Today’s class begins with an introduction to the subdivision of fashion media. Next, we took videos and photos of the shoes we designed.
In my reflective presentation, I mentioned that my weakness in the Toolbox course was that the photos I took for the final product were not good enough. I prepared and shot in strict accordance with my customized improvement plan at that time. I made a shooting plan before shooting, personally arranged a shooting scene suitable for my theme, prepared props and costumes for shooting in advance, and thought of some shooting actions. I learned how to use the camera to take pictures, and used various software to edit the pictures.
My video and photo were shot in the same scene. Since I was inspired by Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki for my shoes, I used his style for my photos. My scenes are made of a variety of old furniture and the light is dim, which I think can create a decadent beauty. The colors of the whole scene are mainly gray and brown. At the same time, my dress is very basic without too much decoration. I think this can contrast with the bright colors of my shoes and make the focus of the photo on my shoes.
I wanted my videos to be story-telling and coherent, so I designed a storyline for my videos. My shooting was mainly divided into three parts. First, I appeared in the shot with bare feet holding a candle, then the camera followed the movement direction of the candle in my hand and focused on the shoes placed in the furniture. Finally, I put on my shoes and appeared in the video. I chose the music played with shamisen as the background music of the video, because I think the sound of this instrument is very Japanese style, which is very consistent with my theme. In addition, the rhythm of the whole song is from slow to fast, and the music just reaches its climax in the last picture of my video. I tried to shoot in one shot, but because it was my first attempt, some transitions were a little stiff, so I adjusted them with video editing software.
I used a film camera for my photos because I wanted my photos to look dated. I imitated the poses of women in Araki’s photography works, and I found that he liked to place dolls among flowers to take photos, so WHEN taking shoes, I also put the ceramic dolls I collected in my childhood together with the shoes. I also borrowed from this in my later retouching, when I cut myself out of the original picture and spliced it over the flowers taken by Araki. In Nobuyoshi Araki’s photography exhibition, his works were splintered into long strips for exhibition, so I also splintered his works into long strips for layout.
I think my shooting has made great progress compared with the photos taken in the Toolbox course. My shoes are well displayed, and the style of the photos is very consistent with my shoe theme. At the same time, my shooting equipment is more professional and my photo editing is more detailed. But there are some areas that can be improved. For example, I can use a reflector or a filler lamp to adjust the lighting, and use more action and angles so I have enough photos to choose from.