EP Launch Photo & Video Campaign

To Be The Poem

A dreamy fantasy portrait campaign shaped through golden-hour forest light, a practical lens effect and the unexpected presence of a sword.

Year: 2026
Client: Sadie Mustoe
Location: Ferntree Gully, Victoria

Sadie Mustoe ↗Sadie on Instagram ↗Sadie on Spotify ↗Sámhlaoch Swords ↗

Sadie Mustoe standing among sunlit ferns in a glowing forest

My role

Director
Photographer

Selected credits

Sámhlaoch Swords: Swordfighter and sword instructor

The project

For the launch of Sadie Mustoe's EP To Be The Poem, we created a photo and video campaign that felt dreamlike and gently fantastical without making the theme too literal. The forest, clothing and sword suggest a larger story while leaving enough space for Sadie's music and identity to lead.

The approach

I distorted an old lens filter with pigment to create the soft glow in camera. Golden-hour light filtering through the trees then became hazier and more luminous, giving the forest an enchanted quality without relying on heavy post-production effects.

What remained

The photographs were used across Sadie's website, social media promotion and printed posters for the EP launch.

Swordcraft

Making the fantasy feel physical

One of Sadie's references featured a sword, so I invited professional swordfighter and instructor Sámhlaoch Swords into the project. Because the sword used in the photographs had a live edge, Sámhlaoch trained Sadie in safe handling and movement before we began the final setups. His fantasy-inspired clothing also helped the whole day feel as though it belonged to the same imagined world.

Sámhlaoch Swords teaching Sadie Mustoe how to safely handle the sword

Sadie Mustoe practising sword movement during the forest shoot

Sámhlaoch Swords demonstrating sword technique in the forest

Campaign

A visual world for the EP launch

The finished forest portraits became the visual language for To Be The Poem online and across Sadie's promotional material, carrying the same warm, otherworldly atmosphere from the shoot into the release campaign.

To Be The Poem forest portrait used on Sadie Mustoe's website

Check this project out next:

Warp and Peace: Bridge Simulator

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