DISASTER 2

Day of location shoot.
Despite working extremely hard to overcome the set back from not being able to use my booked studio space, spending money on costume hire and trying to be as confident and prepared as possible, the morning of the shoot has arrived and my model has cancelled! I am at a loss as to what to do now, this is going to be a big set back for my project as I am going home to London on Sunday to do an internship at the Barbican until term begins again. My photographer and I have been frantically trying to find a replacement model but being such short notice and being Good Friday we have had no luck so far and it's not looking likely that we will find anyone. So now the only solution to this disaster of a shoot is to shoot this character in the studios on the 11th April when I am back from the Barbican. It could be very risky relying on this model again so for now I plan to give her the benefit of the doubt, but in the meantime I am going to get on to finding a backup model incase she lets us down again. Overall a very disappointing week.

Remaining Positive...

After talking over the plans for Friday with my photographer, she thinks it best to just get shots on location as the weather is forecast to be dry, although it will be very cold, (I will make sure to bring plenty of warm things for my model to wrap up in for moments when we are not shooting). I have cancelled the lighting kit that I had booked for hire. I am trying to remain positive about the situation, although I had imagined a certain look for my book that was to have all the shoots looking the same, with studio lighting and a plain black back drop, the feedback from my Major Project Proposal Report said not to rule out location shoots for narrative projects and it would be a shame to waste the day that both my photographer and model are available. So I have collected the costumes I have chosen to hire from Hepwright's and have organised with the owner of the bar Oasis, down near the Old Town, to use Oasis as our base for makeup touch ups and costume changes, ready to go ahead with what will probably be a very cold location shoot tomorrow.

DISASTER

I was feeling very prepared and finally confident about my next shoot for the character of Celia. I have my model and photographer ready and excited for the day and costumes on hold for hire. 

Today I received a phone call from the photography studio bookings office at university informing me that I would not be able to use my studio booking for Friday as it is Good Friday and the whole university is closed for the Easter weekend, despite the fact that I booked this studio space 2 weeks in advance, surely they must have known the university was going to be closed and never should have allowed bookings for this day. This is extremely bad a frustrating news and could prove to be a major set back to the production of my project. The university have offered to try and fit me in at some point on Thursday because there is likely to be cancellations or no shows but this is not a guarantee and my model and photographer both have work on Thursday.

My plan of action is to try and remain clam and positive to find a solution to this problem. My plan at the moment is to not waste the opportunity of having my model and photographer available and willing and get something out of Friday. I have white walls in my flat so I am going to go and hire a basic lighting kit to try and get some head shots at least at home and I have discussed with my photographer and we have agreed that, weather permitting, we will get some location shots done in the parks and down near the Old Town, as my story is set in the Victorian era and the rest of the city is quite modern looking. 

CELIA

Dark eyes narrow beneath her curls

All ribbons and lace, perfect as a shop-fresh doll save for a few unruly curls escaping her braids

Celia grows up in a series of theatres. Most of them in New York

Sixteen year old daughter

After months of it she is exhausted from the travel and the strain and the fact that her father barely lets her eat, as he claims looking like a waif makes her seem more convincing

Survived by a daughter of seventeen years of age, a Miss Celia Bowen

“I am already married” she remarks to the empty air, twisting the ring on her right hand that covers an old distinctive scar

She has no trunk, no cape, no birdcage or cane. She is dressed in a deep-green gown with a black puffed-sleeve jacket buttoned over it. A pile of brown curls is pinned neatly upon her head under a tiny and feathered but otherwise unremarkable black hat

“I am an illusionist, sir” the young girl says. Her voice is calm and low “I am here for your auditions”

Her Green gown is both sleeveless and strapless, leaving her shoulders and arms completely bare save for a long silver chain with what appears to be a silver locket around her neck

Creeping Black fade into snow-bright white at the bottom of the skirt

Celia shakes her head and her brown curls deepen in hue to a near black as glossy and ebony as the wings of her raven

Puffed sleeve Black jacket

“she’s perfect” Chandresh remarks, pulling a cigar from his pocket. “Absolutely perfect”

The eyes the loveliness – the shape of her face, the contrast of her hair against her skin

Hired clothing from Hepwright's...

Victorian style dress from the 1970's

Black and White theme. Victorian style shirt from 1970's

Week 10

Despite assuring me he would be around, my model for the character of Prospero The Enchanter has gone home for Easter meaning I had to give up my booked studio space yesterday and I will have to reschedule that shoot for one of the first days of the new term. Wednesday 10th April will be the last day I plan to shoot as I need to allow enough time for editing the images and putting my book together.
However, this Friday I will be shooting the character of Celia. This is the shoot I feel most confident about. I have now done 2 shoots so have a clearer idea of timings for hair and makeup (I have 3 separate makeup looks planned), lighting set up and shooting time. I have a really good aspiring professional model and have sought styling advice from Hepwright's Vintage store in Southampton for the costumes which I will collect on Thursday afternoon.

Mr A.H- Shoot

This was a challenging shoot as the character is so mysterious I found it even harder to give direction for poses than I did in my last shoot. I am very pleased with how well my moustache has turned out and  it definitely helped to have done a test shoot of this character. I took on board what my tutor had said about composition of images and because the character is mysterious and strict and powerful we took a few shots with my photographer crouched on the ground to give the impression of the character being tall and important looming over people with his cane in hand. I really like this effect. We had quite a bit of trouble with the lighting of this shoot so they require a fair bit of editing unfortunately. Costume and props were sourced from various friends who just so happened to have everything we needed luckily to keep my budget down as it is the end of term and it is still 2 weeks before the next loan instalment.

MR A.H-

He is a tall man of indeterminate age with indistinct features. He wears a spotless grey suit with tails and gives his top hat and cane at the door and a card with the name “mr A.H-“

The man in the grey suit

Ghostly grey reflection

Yet the man in the grey suit looks out of place.

The cut of his suit is too sharp. The handle of his cane too well polished beneath his pristine gloves

Page Layouts

I thought I should mention that at this stage in my project I am continuing to source relevant quotes and text extracts from The Night Circus to support my imagery throughout my book.
Throughout this project I have been playing around with potential page layouts and I have realised that I have not included this development on my blog so far.
My first layout sketches were as follows:

 Headshots, mid lenght shots, half faces showing, quotes, extracts

 Contents page with thumbnail pictures, introduction, acknowledgements

 Character titles, images with quotes, extracts

Week 9

Unfortunately my photographer's mum is in hospital and so she has had to go home for the week and with it being the Easter holidays now I am struggling to find a replacement photographer or any new models, meaning that I am probably only going to manage to shoot the 4 main characters from the story as originally planned. With the struggle I have had booking studio space up until now and now this unavoidable set back it is not going to be possible to shoot any extra characters as discussed in a tutorial.
However my photographer will be back on Friday and so my Mr A.H shoot can go ahead as planned. I want to try and be more prepared for this shoot than I was for my last. I feel confident about the application of the makeup having done test shots at home and practicing the moustache a couple of times will be a big help.

I.T Support

Before the Easter break I went to find my I.T technician, Brent, for some last minute help with my page templates and photoshop. He showed me all I needed to know on Photoshop, mainly how to edit my images from my Marco shoot to straighten the bow tie in some of the photos.

At the moment I am still looking to get my book published with Blurb.com and one of the factors of that decision is because of their Adobe InDesign book creator templates. Brent has downloaded all of their templates and now passed them on to me.

I have Adobe photoshop on my own laptop but not InDesign, and I find it easier to work on Photoshop so Brent agreed that it made more sense for me to do the majority of the work on the programme I am most comfortable using so he created me my own page templates on Photoshop, the exact size of the Blurb InDesign page template. This will make creating my pages a lot easier for me and I will be able to work on it anytime on my own laptop instead of relying on lesson time and finding a Mac in the library.

Progress Presentations

Progress presentations were supposed to be on Monday 11th but my tutor had to cancel and reschedule for Friday, which worked in my favour allowing me to assist Amy on her shoot and not miss out on my chance to gain feedback on my work so far before he 3 week Easter break.
This was my first opportunity to show my tutor the images from my first shoot and he said that I did not need to re-shoot it but he realised my lack of confidence in directing and could tell that I wasn't really sure what I wanted from my images. The things we discussed and my tasks to get back on track were as follows:

• To bring historical and contextual research into my reflective journal
• Pick out key themes from the imagery on my Pinterest board
• Draw inspiration from films, theatre, music, magazines
• Write a product list of products used to go with my face charts
• Think more about composition of remaining shoots
• Know what I want each page of my book to look like
• Talk about what is successful about each of my page layout ideas

Over the Easter break I will continue with my planned shoots, taking my tutors advice, and get on to completing all the points on the above list.

Week 8

As I have no studio space booked for myself until the Easter break begins, this week I assisted Amy on a shoot she had going on using the space in Re:So in the Marlands shopping centre. She needed the extra help as she had 3 models, each of which had a lot of hair which would have to be curled and styled. My roles on the day included, helping to collect the lighting equipment, set up the space, curl the  model's hair and apply the foundation bases, leaving Amy to finish off each look. I stuck around for the whole day to be there incase I was needed for any touch ups, to try and keep the models comfortable when they were not shooting, as it was snowing all day and the large space in Re:So was freezing, and to help pack away at the end of the day. I really enjoyed seeing how somebody else's shoot was run and I was glad to help. It was fun to be there just to help with the hair and makeup with no pressure on myself as it was not my shoot. There are some brilliant images from the day and Amy felt that this was her best shoot so far, despite the freezing cold conditions.

Facial Hair

After testing my look for the character of Mr A.H I felt that I needed some extra help and practice with laying on the moustache, which was also going to be necessary for the character of Prospero as well as him having a beard too. So to solve this issue I went into Sue's morning session this Friday to get her help with laying on facial hair. After taking her advice and practicing on myself I successfully laid on a realistic beard and moustache and now feel confident to go into my next shoots and perform the same techniques on my models.

Testing

After some obvious flaws in my first shoot and my tutor expressing the need for test shoots to be done, otherwise it becomes difficult to progress further with my project, I felt in necessary to practice the looks for my remaining characters. Testing being particularly essential for the character of Mr A.H (my next planned shoot) and Prospero The Enchanter as I will need to be laying on a beard and moustaches on my models.

Testing of makeup look 1 for the character of Celia: Pale base with slight contouring to enhance cheekbones and jaw line to look sharp on camera. Natural colour on eyes, with a small amount of mascara just to make sure the eyes are picked up on camera. Light application of a pale pink blush to add a slight rosiness to the cheeks. Natural looking all over lip pencil so as not to add any gloss or shine to the lips with lipstick or gloss. This is a simple look but I will need to ensure that on the day of the shoot all of my blending is flawless to give the impression of not having makeup on at all.

Testing for the character of Mr A.H: Pale base. Heavy contouring to create a ghostly look. Theatrical aging with lines and darkening around the eyes. Laying on a moustache with crepe hair. I feel that I need to seek help from Sue or Lottie to perfect the facial hair, something I have not had a lot of practice with.

Testing of makeup look 3 for character of Celia: 'Stage makeup' - To purposely look very made up. Heavily applied pale base. Heavily powdered. Bright rosy cheeks. Striking red lip. Enhancement of eyebrows. Black eyeliner and heavy mascara with highlighting of brow bone to make eyes stand out. A modern, dramatic twist on the first makeup.

Marco Shoot

I have now booked plenty of studio space over the Easter holidays which is a huge relief.

Yesterday was my first shoot for the character of Marco, modelled by James Trinder. Here are a selection of the images from the shoot...

 

My model was very handsome, photogenic and suited the character well. He has very striking eyes and strong facial features. I am very happy with the images I have from this shoot, with plenty I can use in my book. Although I do feel it is apparent that it was a last minute shoot and I could have been more prepared. This shoot has taught me that I need to be more confident at directing and making sure I know exactly what kind of images I want to get out of each of my remaining shoots, by way of poses and composition. Also, I need to pay more attention to the fine details such as, making sure the makeup is blended well and the clothing is looking sharp and in the right positions. This was my photographer's first studio shoot in some time and so some of the lighting could have been better. For example, the trousers getting a bit lost in the background in some of the full length shots. I understand this is also because of the use of black clothing against a black background, but I want all of my shoots to be shot against the black backdrop because it best suits the story. This can be fixed on photoshop during post production, but we will make sure to get the lighting set up better in my future shoots. Considering how unprepared and unconfident I felt going into this shoot I am pleased with many of the images, particularly the second image I have posted here, after some editing I feel they will be strong enough to represent this character in the final outcome.

MARCO

Grey-green eyes

His dark hair badly cut

His clothes are ragged but well kept, though his pants are too short and may have once been blue or brown or green but have faded too much to be certain

The boy grows up in a town house in London

The boy spends most of his time reading

His bright green eyes dazzling in the winter sun

Marco, a handsome young man with striking green eyes who quickly attracts the attention of both Burgess sisters

Marco watches her approach, confused at first but then the confusion is replaced by something else entirely

He could tell from across the room that she was lonely, but when she is near enough to look him in the eyes the loneliness – the shape of her face, the contrast of her hair against her skin – evolves into something more

None of them notice that his hands are shaking or that he is clutching the pen in his hand so tightly that his knuckles are white. Nor do they notice when it snaps in two within his fist, black ink seeping down his wrist

His bowler hat

Well cut but nondescript black suits. Crisp white shirts. A row of custom-fitted bowler hat

He sees no one, not even when his meals are delivered to his rooms, appearing by the door on covered trays and disappearing in the same manner.

The boy spends most of his time reading

Week 7

After my bad luck in regards to studio bookings, one of the other girls is having to give up her studio time this Thursday as her photographer cannot make it. So, I jumped at the opportunity to make use of the booking, got straight onto contacting my photographer and one of my models in the hope that they are both going to be available and luckily they are, so on Thursday I will be shooting the character of Marco with model James. I have already planned my makeup for each character shown on the face charts in my Week 6 post. Now with only a very short amount of time until my first shoot, I need to create moodboards to draw inspiration from and be able to show to my photographer and model on the day of the shoot to help them understand the character. I also need to read through my quotes and extracts on this character to gain a deeper understanding of the character so as to have an idea of what I want from my model by way of emotion and poses.

Wig Workshop

This is the second and final part of a two week wig workshop I have been taking with Sue in the makeup studio. In week 1 of this workshop I learnt how to prepare the wig block, put a wig onto the block securely and, using a photograph of a 1950's hairstyle, inserted rollers and pin-curls and set the wig using setting spray and conditioning solution. It then went into the wig oven to bake and be ready to style this week.

This week we took out all the pins and rollers and, using the guidance photographs from last week, created our chosen hairstyles. We then prepared each others hair by wrapping and pin-curling and covering with a stocking, ready to put the wigs on to each other and finish dressing them. I enjoyed and learnt a lot from this workshop and feel confident that I could now go out into industry and, as an assistant, be able to block and prepare a wig.

While at the wig workshop the sheets for the next weeks photography studio space went up on the board in the office downstairs and by the time I finished my workshop at 1pm all available space for the following week was already taken leaving me to feel quite anxious about getting studio time in order to progress further with my project. The only solution I can see is to make sure I am in the office first thing next friday morning when the new sign up sheets are put up to make sure I get space for over easter booked.