INFLUXX DigiPak & Magazine Advert Shoot

As mentioned in my post on Friday, last night I planned a photo shoot with INFLUXX for my magazine advert and DigiPak. Above are the 54 selected images i chose from the 200+ I shot overall. I feel that the photo shoot went very well and this was due to my planning and organisation. I wanted to continue the same style of photography from my AS year 12 Media Studies work as it received praise from my peers and the examination board moderator. I felt confident that this style of photography would work well and that I would be happy with the final outcome.
I planned and organised before the photoshoot the outfits that the band would wear, their make up & hair style plus poses that the band could emulate (taken from my previous AS work & existing band's photoshoots e.g. AlunaGeorge, MSMR). I ensured I had enough time to prepare the band before we started shooting (hair & makeup) and gave them a quick brief on what I wanted the overall style of the photo shoot to be like. Alex and Ellie are already good friends and they have great chemistry together which works very well in my favour as this is shown in front on the camera (during both the filming and the photo shoot) and therefore means they perform well together as a band. To also help them relax and get into the roles of INFLUXX band members I also put on a playlist of music within the same genre of Indie/Synth pop, this really helped then to overcome any awkwardness you would first encounter during a photo shoot.
About an hour into the photoshoot we were interrupted by the school fire alarm, this took about 20 minutes away from our time shooting but when we returned back into school we were able to get back on task and complete the shoot within the allotted time (the photo shoot took 90 minutes to complete well within our 2 hour scheduled time).

Below are a couple of images Phoebe took of me during the photoshoot:

DigiPak and magazine advert photo shoot

I have planned a photo shoot on Monday with INFLUXX (Ellie & Alex) to take some images for my DigiPak and magazine advert. I plan to use the same minimalist & polished look that I used last year in my AS coursework when styling INFLUXX for my magazine. I also want to use the same style of photography as last year (Terry Richardson & Viktor Vauthier) using a stark and bold style that is honest to the camera. I have proved before that this is a successful way of capturing INFLUXX and suits their style and genre of music well and it is also something that I know i can achieve to a high standard that also looks professional and sophisticated.
In post production I also plan to edit my images and create a distorted/out of focus image (using Photoshop and layering transparent images over one another), i'm not 100% sure whether or not this will work well but i still plan to experiment with the images I take before producing my final draft to submit next Friday.
I am also going to dress Ellie & Alex in the same style wearing all back to stick to the mono tonal look of the music video and the minimalist style of the band. I am also going to do the same hair and makeup as i did last year.
Ellie: straight hair, basic face makeup (foundation & concealer) to improve her complexion in the stark light, highlighter on the cheek bones, highlighting eyeshadow, mascara, eyebrow powder (to define the shape and contour of her eyebrows) and red lipstick.
Alex: basic face makeup (concealer & foundation) to improve his complexion in the stark lighting.

My year 12 AS Work:

Examples of Terry Richardson's work:

Viktor Vauthier's work:

I will update the blog on Tuesday with the images I take and then begin to insert them into a Digipak frame playing around with different positions, lighting, cropping and frames.

Review of the filming day

Today we completed eleven hours of filming for our music video. On reflection we think that the day went very well and we got all the footage we needed.

In the weeks leading up to the filming day we all ensured that we planned well and prepared properly (you can see this from our previous posts).

The schedule that Phoebe put together of how our day would pan out worked very well and helped to ensure that we achieved all the necessary shots in the time we had as every tiny detail was taken into consideration (weather and travelling).

We distributed the tasks evenly and stuck to our roles and this also helped us to achieve a successful day of filming.

Our band INFLUXX (Ellie & Alex) both worked exceptionally well together throughout the entire day and Ellie in particular worked very hard and was dedicated to her role performing to the best of her ability during all the shots.

Jess worked throughout the day on hair and makeup, topping these up throughout the day to ensure that   there was a consistent style and finish throughout all the shots. She also helped Phoebe set up the lighting and props for each shot in the location. We were running slightly behind schedule at the beginning of the day so I helped Jess by applying Alex's makeup while she worked on Ellie, this helped bring us back up to the correct scheduled time of beginning filming.

Myself and Phoebe both worked closely together throughout the day on the storyboard and what order we would film the shots in. We decided we would film all the shots including Alex first as he had to leave early (3pm) due to work commitments, we completed this by the scheduled time and after he left we were able to get on with filming the individual shots of Ellie & the location shots.

We encountered a couple of minor problems towards the end of day as the light changed due to the sun setting and it then became dark (approximately 6.00pm), we had to ensure that any window shots were filmed before this to avoid a sudden change in lighting that would look out of place in our video. We also planned to shoot in a couple of corridors in the location, however we realised when we arrived at the location that this wouldn't be possible as there were no suitable corridors to film other than the entrance hall. Therefore myself and Phoebe had to re think and plan a couple of shots, we both make a quick and strategic decision to film some more individual shots of Ellie at the top of the staircase and in the ballroom (both of these worked well as a solution to the problem).

Overall, we all feel that the day went very well and we achieved some brilliant shots of the location and band. We hope that the editing process will only improve the filming and help us to create a music video that is both sophisticated and professional.