary Women shoot featuring Balqees Fathi. Here is how we approached the craft of luxury editorial cinematography.
Some projects arrive with a weight to them before a single frame is shot. The Piaget x Vogue Arabia Extraordinary Women campaign was one of those projects. Balqees Fathi is one of the most recognised voices in the Middle East, Piaget is a Swiss Maison with over 140 years of heritage, and Vogue Arabia carries an audience with genuinely discerning taste. The brief was clear: capture the behind-the-scenes story in a way that felt cinematic, not casual.
Balqees Fathi | Extraordinary Women | Piaget x Vogue Bts · More SwainUK projects
Watch the BTS film above and you will see what I mean. There is warmth between Balqees and the crew, genuine moments of preparation and presence, and a visual language that holds its own against the hero campaign content. That balance, documentary truth inside a polished frame, is exactly what luxury BTS demands.
Why BTS Content Is a Creative Brief in Its Own Right
A common mistake is treating behind-the-scenes footage as an afterthought, something to gather on the day with a spare camera and a loose eye. For a brand like Piaget, that approach would be immediately visible and completely at odds with the campaign it supports.
Before arriving on set I had a clear sense of the visual tone I was working within. Piaget's aesthetic is precise, luminous, and deeply considered. Vogue Arabia's visual identity adds warmth and a sense of cultural richness. Balqees herself brings a magnetic screen presence that called for patient, observational framing rather than intrusive coverage.
My approach on a shoot like this rests on three principles:
- Proximity without interruption. The best BTS moments happen when the subject forgets the BTS camera exists. That requires building trust quickly and moving quietly.
- Narrative arc over montage. A sequence of pretty shots is not a story. I look for a beginning, a tension, and a resolution in every BTS piece, even a short one.
- Brand-consistent framing. Every shot I capture has to feel at home in the brand's own channels. If a frame would look out of place in the Piaget Instagram grid, it probably does not belong in the edit.
The Light, the Makeup, and the Moments Between Takes
Makeup on a production of this calibre is a craft story in itself. Ido Raphael's work on Balqees was meticulous, and those preparation moments gave me some of the most compelling material of the day. There is something inherently cinematic about the ritual of a shoot call: the mirror, the brushes, the quiet concentration before a talent steps in front of the hero camera.
"The moments between takes are where the real person lives. If I can capture those and hold them inside a frame that still feels considered, then the BTS film will always outlast the campaign it was made to support."
Lighting for BTS on a luxury editorial requires a careful read of the existing set. I work with what the gaffer and DoP have built rather than introducing elements that would disturb the production. On this shoot the practical sources were rich and warm, which lent itself naturally to the intimacy I was after. A fast prime lens, disciplined exposure, and the patience to wait for the right beat across the room. That is the toolkit.
Crafting Visual Consistency Across a Campaign
One of the questions I am asked most often by creative directors commissioning luxury content is how to ensure BTS material feels cohesive with the primary campaign, especially when it is shot by a separate team or cinematographer. The answer is pre-production alignment. Before I arrive on any editorial set I want to see the mood boards, the colour references, and ideally a conversation with the lead DoP or photographer. On the Piaget x Vogue shoot that groundwork meant my cuts could sit in the same world as the finished campaign visuals rather than beside them as an obvious afterthought.
This principle extends to every luxury brand shoot I take on. You can see a similar attention to tonal consistency in my work for Aspinal of London, where the brief called for imagery that matched the brand's positioning across alpine and coastal settings. The edit below gives a sense of how that visual language holds across very different locations.
Aspinal of london swainuk.com · More SwainUK projects
Travel, lifestyle, and product cinematography share a common demand: the brand world has to feel continuous whether you are in a Swiss atelier, a London boutique, or on location in the UAE. Building that consistency is as much a pre-production discipline as it is a post-production skill.
Authenticity in Editorial and Art-Driven Filmmaking
The Extraordinary Women campaign sits at the intersection of editorial and documentary, a space I find genuinely interesting to work in. It reminded me of conversations I have had with artists about the tension between production polish and raw truth. That tension is something I explored in a very different context with London-based artist Alisa Lyssa Rautio for the LYSSA series. Episode two of that conversation gets into questions of authenticity and labour in creative work that feel directly relevant to anyone thinking seriously about what makes visual content resonate.
LYSSA Episode 2 IF A MACHINE MADE IT, WHO BLED FOR IT? · More SwainUK projects
The question Alisa raises about who bears the cost of a creative act is one I carry onto every commercial set. Luxury brands pay for craft, and the craft has to be visible, deliberate, and honest. That is as true for a Piaget BTS film as it is for a fine art portrait series.
What This Project Represents in My Practice
Working alongside Vogue Arabia and Piaget on a campaign featuring a talent of Balqees Fathi's calibre is the kind of commission that sharpens everything. The stakes are clear, the standards are non-negotiable, and the finished film has to stand up in one of the most competitive visual landscapes in publishing.
It is also a reminder of why I built SwainUK around beauty and commercial cinematography rather than chasing volume across every category. Depth of focus, in the optical and the strategic sense, produces better work and better relationships with the brands that value it.
If you are a creative director, brand manager, or production company looking for a cinematographer who understands the visual grammar of luxury editorial, I would be glad to talk through your next project. Browse the portfolio to see the full range of work, or get in touch directly to discuss a brief. You can also book a consultation if you have a shoot date in mind and want to move quickly.