The making of the CANNA Calendar
We are going to give you an exclusive look behind the scenes of our famous calendar and show you how it is created. As you will find out, with all those pictures of typical Dutch scenery... plus some dazzling, almost naked ladies... the calendar is not something that we put together in a fortnight. We really put our hearts into it. The calendar has been famous among our clients for many years now. There are always one or more copies hanging in shops or at home, and customers always look forward to obtaining their copy, long before we've finished printing them and long after all our stocks have been exhausted! We have even found out that many people have kept all the previous calendars and saved them. So the calendar has become a real collector's item! This is the best compliment for our work, so thank you for that!
The CANNA calendar is distributed every year and has become increasingly popular in recent years. The first issue was created in 1998 and only a small number were printed. It was reserved for CANNA's best clients mainly in the Netherlands, but also in the UK and Australia, for example. By 2012, the print run has grown to 12,600 copies and the calendar is being distributed to 20 countries. Yet still we are receiving requests for more! As you can imagine, this makes creating the calendar hard work, but it's also very rewarding.
History
The idea for the calendar was born in 1998 when we were thinking of how we could reward our valued customers with a gift. The first calendar was printed on exactly the same kind of paper and in the same shape that it is printed in today. Why change a winning formula? The pictures had a beautiful, stylish, green but also edgy feel to them. The style of this first calendar remained the blueprint for all subsequent editions.
Throughout the years, the calendars retained their “naughty” appearance, but the 'green coloured' photos became more colourful with a touch of black and white. The calendar also kept the same number of pages with one photo for every two months.
Then came about the 10th edition of the calendar. Since it was the first milestone, we decided to celebrate this. We decided to create a calendar with thirteen images instead of the usual seven, in order to remind our dear customers of this milestone every month. Furthermore, the theme had to express the fact that it was the 10th anniversary of the CANNA calendar. So all the images were shot with the theme of celebration in mind. The calendar had images of birthday cakes, party girls and some party drinks, as well as the effects of partying too hard. There were more full-colour images and the calendar had a more “pin-up”-feel.
Creating the calendar 2012
As mentioned before, creating the calendar can be a stressful job, especially since the calendar has become so popular in so many countries. Each successful issue set the bar a little higher for the next one, and we certainly do not like to disappoint our customers! So we decided to start working on the 2012 calendar in March 2011 with a team of five people. As you can see, working on the calendar is not something we like to leave to chance!
Keeping the comments of our customers abroad in mind, it was time to brainstorm about a theme or style. As it turned out, some people preferred the earlier calendars, which were less explicit and left something to the imagination. We decided on some basic criteria for the calendar to meet. For example, we decided to aim for more contrast between the pictures and we also wanted stylish images that were not necessarily explicit. In fact, you'll find that some of these criteria were the same for the earlier versions of the calendar. So it's back to basics, you might say.
In 2011 we added a new feature to the calendar. We thought that it would be cool if people would see more than just the gorgeous ladies in a nice setting on the calendar. That's where our 'hidden theme' comes in. In some of our early editions, there were already some hidden messages, but this year's edition has an entirely hidden theme! The theme we have chosen has inspired all of the images in the new calendar, but it's up to you to figure out what this theme is!
The actual photo shoot
For the 2012 edition, we went to two of the photo shoots to see how our photographer works, and of course we got to meet the CANNAlendar girls! How exiting that was!! We visited one of the outdoor shoots and an indoor shoot. The outdoor shoot was particularly interesting, because – and you may not realise when you look at some of the pictures – the photos were actually shot outside in broad daylight... in a public place... with naked ladies... As you can probably imagine, this requires some planning beforehand. A photo shoot can take one hour, but sometimes it can take a whole day to take the perfect photo!
During our visit the girls would be photographed for real outside, and we first watched them try out a few poses in the studio, as a kind of warm-up. Meanwhile, the photographer was already thinking of photos he might take while motivating the girls to keep changing their pose. After the warm-up, it was time for the real thing! The girls took off their clothes for the shoot and then covered up with a robe. We all got into the car (steamy windows!!) and drove to the outdoor location.
In order not to expose the girls in public for too long, the photographer started taking pictures as soon as we arrived, while the models listened to his instructions. In the meantime, the two CANNA employees kept a look-out for people walking their dog, or elderly or very young passers-by. One of the photos on that shoot had to be taken again because some people kept walking past again and again to get a closer look and asked if they could help in some way!! Holland may have a reputation for being a very tolerant country, but there are still people who get offended by the sight of a beautiful, semi-nude girl. Even in the Netherlands it's illegal to expose yourself in public!
During one of the previous outdoor calendar shoots, a few policemen were passing by and spotted the photographer with the naked models. However, instead of fining the models for public nudity, they asked if they could be in one of the pictures! The photographer saw an interesting opportunity and indeed, in one of the 2009 photos you can actually see two real Dutch policemen!
All the parties involved are very proud to participate in the CANNAlendar. The photographer, of course, but also the models. They were very eager to pose and can't wait for the calendar to be printed! And we can say the same for the people waiting to hang the calendar on their wall!