I am very pleased with my own personal development through the course of this unit.
I designed and produced a website from scratch, which is something I never would have believed I would be capable of, and I am pleased with the final design, I believe it looks professional, and simple but interesting. I now feel confident enough to develop a website to display my work as an online PDP, which I feel would be more professional than a Blog.
I am also really pleased that part of our brief was to create a CV; I found the lecture we received on how to produce a creative CV really helpful, and I now have a part time sales assistant job at Oasis. The manager commented on how it was really nice to read an interesting looking CV and how he thought it reflected my personality.
For the Photo Shoot itself, I had learnt from previous units not to rely completely on one person for collaborative purposes, so when my photographer let me down the day before my shoot I was able to recover and get a replacement, and when one of my assistants didn’t turn up, we were covered as I had another assistant. This was invaluable to me, and made the experience less stressful and more enjoyable, and is definitely something I will carry through to future shoots.
The opportunity to conduct a photo shoot in the Ultralounge at Selfridges, really made me grow as a stylist/art director. It placed me into a professional context, and therefore my preparation for the shoot and my conduct on the day was really professional and efficient, and contributed towards getting some really varied images. It was a great experience to collaborate with people already in the industry, and gave me more of a sense of the fashion industry and of the professional world.
This was the first photo shoot in which I have used more than one model, and I really enjoyed it, and in fact preferred it. The girls worked really well together, brought contrasting looks to the photos, and bounced off each other, and helped keep the mood really exciting and buzzing. It has helped me make the decision that I would definitely use 2, or even more models for future shoots, which is a really exciting prospect for me.
The greatest positive I take away from this unit, is the relationships I have developed with the students I collaborated with. I really enjoyed working with my photographer, Leanne. We worked really well together, bouncing ideas from both a fashion and photography perspective off each other, and keeping the shoot buzzing, exciting and new. Since then I have styled a menswear shoot with her, which was a really useful experience, as I have never styled menswear before, so I have learnt a lot. We have plans to collaborate on shoots in future, as we both really love working with each other and I cant wait to push my own personal skills and boundaries with her. I have also created a strong relationship with the makeup artist I used, Charlotte. I have known Charlotte for 3 years, as she is a friend from the BA Model making course, but she has recently undertaken a part time makeup course at AUCB, and after seeing her makeup work, I decided she would be perfect for my shoot. She did some really great makeup, and I would love to use her again, it is unfortunate that she is soon due to be finishing her course, but I will make the most use out of her that I can while she is here. I also loved working with my models. Jacqui is a brilliant model that is with LMP modeling agency, who I have used before, and also a very close friend. We are very comfortable working together, and as she is on BA Photography, we have plans to collaborate soon in that context. Josi was a new face, also from LMP modeling agency, which I met at a LMP social event that I accompanied Jacqui to. She is young, and has a very strong look, and although she was slightly shy at first, she soon came out of her shell, got on really well with the team, and I would jump at the chance to use her again.
I have never created props and accessories for a shoot before, and they looked a lot more effective and professional than I first thought they would. We got some really interesting images using the hula-hoops, and also the masks and the ruffs, and this is something I will definitely develop upon in the future, to create more interesting and creative images.
The one element of my shoot that I really wanted to include, but which eventually was not possible, was including the public in the photo shoot. The ultra lounge was not as busy as I had anticipated, and unfortunately members of the public were not keen to take part. I decided it was better to discuss the shoot with the public rather than try to persuade them to take part, and run the risk of making them feel uncomfortable, therefore detracting from the professionalism of the shoot.
I feel that as an art director, I have really grown. I feel a lot more confident when directing models and other members of the team, and particularly with this shoot I was very organized, and knew what I was doing for the duration with lots of fresh ideas for poses and interaction. I believe in myself as a stylist/art director a lot more since this photo shoot, and have since lined up collaboration opportunities with different photographers and models. I have definitely grown as a stylist and also as a person.
