Project Brief 3: Pitch Reflection

It is week 8 and the development of our final project is coming on well.
In the pitch that my partner Blair and I presented, we discussed our main concept: a short film showing a photoshoot, the shot angles we wanted and how we wanted to achieve these.
Our main source of inspiration came from this fashion film made for Chanel:

A week before, we also took some trial shots after hiring a tripod, dolly and track in order to follow our subject who would be on the move (a re-ocurring shot we want is to have the camera constantly moving slowly). The main problem we faced was the tracks not being as smooth as we liked, causing obvious bumps whilst filming – and because we will have a few shots in slow motion, any small flaw will become much more evident.

Another problem we encountered was the use of a drone. We wanted to have a nice, long shot of the city by night to open and close our film – creating a more moody sense but after my friend bought a drone, used it in the city and was told that that is illegal, I told Blair and we decided that it was no longer a good idea. In the pitch, we were told that if these scenes are not essential to the storyline, then we shouldn’t stress over it – but we as a group decided to still have these scenes, just through other means.

At the moment, we have everything planned (location, time, shots, costumes) and will be filming next week in the studios – hoping that the ideas and visions we have in our heads will work well out in real life.

Additional note: talking to Christina today, some more brainstorming and thoughts sharing forced us to think about how we want to delve deeper with our fashion film, and not just have a simple photoshoot that “looked pretty” – one with meaning, a storyline and maybe a message. More thinking will be done over the weekend before our filming day next Tuesday and Thursday.

silky and sentimental second week

The five fashion images I have chosen below represent my sense of style and what I find aesthetically pleasing.

They are the colours and textures that I find both nice and pleasant to look at and to wear.
I am interested in clothing that are “feminine” and effortless but still turns heads.

My favourite fabrics are silk/satin and velvet, with favourite colours being burgundy and pink. Silk is expensive and difficult to make; with one thread of silk requiring thousands of silk worms.

This difficulty in production is a contrast to the effortless and light feeling when worn.
For example, a simple silk slip dress is just “slipped” on yet it looks luxurious and sexy.

Burgundy can be seen as the more mysterious cousin of red – both bold and seductive yet red is more “free of doubt”, whereas burgundy has a more alluring sense to it.

Pink is flirtatious, fun and soft; mixed with a silk/satin or velvet fabric brings forth these themes because of how nice it feels on the skin and how it can drape upon the body, allowing the wearer to achieve an effortless sense of style; though giving off this idea of easy and simple, cannot be achieved by anyone.

This certain aesthetic and theme will definitely be explored further with my future projects in the semester, because I want to experiment with fashion films that give viewers senses of sentimental, romantic, nostalgic emotions. Hard to put down into words but these are the kind of feelings I get when I see or wear clothes that resemble those in the images presented. With the right song and directing, I think I can successfully turn my thoughts into visuals.

As said in my previous blog post, what I want to get out of this semester is to be able to finally give myself a chance to explore the ideas and interests I have had with fashion films, and turn them into actual work.
I want to make musical fashion films that act as both a short film showcasing the clothes I like, and also the songs I like. Both will go hand-in-hand in expressing the emotions I want the audience to feel and have them be completely engaged in the film, fashion and music even if they had no interest in any of it before.

I want to be much more experimental and playful with my projects in this studio because it is not all the time you get to be creative, whilst being surrounded by creative people who can boost you and inspire you.