Ritual - 'Daily Ritual'

We created a character of a young single woman in her late 20’s who loves being at home, spending time with her dog and taking care of herself, making sure we included lots of pink and girly props into the photographs to again show the character of the woman. We added some twists to the average daily activities for example, doing hair and make – up before exercising to show she is glamorous and doesn't like to start her day without her make – up, breakfast being just a few seeds in a bowl which she has measured with numerous measuring cups which shows she is conscious of her weight and walking the dog again dolled up showing she cares more about her looks than her comfort.

On the day of the shoot we met at Molly’s house which she kindly let us use as our location, we all arrived at around 11am and our model had her make – up done whilst we organised the outfits etc. We wanted to photograph in one of the bathrooms for a scene where she is brushing her teeth but unfortunately the light wasn't the best and it made the photographs not flow as well as a series. The day ran as smoothly as it could of and we managed to think of different scenes when some of the scenes we had arranged to do didn't quite look the part, we communicated well as a team on the day and all contributed to each scene. 

If I could change anything about the final images it would be the models hair as I don’t think the curls suited the character we were going for, the lighting and some of the locations. I feel we took too many images in the bedroom so the final images lack variety. Some of my favourite images include the waking up scenes on the bed as I think the pink and white are a great contrast. 

RITUAL

As a group we struggled to meet up before the Easter break, we kept in contact through Facebook just discussing any research development.
We then met up once we were all back from our Easter break, unfortunately Daisy and Glen didn't attend our group meeting and because of time we had to finalize an idea without them. We did update them with the idea via Facebook.

We decided to use the 'daily routine' idea as we felt we struggled to really find an idea from any of the other meanings. Taking inspiration from the Elle magazine editorial, we are going to use a house as our location, capturing a young single woman's daily routine. Making it a little bit weird by adding some twists to your average daily activities.

Creating a girly, body conscious, glamorous character we went to incorporate exercise, food, hair/make-up, and other daily activities.
We have came up with 12 scenes to fill the 12 pages of the editorial.

1. Morning time, waking up and getting out of bed.
The outfit for the morning scenes being a pink satin nightdress, and pink silky dressing gown with some pink fluffy slippers.
2. Brushing teeth
For props we have bought a Hello Kitty Toothbrush and Hello Kitty toothpaste, again pink and not a toothbrush you'd typically see a woman aged from around 23 using. This brings character to the images.
3. Drinking her daily cup of tea out of her pink tea cup and saucer.
4. Still in her dressing gown and nightdress, she paints her nails pink ready for the day ahead.
5. Hair and Make-up
Taken similarly to the mirror image from the Elle editorial.
6. Daily yoga routine - wearing sportswear but with full face of make-up on, conscious of her looks/glamorous.
7. Brunch.
Seeds measured with measuring spoons into a bowl, showing she is very conscious of her weight and body.
8. Once she is dressed for the day, she walks the dog (Daisy and Glen's dog) in a very glamorous pink outfit.
9. Chill out time after a long day, into her pink bathrobe and face mask.
10. Feet up, glass of wine in hand.

RITUAL

I decided to look at routine and daily routines, and the way we all have a different routine in some way or another.
Some activities can include:-

- Exercising
- Eating
- Showering
- Doing hair and make - up
- Going to work
- Walking the dog
- Reading a newspaper
- Brushing your teeth
- Watching TV
- Taking vitamins or medicines
- House work
- Tea/Coffee

I looked into fashion editorials based on routine for inspiration and ideas.

http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/interviews/a19872/maddie-ziegler-fashion-olivia-bee/

This editorial is about capturing Maddie Ziegler at home in Pittsburgh, away from elaborate routines and stage make - up. Even though this editorial isn't about daily routines, I just like the way the photographs have been taken and think using a house as a location is going to be a great way to capture someones personal daily routine. There are a lot of ways you can experiment with this idea.

RITUAL

Today we met up to discuss the possibilities for our shoot based on the word 'ritual', we explored the word and looked at various definitions to try and come up with an interesting and unique concept. Glen wasn't present for our first meet up as he was poorly.

The words we discovered from ritual are as follows:-

- Practice
- Conventional
- Habits
- Baptism
- Funeral
- Procedure
- Routine
- Behavior
- Art
- Fire walking
- Getting ready
- Stereotype
- Exorcism

We also found an article about the '8 most bizarre rituals in the world'
Link for article:-
http://www.travelvivi.com/the-8-most-bizarre-rituals-in-the-world/

After our meet up we have decided to go away and do some research into some of the following words.

FASHION MONSTER: Viktor & Rolf S/S 15: Final Images

These are the images Jason sent us once he had edited them, I absolutely love the coloured motion blur because it really creates an hallucinogenic/trippy effect and links so well with our concept. I also feel better about the styling after seeing the final images, I think it works really well and the headpiece definitely completes the look. 

The poses are stiff and quite weird which again I think works well with the concept, sticking to our key words of mutate, amplify, explode and hallucinogenic. 

Post production was key in creating an unrealistic finish to the image using effects and duplicating the image on top of each other to create this 3D effect.

This is our final editorial, we have decided to use 4 images instead of 3 as we felt they flowed better and I think the mix of colours look so bold and interesting.
I am really pleased with our images in the short amount of time we had to prepare, we cooperated well as a group and I think having all of our input into the concept, styling and photography is what has made this editorial a success.

FASHION MONSTERS: Shoot day

We organised our photo shoot for Thursday 26th February in the main studio in the Media Factory, we had organised to meet at 7 and prepare our model then start shooting at about half 7/8.
Unfortunately the group before us had knocked a fuse out in the studio and the main lights Jason wanted to use were not working so we had to work with what we had as best we could. Luckily there was another group in a different studio so we managed to have some of their studio time and finish are photo shoot in there.

These are some reference images which we took inspiration from with poses and lighting:

We wanted our images to look slightly weird but wonderful. With the lighting Jason wanted to create the illusion of making the model look really tall and long (even though she was already tall).

We really liked the lighting and motion movement on these images, it creates a really hallucinogenic look.

The photo shoot went well but I wasn't completely happy with the styling, once the outfit was put together it didn't look as effective as I thought. The head piece was really successful and looked so good, it definitely created a fashion monster!

Viktor and Rolf S/S 15

On Friday we went into Preston town to look in charity shops and source items so we could start making our head piece and putting the outfit together.

We managed to source everything we needed, as well as asking people we knew for items which we could borrow for the shoot.

Saturday we met up again, we went to Mia's house so we could make the head piece giving us enough time in case we needed to find anything else before our shoot on Thursday evening. 

I took some images of us in the process of making the headpiece.

Using fake flowers from Wilkinson's an and old ski mask of Jason's, we glued each flower individually with a hot glue gun.

Mia trying on the head piece/mask.

We also added two large purple flowers to the top area of the mask. We have finished making the main item for our look, most of the other parts will need to be done on the day.