Concept
Our fashion shoot narrative is based around the nursery rhyme of Little Bo Peep, it tells a story of her being taken from the innocent and fragile place shes used to, into the contemporary world of modern society. We have set her in a forest scene to create the idea that she is lost, not just in the forest but within herself, she is at the point of indecision and uncertainty. She is a young girl, who has yet to face the the concept of sexuality, identity and the real world . The forest represents a psychological space, almost framing her in uncertainty and confusion which has led her to become lost.
Character References
Sweet & Innocent... Little Bo Peep
After Chosing Little Bo Peep as a character, we wanted to research into what her characterisation was. We came across the sterotypical childhood versions, but also many more versions that helped us to start developing our own version/dipiction of Little Bo Peep...
What you notcie alot after looking at all of these images are the same colours being used for her clothing, like the pale pinks, blues and white to create this innocent and fragile looking girl.
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| Toy Story's Version |
A More Modern & Contemporary... Little Bo Peep
After looking at the original Little Bo Peep we decided to look at a more contemporary and modern version. We came across Paris-based photographic team Sofia Sanchez and Mauro Mongiello. Their work titled La Niña Santa (The Holy Child) is made up of video installations and the colour saturated fashion spreads for the likes of Vogue Japan.
I like the way they have taken the Bow of Little Bo Peep and used it in the same innocent approach with soft pale coloured ribbon. Then by including nudity and cigarettes, it automatically creats a more sexual and adult approach.
Casting
As a group i think its safe to say that we found casting really hard, first off we set up a Model Casting Day, where we advertised around the uni a day for models to come up to photography and sign up to be a model for our shoot. But overall it wasnt successfull, we had 2 people turn up which we had hope for a lot more. And after we decided they were not appropriate for our chosen character. We needed a better way of finding our model, so we looked into model agencies, but found this was far too expensive.
After much discussion we decided to go round the university and take pictures of people that we felt suited and had certain features of the character we were hoping to create. Overall this was a much better way of finding models, but at the same time problems accured as some people wasnt available for the certain dates of our shoot, which overall made the process a little harder.
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| Second Favourite Model - Aimee-Beth Warburton |
This was our second choice of model, we liked her facial features and also her pale skin, but unfortunately she wasnt able to do our shoot days so we couldnt have her.
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| Imogen Allen |
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| Lily Fisher |
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| Megan Usher |
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| Final Model - Chloe Sargeantson |
Our final model was Chloe, we felt she was perfect for our chosen character. She had the innocent face and pale skin, but also a certain attitude and way about her which was also exactly what we were looking for. The features and the skin is what stood out for me, i knew she would pull off the exact look we wanted to create.
Posture & Pose
When it came to poses we were a little unsure at first as to what we actually wanted the model to be doing in the shot. We started to look through magazines and on the internet for anything that inspired the certian look that we were trying to create. We decided that awkward poses were definitely something we wanted to look into, as this fitted well with our theme and story. We looked at a variety of both sitting down and standing up poses to make sure we had as many choices as possible.
During our shoot we found that we didnt like the standing up poses as she looked to big for the frame, making her look out of place. So when looking through our images we finally decided on a sitting down pose for our final shot, as she looked comfortable and sat well within in the frame.
We liked how in some of these poses the models were holding props such as umbrellas, which we linked to our character as little bo peep has her crook. So we wanted to try these poses in our shoot to see if we could create the same look but with a different prop.
We originally liked the idea that the model was peeling away from herslef and her surroundings so we found a certain image by Tim Walker, where the models dress is peeling away from her as she stands there awkwardly. We thought we could also use this to show the story of our character as she is peeling away from society and coming out of herself.
I found these 2 poses whilst looking through Tim Walkers work, again he has used a prop in his shot which helps tell a story or create a character, which is exactly what we were trying to do with the crook that Little Bo Peep has. And with the image below, I like the facial expressions that the model has, showing surprise and a certain kind of vulnerability, which was also what we wanted to use in our shoot, as our character is lost in a wood and maybe feeling vulnerable.
This was the kind of pose that we wanted to create originally, we liked the way the model was awkardly posing but still had a certian sexual way about her. By having her leg on show and her facial expression, it again creates that sexual approach to a slightly innocent looking person. But during the shoot the pose didn't work well within the frame we had chosen so we decided against this certian pose.
Costume & Styling
Hair & Make-Up
We decided on fish plait for the hair as we liked the messyness of it and also it fits in with the contemporary modern look.
We used fake alashes to create drama and sexualise the character.
We had a beehive as the top half of the hair, connecting down into the fish plait, to show the more innocent and but yet still modern little bo peep.
We liked the smokey eye effect, along with the deep red lipstick, also a look thats very in with todays modern society. Also links well with the hair and dress, creating an overall contemporary look.
Costume
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| Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2012 |
The dress on the right was our first main influence for our costume, we wanted to make something just like it to fit in with our theme. We thought the colours and the design fit really well with our forest theme and our character.
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| Original Outfit - Corset (top part) |
Our original Costume was going to be made up of a regency style corset and modern tulle cream skirt, which we were going to combine to create a modern and contemporary yet still classic costume. But after devolping our character and our ideas we decided that the cotume wasnt right and so we went in another direction.
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| Original Outfit - Skirt (bottom part) |
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| Alexander McQueen Auntumn/Winter 2012 |
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| Final Dress |
This is our final costume, we chose a dress as we wanted it be influenced by the original character of little bo peep, but still having our own contemporary twist.
We liked the material that was used as the layers created a delicate feeather look, which fit with the innocence part of our character. But the colour scheme suggested otherwise, with having black and grey in parts of the dress, it showed a more grown up, adult look. We added black ribbon round the waist line to create curves within the dress as before it just fell on the model, not showing any shape.
Originally we decided on skin coloured ballet pumps as we thought this would go nice with the dress and also quite simple and girly. But during our shoot we experimented without the shoes and it turned out that bare foot looked much better in the shoot, it fitted with the surroundings and contrasted with the dress.
Set Construction
Day 1
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| Making the Grid |
On day 1 put up the flats at the back of our set, acting as a backdrop. we then built a grid, using 2 x 1 wood, so that we could hang it above our set and then attach trees so they were secure and had no chance of falling over during our shoot week.
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First Tree is put up
We then one by one attached each tree to the grid, making sure they were securely on the grid. We used sandbags to support the bottom of th trees incase they gave way from below. |
Day 2
On day 2 we finsihed attaching all the trees to the grid, then we put our main source of light in to our set so we could see if the lighting was going to work with the amount of trees we put up.
Day 3
Our lights and set is more or less complete, as on day 3 & 4 we went on to scenic design and adding in the final props...
Scenic Design & Props
From the start the set was the biggest worry for us, because we chose a forest we found it difficult to not full into the fake and unrealistic approach of making a forest scene. We wanted it to look as real as possible, but creating a forest in a studio is never an easy thing to do. We looked into so many different ways of making the forest, but it seemed at every corner there was always an issue that got in the way.
After many discussions and trials we eventually we came up with the idea of having real trees, as we felt that this was the only way to make the scene look as real as possible. So we spoke we tutors about how we could achieve this in the time we had. After several days of thinking of ideas we came up with our final plan which hoped would work out...
Props
Although a forest is a natural setting, scenic design and props play a big part in helping to create a real life forest. Originally we thought maybe we didnt need props as you dont really find many objects or furniture in a forest. But after researching into forests further and also visiting forests we discoverd that forests have many objects such as logs, flowers, fallen branches etc. So as i was given the role of props I researched further into what kind of objects what we could use to help make our forest look realistic.
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| Red Butterfly |
When we visited the forest to take pictures and gather information, I noticed that butterflies were a common bug that was accuring in many parts of the forest so I decided we would use one in our set.
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| Clearing in a Forest |
Within our set we wanted to create a clearing, with over growing branches and twigs coming in from both sides, to create the feeling that the character is surrounded and lost within society.
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| Mossy Log |
I wanted to make the forest as real as possible so I decided that adding props such as moss, logs, insects and flowers would create that realistic quality that i was after.
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| Lilies of the Valley |
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| Dead Autumn leaves |
We decided on having leavs as our flooring, as when we researched into forests that was a common thing you would find. We wanted dead/autumn leaves to create the feeling that the forest wasnt perfect or inving like society.
Completely finished set, ready to shoot... (Day 4)
Lighting Influences
Our main lighting influence was Alexander McQueen's Autumn/Winter 2012 Show at London Fashion week. As he's theme was based around the season autumn, the set for the show was based in a woods, where the runway was coverd in autumn coloured leaves and big trees in the background, we felt this was exactly what we were trying to create with outr set/shoot.
The lighting from above created a ring around the model, capturing the model but also the leaves on the floor which we found inspiring for our shoot. We liked the way in which the light fell on the models face creating harsh shaddows, also the way the light fell on the dress, showing great detail and colour.
This flooring is exactly what we wanted to create in our shoot, a very realistic but yet simple approach.
Originally this was our main influence for the lighting of our trees, we wanted to create and eerie scene by using blue jel lighting, but as we developed our ideas and experimented we moved further away from the blue jel as we decided we didnt need this certain affect anymore.
Editorial Selection
Out of the 465 pictures that were taken here just 5 shots that i felt were strong images. There not all perfect images, but I like the poses and the facial expression that are shown. After hours of going through each image we all decided that none of these were strong enough to be our final and best shot.
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| Second Choice for Final Image |
This image was our second choice, we all agreed that the pose, composition and camera choice was good, but after much discussion we came to the conclusion that it just wasnt strong enough to tell our character or story.
Final Image
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| Final Edited Version |
Chosing the final image was surprisingly one of the easiest things we had to do, although we had alot of good images, i think we all knew this image was the strongest as soon as we saw it. The strong facial expression and pose makes the photo, along with the forest setting, it creates the feeling that she truly is lost not only within the forest but within modern society. Overall I'm really pleased with our final image, I think it tells both our story and our character in the way in which we wanted to.
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