Evaluation

This assignment required the styling students and the photographers to collaborate together in small groups. We also had to work as a team and come up with a concept derived from our blog posts. The concept had to be relevant to at least one post from each of the group’s blog. At first it seemed a bit daunting that we had to form our own groups by getting to know each other. I think that the Facebook page really helped with this process as we could all get ‘chatting’ at swap thoughts and ideas.

The other two members of my group were Rebecca Aubrey and Josh Brown. We all had the idea of dreams/surrealism in common. We met up several times in the library to try and develop a strong concept. At first we were going to create photo representations of the top five most common dreams however after much thought we decided that it would be too literal and we should do something slightly more surreal.  We then decided on showing the transition from a good dream to a nightmare through different make-up and lighting. We were all inspired by the Alex Box series that was shot by Rankin that showed nine images progressing from totally white make-up to the final image being completely black with all sorts of colour and texture experiments inbetween.

The next stage was working out the finer details such as Studio/Location and scouting the perfect model. We thought that doing the shoot in the studio was going to be the most effective option. As we wanted to do the series based on the make-up and expression we didn’t really need a location as a background as we all thought that would detract attention from the model. Also there were the obvious perks of using a studio as the weather in Preston had been very unpredictable. Whilst discussing the model we agreed that we should be a little different and cast a male for the beauty shoot. We needed to choose someone who was quite androgynous, who had a great bone structure to work with the make-up and someone who didn’t mind wearing the make-up itself! Luckily Steven, one of my colleagues at The Body Shop, met all three requirements and was very dedicated to being the model. He has done many shoots before so we knew he would be natural in front of the camera.

We wanted to accommodate plenty of time after our test shoots so that we would have the opportunity to re-shoot if we agreed it was needed so we booked the studio for the evening on the Tuesday 15^th February and for the following weekend. The test shoot went swimmingly. Becky and Josh arrived at the studio at 5pm and experimented with lighting and backgrounds for a couple of hours until they had reached the perfect set-up. The model and I arrived at 7pm armed with a bag of clothes and a huge box of make-up! I started on the make-up straight away whilst the photographers did some final tweaking of the lighting.

Steven was a brilliant model and took direction very well whilst still looking relaxed and comfortable. Becky and Josh shared the role of photographer and took it in turns taking a few pictures each. The lighting all worked really well thanks to quite a lot of planning on the photographers behalf and I felt like the styling and make-up was successful too. After a few hours of make-up changes and camera swapping the shoot was over! Everyone was really happy with the images we had taken. The next day we met and chose our favourite images, the next meeting involved us all editing the final images. We did it as a team so that we could all share our opinions instead of just one person editing the images. We wanted to keep the rawness to the images instead of making them perfectly polished, so we edited out any obvious make-up flaws or marks but left the texture of the make-up on the skin instead of airbrushing as we thought it had a more ‘real’ effect. To make the images work as a series we tweaked about with the colour temperature as some of the images look too warm compared with the harshness of the black and white. Apart from that we haven’t done masses of post-production.

I think that Becky, Josh and I worked brilliantly as a team. We bounced off each other’s ideas and everyone had a similar input. The roles were shared out equally and we generally had a laugh and had fun collaborating together. I think this module is a great idea to get like-minded creative people working together as a team to create some amazing images.

Final Images

Here are the final images. we have tweaked them on Photoshop but this is only in a cosmetic way such as touching up the make-up and removing any marks or flaws. We did use a cooling filter on the third and fourth images to make the transition to black look more fluid. We didn't want a very polished finish and we agreed that we all like the raw, grimey look of the final images.

Best Shots

These images are the ones that we as a group thought were the most successful. We still have to narrow them down further and do some post-production. I don't think that they need much work on photoshop as the lighting and make-up has turned out really well. We will meet as a group to continue the editing process so we can all have similar input on the final images.

Make-up

As the make-up is going to be the main focus of the shoot it is important that it translates well. I am doing the hair and the make-up. I am trained in applying make-up and I have a make-up kit that is full of different colours and textures. The first image will be almost completely white and the last image will be almost completely black so the images inbetween need to show the transition. It can't happen in massive leaps otherwise the series won't flow well together so as a group we decided on 7 images being the ideal number.

Here is our rough guide to how the make-up will evolve in 7 stages:

1) Completely white base with red lips.

2) Emphasize the eye ares by defining brows with a darker colour and introducing a pale blue powder around the eye area.

3) Darken the blue in the eye area, apply a deeper colour to the lips and slightly smudge

4) Eye area very dark and extended outwards, same for lip unnatural shape and colour

5) White base is replaces with a darkening grey and the whole face is becoming more smudged.

6) The base is darker, lips and eyes are black

7) The face is entirely black with just the eye detail showing.

The hair will also start off quite neat, scraped back. Highlighted with white paint. As the series progresses the hair will get messier and more unruly.

EDIT: we then re-read the brief and realised that the series was only five images long so we adapted the make-up so its made the transition smoothly but in less images.

Collar

As a group we decided that the images would be a series of portraits therefore I only needed to consider styling the upper body. One idea that we were all very keen on was some form of collar. As we wanted to show the progression from a dream to a nightmare they styling had to remain the same in each image whilst the hair and make-up got more and more intense. I made a collar out of two bow-ties stitched together and then stitched them to a piece of cable-knit fabric that stretched tightly around the neck. I think it references the dreamlike feeling but it also translates well as a more sinister collar when thinking about clowns and villains etc they are associated with bow-ties.

Keith Bryce

Photography by Keith Bryce

I really like the Victorian styling in these images. I like the antlers in the hair too and as you can probably tell from my previous posts I'm a bit obsessed with the idea at the moment. unfortunately I didn't have enough time to make or source any form of antlers but I will definitely keep my eye out for some to use in the future.

Not related to our shoot but nonetheless inspiring...

The colours and patterns that this painting technique creates are amazing.

The Model

Steven has agreed to be our model for the shoot. I knew him already as we work together at The Body Shop but the group agreed that he would be perfect for out shoot as he is quite androgynous and has a great facial structure that would work well with the make-up. He has modelled before so he is comfortable in front of the camera and he doesn't mind wearing make-up or elaborate clothing which is a plus! Here are a few examples of him modelling for other projects...

My Week In Pictures

A pretty boring week to document really, I've literally just done uni work, housework and baked some cake...

Michael Cepress

http://www.michaelcepress.com/index.php
One of the main items we want to use in our shoot would be some sort of collar. As we are planning on doing headshots with OTT make-up we want something fun but something that won't distract from the model. I really like the effectiveness of these paper collars. They look like they would be quite simple to re-create but they also look expensive as they are technical and have a rich colour palette.

Gwen van den Eijnde

http://www.gvde.net/

I really like the styling in these images. I like the way that Eijinde has created accessories and clothing that are completely androgynous. His clothing is very theatrical but also quite simple with its muted colour palette and crisp lines.