Final Major Project: Photoshoot

Planning:

Make-up Reference

Eye Make-up

Now that I have finished my garment I needed to shoot it in a style that fits my project and reflect and communicate the themes I am hoping to convey well. Photoshoots take quite a bit of planning as location, equipment, model, hair and make-up styles etc. all need to be taken into account.

Hair and Make- Up:

After finding a friend of mine who was willing to model (and who incidentally has the same colouring as my character) I decided to keep the make-up look simple. Red lips to mirror the red in my colour scheme and a thin line of eye-liner was all I had planned. Hair I wanted styled into a messy bun, also to mimic the character and give the impression of a dancer:

Hair-styles - Sketchbook Drawings

Locations: 

http://parktheatre.co.uk/about-us

http://islingtonartsfactory.org/our-space/dance-studios/

When looking for spaces in which to do my shoot I researched spaces local to me. I was considering several themes and possibilities, such as ballet studios to imitate the dance motifs in my project, theatres or staged areas to imitate the idea of storytelling and cinema or simple art studios or spaces that felt appropriate to the style and mood I was hoping to achieve. I found several possibilities (see images) and looked into booking them. Many proved busy or very expensive, unwilling to provide discounts for student projects. In the end though, I found a space (incidentally also my favourite out of the possible locations) that was available to me. The Candid Arts Company is a collection of studios, exhibition spaces and a cafe near Angel, Islington. I have attended drawing classes there in the past and among their facilities is a banquet hall with blue floor, faded wall, a large mirror and red curtains. I liked this space as it imitated my colour scheme while the mirror also suggested a dance space. Futhermore, the faded look walls implies a age, and due to the historic quality off the devices I depicted I felt this suited my project

http://www.candidarts.net/candid_spaces.html

Equipment:

With these concerns taken care of the next thing I had to consider was equipment. My own camera is fairly low quality and as I wanted a professional look to my shoot I needed an alternative. Ravensbourne has a centre of loans that allows students to borrow out equipment free of charge as not everyone can afford or has other access to them. These include cameras, lights, sound recording equipment, animation devices etc. However, items are often in high demand (particularly at this stage in the course). Therefore I had booked a Canon 600D camera for use in my project a week and a half before I had even finished making my garment to ensure the equipment I needed.  I also booked out a projector as I was planning to shoot a short film as part of my project. I felt a film would be appropriate in representing the ideas of narrative and importance of cinema as a development from the devices I had replicated. I had already filmed  some footage of flip books and zoetropes etc. and found some of dancers that I hoped to project onto my model and garment to show the themes of movement. Unfortunately, after spending an hour waiting for the right projector connection lead to be found,  I discovered the projector was broken, which I had been unable to check before as the booking time I had been given meant I had to go straight from picking it up to my shoot. This was very disappointing, and although I did take some footage at my shoot anyway, I eventually decided I neither had enough material or time to make a film with.

The film footage I didn't use

Even with this setback, I took over 400 photos at my shoot and now have the job of selecting out and editing the ones I feel are most effective. I had fun at my shoot however, design and making are my strong points in this course and I am not much of a photographer. I did my best and hopefully some will have turned out well enough: