Today I had a 1 to 1 with James, I showed him my images I had taken so far, and how they looked in a spread.

He strongly suggests I work with a stylist on shoots, he pointed out that some of the clothes were not completely flat and caught up in a jacket or creased at the ankle, I really appreciated how picky he was because I was struggling on how to develop and now I know what I need to do to improve the performance value of my images.

He also suggested that I experiment with cropping, I want to see the different ways an image can look at different sizes, and making sure any lines are straight for full impact.

He urged that I look for inspirations beyond fashion editorial- film, music video, art, literature. I think this will be quite difficult for me as I am always only really looking at current fashion imagery, obsessing over the latest editorials in magazines that I have delivered on the day they're released. I think pushing myself to look for inspiration outside current fashion will really help me give my work the edge that it needs.

It was recommended that I edit down to 8 images and compare impact from 12. James was worried I was giving myself too much work and that the quality will be lost within the quantity. I want my images to be a snapshot of what I can achieve, and to only really show the best I can do within the time frame I've been given, rather than show as many as I can and have the quality disappear.
Less is most definitely more here.

For the collaboration project we made sure that everyone felt as though they were contributing and had achieved something from the brief. My role was to photograph, and to put together the Instagram feed. I also had a go at some filming during the two filming days. I feel as though I was a good team player, and helped motivate everyone to work to their full potential.

My contribution to the social media meant that it was my job to get everyone to send the images across to me, to make sure the order was chronological, and that the relevant #'s were used to attract attention to our work. On our second to final post production day I had to make sure everyone was sending me the content, one of my team members had a close family member pass away, and we were all very understanding about the circumstances. This level of compassion for one another was lovely to see despite us all being total strangers to one another less than just two weeks before.
The strength also to return to university a day later and stand with us to present our work was also very admirable, and we managed to get all the content, including theirs, on the Instagram feed before presenting.

We never had any fallings out as a group, and largely were all co operative and we all knew what we were doing at any given time. If at any point I didn't understand anything or was unsure, I felt as though I could have asked anyone in my group for help and they would be there to help me.

This was the first time I had collaborated with such a big group of people, and the work I produced as part of this brief reflects how much thought and planning went into our shoots and any post production. My team member Maddie played a big role in the shooting and editing of the final video, and the final outcome looks professional and is really impressive. I couldn't have produced and put together such a well rounded moving image piece, which really shows that our decision to delegate different tasks to the right people was one of the best decisions we made as a group.

Throughout the process, me and my group demonstrated resilience, responsibility, and resourcefulness. I don't think our collaboration experience could have worked so well without a solid group of people who all seemed to have good communication skills, probably the most important thing when working as a group.

It was really fun to see all the other groups fashion films and the variety of different points of interpretations of the same brief. The whole experience of the last two weeks I found really beneficial and fun and I feel lucky to have been part of a group who all pulled their weight and all equally contributed to what turned out to be a really high quality final outcome. 

The music video Bist du down? by Ace Tee was an inspiration for my intial images, in terms of styling and mood.  My housemate was listening to this German Artist on repeat and after it drove everyone else crazy, I took a liking to the video. The urban locations fitted well with the choice of styling, I really like the streetwear and want to incorporate street wear into my initial shoot(s). 
I am not planning on shooting any moving image at present, but I think if I were to, it would be similar to this.

Today and yesterday we shot all the content for our fashion film and Instagram feed. We had two models on the yesterday, and then one today. Both days were really full on, and between us we have so much content. Below are the contact sheets from my images, alongside a few that Maddie took on my camera when we swapped so I could shoot some moving image. I took some behind the scenes too so that can be used on the Instagram feed as well. It was a different experience shooting alongside another photographer, as well as Maddie shooting moving image, and Ed doing some behind the scenes too. Down to things like not being able to get the shot I want straight away, waiting for others to get theres so they can move out of my frame, or just taking in turns for direction to get what we have in mind. It was also interesting seeing how another photographer works around the same shot and the angles they shoot. Having the models overlap a bit was a nice opportunity too, I think one of my strongest shots was one of them together, I really like the dynamic of having two models together, its something I never have done before.
The last images on the contact sheets of the girl were incredibly spontaneous, I saw her from across the carpark from where we were shooting and thought how cool she looked, but wasn't brave enough to ask to take her photograph, she walked away but I couldn't stop thinking about what opportunity I may have just missed so I ran after her, and she was so nice and let me spend a couple minutes taking her picture, she let me direct her and I really like the portrait. It was quite a turning point for my confidence.

Today I attended the interchange session about visual merchandising. I thought this session would be really helpful with any still life I may do which might include set design. Having any more knowledge about how people buy things and tricks visual merchandisers use would be useful for me in the long run regardless. My notes from today are below.

Strengthen your brand personality; that is whats going to get you noticed. 

Arcades (like norwich one) came before shopping centres, they were covered from the elements and it was the first time windows of shops were used as a visual tool to draw customers inside.
THEN came department stores, which was the first time shopping became an experience rather than purely functional. Even when you're closed, your windows are not.

Harry selfridge of SELFRIDGES put the very first plane to crash in July 1901 in the shop window in his london Selfridges store. That next day 50,000 people came to see it, and consequently, went into his store. Best example of visual merchandising I've ever heard.

TOUCH POINTS
touch points are four key points of contact with your customer.

1. The pavement outside; determines weather or not they come in

2.The threshold experience, determines wether or not they stay

3.Shop floor; a quick 360 view of the store

4. Till points; are they accessible easily?

PUSH AND PULL PRODUCTS 
Ever noticed the most basic of products are at the back of the store? so you have to walk thourhg all the other things for sale before reaching what you really went in for.
Pull products are the basic ones, the milk and the bread. They PULL you into the store for your need.
Push products are the new stuff which is put at the front of the store to entice the customer to make a purchase they didn't originally plan to make.

SIGHTLINES AND FOCAL POINTS
Sightlines are the things in line with your sight; think the shelves above the racks in Zara, the advertising graphics hung at the back. Focal points are the tables; often lower so you can touch the products; a snapshot of the collection: Hollister are a big one for tables.

MERCHANDISING
vertical merchandising: e.g Jeans in LEVI's
Symmetrical merchandising: e.g. nike displays
Product blocking: e.g Uniqlo, the same basic product, but organised by colour.
Anotomical merchandising: the whole look at the same time, on a model or hung as though it were a complete outfit. You buy into the look.

"If Selfridges were a magazine, its windows would be its front cover"

-Alannah Weston, Creative director at Selfridges.

I have a strong interest in lines and shapes, and how I can include these within my fashion images, combining simple architecture and clean lines and shapes with a model whilst on location is something I want to address within  my editorial; I like minimal imagery but I think having something else other than simply the model on a plain background is alot more eye catching, using leading lines and other techniques to draw more attention and compliment the subject, rather than drawing away from them.

A photographer who constantly inspires me, sometimes without me even realising, is Matthieu Venot. I have followed his instagram feed for over a year, and the combination of colour and simple forms work so fluidly together.

Rather than shoot a building as a whole, Venot draws attention and focuses on sections, completely cropping down to capture a small snapshot of an entire building. His work can be very abstract, and his colour palette remains constant. He shoots only on sunny days to have a clear, crisp blue sky to compliment his foreground.

Today I attended the 5 year plan interchange session. I found it very helpful and made lots of notes. Below are my notes. I think the talk had potential to be quite boring and I was skeptical before I went; I only went because I thought it was going to be beneficial not because I thought it was going to be interesting or engaging. HOWEVER I found the way it was presented made a great deal of difference which how engaging and helpful I found the information provided.

When creating our collaboration video we want to combine the moving image we shoot with some sound which we plan to record in the sound booths. I thought of this VO5 advert, which combines both elements, with moving image of the artist alongside voice over the top works really well together and I'm really looking forward to seeing how ours turns out.
We want ours to be more reflective, and to see a lot less of the person who is actually talking, we plan to shoot quite close ups, capturing details of the clothes as this is relevant to a fashion film, whereas this advert isn't fashion focused.
We haven't thought of a title for our fashion film yet, I really like #DiscoverYourStyle, I feel like thats quite a large part of the point of the message we want our film to project, more so about embracing and being bold with fashion choices. Our models are going to be quite edgy and different to what people would class as 'normal' fashion, we want to project a message which says there is no 'normal' and to embrace what you love to wear and not limit yourself to be mainstream. Chet has sourced us some really cool models and I'm really excited to start shooting this week and see what we can create and put together.

Over this weekend I went location scouting. On Thursday Chet had images to show us of locations he thought would be useful to us. I wanted to go a bit further out and see if any pops of colour stood out to me. Location hunting is something I've never done before and will benefit my other current project as I am shooting on location for that too.

After our meeting we decided to all go away and produce a moodboard or two each so that we all had a good idea of what each other was thinking and something we can compare visually to each other rather than just explaining ideas. We had them done by today so that we could show James in our tutorial this afternoon. We plan to meet an hour or so before so that we can go over everything and have a clear idea of what we want to say and be able to articulate our ideas properly as a group.

Maddy made a timetable for us to follow for the next two weeks. This was really helpful to have an idea of what we need to achieve and by when.

Today we got briefed on our cross course collaboration project. I got put into a group of two film students, one other photography student, and one Fashion Promotion and Communication student. We have two weeks to produce fashion images and micro-films that will be collated and shown via Instagram. Focusing on telling the story, and establishing an editorial narrative through the content we produce. We chose to base ours on social realism, we felt this would reflect our personal style in the best possible way, and not too overcomplicated for the tight turn around we need to brainstorm, shoot, edit and finalise anything we get in order to be finished on Tuesday 21st.

After leaving the lecture theatre we decided to go to Playhouse to discuss our direction and bond a bit as this was the first time I'd spoken to or worked alongside anyone on my team.
First impressions were positive, It felt like everyone had their head screwed on and that we could hopefully work together to produce something successful. Straight up Maddy came across very organised which was a god send, she offered to come up with a timetable of deadlines for us all to stick to to ensure we finish on time and have enough time to edit everything after shooting. We decided to book our tutorial this week with James so I booked that for Thursday.

In terms of going forward, I suggested that everyone contribute a mood board to clarify ideas and visuals in an easy way, and to send those across on our facebook chat by tomorrow evening. At this point I was a bit unsure of a visual and wanted some visual ideas from the others as this helps me to get a better idea. On the way home I stopped by the library and checked out a book on social realism, I thought this would also provide some insight on the topic.