The model for todays studio shoot wasn't available so we have re-scheduled for next wednesday. Tomorrow is the big shoot at the model village... we're still awaiting confirmation on whether we get to shoot in the village when its closed or open to the general public. so either way we will get to do some photos. hopefully the weather will be nice, although rain has been forecasted :(

Had another group meeting!
we chose a model which we thought would fit best with the brief and we also spoke about the negociations that are going on between ourselves and the lady who ownes the model village, she is currently asking for £350 for us to do the shoot, which is not going to happen at that price, so we'll soon see what happens with that.
We also had a lesson soon after the meeting where we had to discuss our ideas with the class, i found it really helpful in terms of seeing what everyone else was planning to do, however no one really had any suggestions for us which was a little disapointing, but then again i guess that helped me in knowing we have a really good idea as the teacher seemed to like what we are doing.

Todays group meeting!

So i put forward my idea about fashioning the model similar to the styling of Lady Gaga and everyone seemed to like the idea.

The meeting today was to make sure that the whole group understood and was happy with the idea that is going ahead aswel as a chance to really discuss the photoshoot. We decided that it would be best to have several different shoots which will in the end create our photo story, by doing this we will still have the photos we planned just incase anything goes wrong on the day for example the weather. By planning ahead with several shoot options i feel that we will be in control of the situation, unlike last time when the weather caused our whole shoot go off plan.

now that the group is all together we decided it would be best to ring the model village and enquire the possibilities of shooting there. the plan for each photo still remains however beacause we were luckily granted permission to shoot at the village we will also be encorporating that as one of our locations. Tonight we will find out whether there will be an additional charge for shooting here as we have been told that it would be better to shoot first thing in the morning, before the attraction opens. If all goes well in the confirmation for booking the location, then we will begin shooting next wednesday. This means that gathering props and clothing is our main priority.

Tomorrow afternoon before lesson we are having another group meeting to discuss possible models, the fashion students say they have several in mind and so are going to show us some photos of them for us to decide on for a group, or to even continue looking else where. As well as this, a hair and make-up stylist has already been chosen. Everything seems to be falling into place... :)

Just a thought

just had a thought, it could be fun to dress the (giant) model in clothing like what lady gaga would wear. ofcourse im sure that trying to get hold of that style of clothing would be extremly difficult...hmm....

Group meeting!

We finally had a group meeting after several failed attempts which has helped put my panic to rest. Although Steph and Danielle couldn't make it, i still met up with Emma and Rachel which is a start.
I felt the meeting went brilliantly, as I really wanted to get underway with the project and leave the meeting with a clear idea of what we were going to do.
We decided that the idea of shooting at a model village would more than likely be unsuccesful, and apart from this it would be not pushing the creativity boundaries as far as possible aswel as being rather cliche. instead we are going to build our own set using minimal props to make suggestions to the narrative, something which had been mentioned in earlier lectures. We began by creating a narrative for the photostory which would be basicly about a girl from a normal family but who is gigantic (original inspiration) and how she goes about her daily life. the story will focus on how she doesn't fit in to society, litrally and metaphorically. The family of the girl will be styled in normal everyday steriotypical clothing, however the girl will be dressed in these amazing dresses which ofcourse she makes herself because of her size.

Ideas for Shots

1. model looking through the living room window to her normal sized family sat in the living room watching tv.
2. a washing line with clothes on with the girls ancles stood next to the line (mini pegs, barbie clothes on line)
   
3. girl getting ready to go out, using mini hair brush and make up brushes in a mini mirror
   
4. Picnic in the park
5. girl drinking from a small cup
6. girl holding her hand out with her boyfriend stood in the palm of her hand
   

these shots will be shot both in the studio and on location. for the photos which include the normal sized people they will be shot in the studio and then resized to fit into the main images for example the picnic scene so that the contrast in size is visable.

A film that links closely with our projcet is Dogville. it is this idea that a scene can be created and a stroy can be told but there doesnt have to be an actual set or location, just the suggestion of things. so this is why we are not going to build a lving room for example in the studio, we are however going to suggest a living room using chairs, tables, tv, window frame etc.another thing that i thought could help with our shoot was the use of a tilt shift lens, i don't know a whole lot about them or even if i could get hold of one, but i remember a few years ago i found out about them and saw some of the effects that can be created by them. this being the effect to make things look almost like model villages. here is an example:
The shallow depth of field created by the tilt however could be digitally created using post production, ofcourse it is never going to look brilliant in comparison to the real thing but this is always a possibilty to consider when editing the images. Also in adition to this, maybe we don't need to be so drastic in the bluring, we could use this a basis that we could have a fair amount of gaucsian blur in a couple (not all) of the images.

we are meeting again as a group next monday.

model villages

http://www.blackpoolmodelvillage.com/html/explore.html

http://www.southportmodelrailwayvillage.co.uk/

bit gutted! just bought this months Nylon magazine and found a feature in there titled 'Queen of Hearts' ... feel like my idea has been stolen, obviously they had it first though. grrr.

will post them here when i get round to scanning them in x

hakanphotography

this guy i found on DA uses simple narratives but extremly over the top styling, i duno how he could link in with our project yet, but i'd deffinatly say he could be inspirational.see more here: http://hakanphotography.deviantart.com/

New Project

So we were given an item which is meant to kick start the ideas for this project. Our item being a really old board game, which kind of resembled monopoly.
Emma and I have not yet met to discuss the project with the other group members, however we have talked about some initial ideas from which i began to brain storm.
- chess board: checkered prints on the clothing, game board themed clothes and accesories
- in the game: massive playing cards, chess pieces etc so that model is shrunk into the game
- previous idea leading into alice and wonderland inspiration, shoots such as antm with the fairytale themes. however if im honest i don't like these photos at all, as i find them boring.
- This then leading shoots by annie leibovitz


- we then got to talking about the first of the three images above by Leibovitz, and we found that maybe this is the direction that we should go for. a giant model stuck in a small world. there are so many reference points where this has been done before, and so without trying to come across too clichéd, maybe we could really make a go of this idea and create some visually stunning images. Emma and I then discovered that there is a model village in Blackpool and maybe this could be the location for our shoot, providing we ascertain permission. below is some more inspiration linking with the size idea:
shirlainewhat i discovered about this photographer was that she has used the Blackpool model village herself in these photos which makes our goal seem even more achievable. However i feel her choice of clothing in these images terrible, and although u can see what she was trying to achieve with the highly saturated images, i just don't personally find this apealing. perticularly from a fashion and styling perspective.

Brian Edwards
- but then last night i had a new idea, i'd been thinking so much about the whole alice in wonderland idea and how to use this as an influence without becoming too over the top and actually having alice in the photos that i started thinking about other characters, for example the queen of hearts. HOWEVER, when i thought about this from a fashion point of view i realised that the only reference to the queen of hearts would be the title. e.g. the shoot could be completly open, but it would be mostly about the styling and so the clothes featured would be all about heart shaped prints, heart shaped bags and accesories as if it was a feature for a magazine on the newest trend. heart prints.
there for the title being 'The Queen of hearts'.
this idea alone sounds pretty lame but then i got to thinking about david lachapelle and courtney love.

Nena

photos from last week (quality of these images will look crap as they are small)