To appropriately contemplate project brief two, I feel like I must begin with the dynamic between my small group. Working with Justin has proved to be extremely relaxing and comfortable. We have a similar aesthetic, and I have known him for a couple of year so I’m quite comfortable working with him. He brings an enthusiastic, positive outlook which, in turn, affects the method through which we communicate our ideas. I feel like we work together very well because we’re both quite relaxed. For this brief, we were able to easily discuss our ideas, and decide on the aesthetic of our short film.
Justin and I are both quite inspired by the iconic trashy, yet timeless style of the eighties, particularly the ‘party aesthetic’. We have even discussed the idea of shooting in a party/club environment for future experiments. I approached this brief in order to test the general ‘aesthetic’ of the final product. This is evident in the garments that were being work by our subject. From painted leather jackets, to faux snake-skin overcoats, we attempted to imitate the glamour/trash aesthetic. Justin and I were not really concerned as to whether we should include narrative, but focused on the role that garments and movement play within the genre of “Fashion Film”. We were both aware that our film was quite stripped both in terms of location, and narrative development, but we are confident these qualities will develop as our aesthetic does.
The idea behind the video is borderline satirical. We envisioned to encapsulate the glamour/trash aesthetic from the 80s, and try to adapt it to a contemporary social context. Style is cyclical and infinite, and 2017 is echoic of the 80s club scene. We shot the footage at Justin’s friends’ house, whose housemate happened to be a graduate fashion designer. We filmed the footage outside, against a white brick wall in an alley so that the attention could be focussed on the garments and the movement.
Filming did not take very long at all, and was all quite fun as we got to experiment with different things, particularly the more ‘unorthodox’ filming techniques such as the forbidden zoom. The editing process was actually quite simple as well. We used the same song in post-production as we did while we were filming, so syncing up our subjects movements did not prove to be very difficult.
In future, I would like to set up the shoot in a more organised fashion. I definitely want to focus on location for my next test, and experiment with more models/clothing. I know that I really enjoy working with lighting so I might incorporate some coloured lights into my next experiment.
Ultimately, I am quite pleased with Justin’s and myself’s effort as I feel as though we accomplished our main goal: testing our aesthetic. The film is not as refined as I would have liked, but It is a good reference to have in order to remind myself of the quality I want my future projects to have.
RE: The video is in a google drive I sent you