When I began the studio, I had one clear goal in my sights and that was to create something I haven’t created before, go against the norm and challenge the typical norms of what fashion films are. In saying this my knowledge of what fashion film was, was quite scarce. However, after a few classes my understating started to become more clear and ideas of my own started to form. The progressiveness of the course was very helpful in determining what the final film would be like. We developed our skills week by week and although at times it seemed repetitive the constant reassurance made me more confident in my own skills that I acquired before coming into the studio. The biggest aspect of learning I did throughout the course was to effectively work in a team and be collaborative. My experiences up until now have always been in a group environment but we were always working on our own films and vision. However, in this instance we had to develop, implement and execute an idea as two minds. This I think overall worked effectively. Although, knowing how Claudia worked creatively and physically was a great advantage and it helped us further our working relationship even more.
Aside from the collaboration development I think another element of learning for me was understating the fashion film medium itself. My first thoughts were simply what you see on TV; commercialised brands trying to sell clothes. However, I have progressively learnt that it is so much more than that. Fashion film encompasses a huge amount of detail. It can be a documentary, a narrative, a feel, a look, a smell, the possibilities are endless. Knowing this we as a group and as individuals brought our background in film making and this new-found knowledge to produce an avant-garde piece of work that defied the common tropes surrounding fashion film.
Creating this film was truly a great experience. From the start, me and Claudia were very clear that we wanted it to be bold and to tell a story that actively involved the audience to think and reflect rather than just mindlessly consume. The most successful aspect of the film was our dedication to the project. After three years of producing by the book media and film we wanted to let our visions fly, particularly with colour, lighting and costuming. We have learnt and were encouraged again that pre-production was one of the most important aspects of filmmaking and I think this time we listened. I believe that the time we put in to understating our story as filmmakers and making sure that every action had purpose and meaning paid off in the end. We were both able to go into our shoot day confidently knowing what we wanted the film to look, feel and sound like. In addition, the organisation of props, cast, crew and lighting were very well planned and executed. I owe a huge amount of appreciation to Claudia as she did take charge of the project and was very efficient in getting jobs done. Her dedication to the creative vision was what helped get the project across the line.
When it came to the day of the shoot we felt calm but still a bit nervous as we wanted to get the perfect shots as we pictured them in our heads. The organisation of the day was well planned and we stuck to schedule as much as possible. As with most film projects there are always hiccups and the biggest thing I can take away from the shoot day was to have budgeted more time to get the shoot done. The few extra hours would have ensured that we got the perfect take of each shot. This is not to say that we didn’t get good takes because we did but for future this is a good learning curve. That if you want the shoot done to 100% satisfaction budget enough time. I think the reason we didn’t pick this up earlier was because we have always had ample time to get shoots done in the past so we thought we would have enough time. Although it was a one day shoot on a Sunday our jobs lasted all weekend but the professionalism of the nine plus cast and crew was a huge help. Everybody was on time and ready to work and I think this was one of the reasons it ran so smoothly.
Thanks to the nature of the film which was minimal shots the editing process was not that taxing. The hardest part was ensuring that our sound and atmos matched the story we were trying to tell. Again, thanks to the creative and perceptive eye of my team mate Claudia, we could troubleshoot through problems in the edit suite and produce a final film we were both proud of. Not only were we proud but it personally met my goal at the start of semester to create something I haven’t done before and a piece of work that questions the norms. I think the audience is captivated by the story and the experience of the film and they can consider what happened even after it is finished.
Overall, I think my performance in the studio has been personally good. I love how I could just be a bit creative and we were left to our own devices to create. Not many times in university are you allowed to just be creative and I think it has paid off because this was one of the best studios I have been a part of. I feel I have been an asset to my team logistically and creatively but I think I have also understood where my strengths lie. By understanding this, I have let others delve into their own strengths and together we have made a film we are proud of. The constant support from Christina and the other teachers throughout the course has been very helpful because they were not intrusive but were there when we needed help. Overall, a great experience and learning curve for myself as filmmaker and as a team player.

The pitch went well in my opinion in determining the aspects of our ideas that we have not thought of yet. I think technically the pitch was a great active discussion between us and the panel. I think that we benefited from the fact that we have a strong and definitive idea and comment of what we want to achieve. The main aspect of the project was to be able to receive constructive feedback and potentially apply it to our film. The feedback we received in particular about the fact that we are comparing burnt toast to being different in fashion I believe didn’t really help as I think the toast is more metaphorical rather than literal. The literal aspect is more to do with the cutting of her strings. However, the comment regarding the kitchen being more simple was something that made us think that we should dull down the set we have.

Another great piece of feedback we received was that we could potentially use a dancer to play our main protagonist not to dance but have a person that understands their body and is able to portray the doll like character we want to get across. Another idea that came from the feedback session is the idea of music that we are going to have. Although we haven’t thought about the sound a lot the information we got regarding the atmos sound being moved to potentially soft music or adding in sound effects of a domestic environment I think is something we could take on board as it will add a more relatable effect and will strengthen the contrast of the piece of clothing to the environment. Overall, the feedback was mostly helpful and has allowed us to think about parts of the film that we have not thought of yet or that we have not looked at in that way and will help us build a stronger story.

Through this process I have found that the person I am working with brings out a different eye to me. Claudia makes me push the boundaries in what is the norm for fashion film because that is what you need to do. This is the biggest thing we have learned. It is in actual fact harder to make a good fashion film than a good short film that has structure, story and well thought out dialogues. Fashion can be like this but in order to communicate it you need to capture that in a smaller amount of time.  In addition an audience for a fashion film has a shorter attention span than that of a short film so you need to make them understand your concept in a shorter time.

This in mind we decided to go with the commercial style that we came up with. I believe that it was a great way to get us into the more abstract and adventurous style of filmmaking and gave us the freedom to express and play with things like focus and quick editing. This was evident when we went to the edit suite. Whilst we were editing the film we were finding it difficult to pin point the exact tone and motion we wanted the film to have, so we decided that before we took on the actual film editing we decided to do the sound editing first. This proved to be a smart and efficient move as we were able to structure the shots and cut on beats. It allowed us to cull a lot of the footage that didn’t fit the aesthetic of the film and truly delve into the best parts of the clips. These were in the little details such as a focus pull, eye movement, turn of the head and so on. By taking an emotional approach to the film you start to feel rather than observe and that makes for a more thorough and thought out final piece of work.

I think in terms of our final fashion film it truly depends on the style of garment or garments that we decide to use. I say this because I believe the feel, texture, colour and structure of the garment decides the direction the film takes. You need to understand the way the garment makes you feel in order to portray it in film. I think if we take this into consideration and decide on audio before we edit we will be able to make a great and thoughtful final film. This was fluid with the feedback received in class from Christina and classmates. They commented on the preciseness and efficivness of the editing. Which I think we can play to as a strength in the final film. Also the variance of the shots was what allowed us to get the variance in focus for the audience and this was commented on as well. It played to the pace and tempo of the music which was a great advantage. Overall, from this collaborative process I am looking forward to co-creating, editing and previewing our final project.

This week in the studio we had Bryan come in to walk us through the use of camera. It was like an informative crash course. Although I have gone through nearly three years of film school now it is always good to have a refresher and you can never stop learning. You learn something new every time you look at  a camera and sometimes getting things explained differently is a good thing.

I think however we were itching to just film something and start seeing how fabrics move. Claudia and I concluded in the end to work on a shoot that Claudia had already going on this week. We think it will be good practice for our final film and will get us back into the swing of things. We also made some headway in deciding what we wanted for our final film. We were able to start brainstorming some ideas of who and what we want to work on. We have decided that we truly want this to be a strong evidence of our skills and creativity. We want to produce something that is strong in both areas and can use to market ourselves to employers post uni. I am excited to get into some editing next week of the short clip and see what everyone in the class comes up with.

I put down the to be apart of the More Than Fabrics studio because in all honesty it was the most interning and different to what I have done in my now 3 years of university. I wanted to make sure that for my final semester I was doing something I enjoyed over something I had to do. As fashion has always been of interest to me I was interested to see how fashion films worked and how I could make one. The main skill I want to gain from completing this course is to be able to create a piece of work that I could actually use to pitch myself and my personal brand to an employer. I don’t want to really make something like a documentary as I want to exercise my skills in film making and go beyond the common rules of filmmaking. I want to be able to create a marketable, unique and stylistic piece of work that catches peoples attention.

At this point of my degree I want to work with similar minded people who are willing to actually apply themselves and understand the need for marketable skills in the industry. Not everything can be the next indie film that is going to get you nowhere!! I suppose my main goal from finishing this course and my university degree as a whole is A, to prove to myself that I could actually do it and B, that I have a varied skill set that will get me work in doing what I love. I can already feel this class is going to help me achieve that.

The images I have chosen for this assignment reflect my strongest passions when it comes to filmmaking and just being a creative person in general. These are, vibrancy but not pretension and insightful messages without being tasteless. I am not going to profess to being the most avant-garde and edgy intellectual when it comes to fashion but there is something about being able to take high fashion and commercialised fashion and make it unique. This is where my interest lies but as we all know you are not able to create without influence or inspiration of some sort.

“There is something about fashion that can make people very nervous” (Wintour, 2009) A statement that rings true to a lot of people but it is how you tackle this will determine how you create. It is with this statement in mind that I chose my images. All my images have a reoccurring use of strong contrasting colours whether they are calm or bold and fiery. For me colour in meek or dark backgrounds is something that demands attention and really underpins a strong image. Also the varying use of somber, eerie and intense directional lighting is rampant within the images and they play an integral role to the understanding of place within the image, not only for the actual models or actors but for the viewer and audience alike. Something different, something bold, something that transports you is evidence of a strong piece of fashion work that doesn’t fall victim to the nervousness that surrounds the fashion industry.

References:

The September Issue. (2009). [DVD] USA: R.J. Cutler