Escapist is an escape room and board game venue in central Hamilton, and this commercial shoot was all about showing what actually happens inside the business.

Rather than creating a gallery of empty rooms, we photographed the people, games, puzzles and interactions that make up the Escapist experience. That meant plenty of people actually playing, exploring the escape rooms and getting very invested in what was happening around the table.

Photographing the experience

For businesses like Escapist, the service itself isn’t necessarily something you can photograph sitting neatly on a shelf.

The experience is the product.

So a big part of this shoot involved photographing groups using the space naturally. We captured people playing board games, solving puzzles, interacting with each other and exploring the different rooms.

It gives someone looking at the images a much better idea of what it’s actually like to visit.

The spaces, details and atmosphere

Alongside the people, I photographed the smaller details throughout Escapist, including game pieces, shelves of board games, puzzles and the different themed environments.

The darker lighting and theatrical spaces were also an important part of the finished images. Rather than trying to make everything bright and neutral, the photography needed to retain the atmosphere that was already there.

Creating imagery with people in it

We also created a mixture of individual and group photographs throughout the different spaces.

Some are more traditional portraits, while others are deliberately a little stranger, darker and more playful to suit the surroundings.

Because really, if your business has a blood-covered bathtub and a skeleton available, it would be terribly wasteful not to photograph them. 😂

A commercial gallery that shows what Escapist actually does

The finished collection covered the venue from several angles, including portraits, people playing games, close-up details, escape rooms, board games and wider photographs of groups using the space.

For an experience-based business, that variety is particularly useful. Instead of simply showing where customers go, the images can show what they’ll actually be doing when they get there.