For the final major project I have developed a short three film series. In the series I have drawn inspiration from the all-female gang Forty Elephants which has been the key inspiration behind the brand Fortie Label. Fortie Label has been the brand in focus and the brand the films are intended for. The brand was not interested in a collaboration thus I have had to recreate the brand’s clothing in order to fully demonstrate my vision for the films that were to be produced for the brand.

The outcome of the films differs in what I had visually imaged them to be, the films had only been visualised via mood boards and collection of props before their test shoots which meant that the set had not been tested or fully visualised until it had been set up and captured. The films were collated from many aspects such as the props, setting, models and the styling. All of these were entities that had been brought together at once which made it hard to visually place until everything had been combined. I had certain ideas of colours and styles I wanted to apply to the films but at no point I had a clear vision that I wanted to recreate which was a bit of a risky approach. However I am very pleased with the outcome of the films and how everything has come together visually.

The first test shoot I had carried out was the Seduction shoot, in this I focused on getting as many different shots of the model as possible so that I could collate a story board from the images. However with it being the first shoot there was a number of things I had not considered, this included images of details, close ups of the setting and detailed use of props. This resulted in images that only focused on the model and not the setting. Image wise I feel like this shoot has been the weakest of them all as the other shoots do contain detailed images and close ups that allow me to capture different depths and use a variety of images within a series.

The next session in the studio was filming the Seduction film. Again this was the first session of filming, although I had prepared story boards and knew what shots I wanted to achieve, I had not fully considered the camera works. The filming for this was rather still in the sense that the camera was tranquil and focused on a moving subject which was the model. In this I took the opportunity to capture filler clips that allowed me to capture the essence of the setting and details that I had missed during my test photoshoot. When editing this film I had realised the filler clips worked very effectively and in those the camera did all of the movement and the subjects remained still. This was something that worked very well but highly contrasted a lot of the clips which involved the model. This made it rather hard to keep a nice flow throughout the film and narrowed the selection of clips I was able to use. From this point I knew exactly how I want to use the camera to capture the other films.

The following test shoot was for the Queen film. This test shoot was very good in the sense that I was able to catch a lot of detail within the setting purely because of the exciting setup. The setting had so much going on, between contrasting colours to the countless floor props and this meant that I was able to capture so much detail across the whole shoot. After this I again developed a story board which I would follow in the filming session. The Queen was the only film of all three for which I had actual visual ideas of exactly what I wanted to achieve which made it much easier to achieve good shots. Before the test shoot I had also tested the composition of props and how they work with the grass setting which gave me more confidence going into the shoot.

The following studio session was the test Shoot for Caught out. In this I was rather worried as it had been the simplest setup of all three films. The idea behind this film was simple therefore did not require a lot of props. The test shoot worked very well as the model was great at taking her space and using it confidently, which really enhanced the simple setting. The studio  I used for the films and test shoots was based in the performance studio in which I was able to set up performance lighting as it had been the only space that can provide enough still light for the setting. However this became difficult in this shoot as the model I had used was very dark skinned, wore a vibrant blue suit but was surrounded by rich yellow background. This made it hard to get the correct light balance on the camera. Tungscent setting made the model very green and the clothes green, white setting worked well with the model’s skin tone but washed out the vibrancy of the yellow background and the blue from the clothes. There was also just so much yellow that surrounded the model that it did not leave any space for depth. The other settings had a clear divide between the flooring and background which gave it depth but for this there had only been a continuous yellow setting which did not work so well. After the shoot I was able to recognise the need for a floor and decided to set up a checked black and white floor. This would enhance the colours of both the background and garment as well as give the setting depth.

The next step was to carry out a filming session for Caught Out. In this I had set up the new floor which instantly gave the setting depth and made it much more interesting. Also having started to edit the Seduction footage I realised just how wobbly some of this clips had been so this time I improvised and used tables and chairs to use as a stabiliser that can move with the camera but keep it still enough to avid wobbling. On this day my model had been in a bad way due to personal reasons which meant that I had tried to wrap up as fast as possible, this meant that some filler clips had been missed and left me with a little less footage than I had intended.

The final filming session was for the queen. Having done the test shoot weeks prior to filming it I was very confident in the setting and everything else. By the time it came to filming the last film I had already acknowledged exactly what I wanted to achieve, how to use the camera, what clip I need to capture and how to achieve stable clips. The Queen is the first film of the series and is also the strongest of them all because of all the practice I had received before shooting this film.

The Queen is exactly what I had imagined, perhaps the only thing I would change is the model just to achieve a more alien like look. I cannot imagine doing anything much more different from what I have achieved from this film other than the production of sound. The sound is yet again something that I feel has let down the film however I accept that I am not a sound producer and I am happy with what I was able to achieve.

For Seduction I would have liked to gain more detailed shots during the test shoot. I would also like to have used the camera differently, I would have liked the camera to make the movements more than the subject but as the first filmed film I am still happy with its outcome. Again the sound for this could have been better but the beat of the included sound works well with the beat and change of clips in the film.

Caught Out is my second favourite of the three films. In this I feel that I was able to capture exactly what I wanted camera wise and the styling worked well setting which for me was the riskiest part. During this filming my model was not in a good form which meant that she was not as confident when it came to taking her space within the setting and I feel like this has affected the quality of the clips but either way I am still very pleased with the outcome of the film.  If I were to change anything about the films it would be the use of lighting, a better quality camera and perhaps creating an even more 3D like setting.