Term 2: Portfolio // Before & During The Shoot

Prep
Once I finally settled on shooting one model, covering one narrative it was much easier to plan and execute.

I decided to approach Torum to be the model for the shoot after trying to think of someone with a classic face that would also be able to pull off the final shot I had in mind of the girl getting fright. Having never worked with Torum before I contacted her, took her for coffee and talked through the concept with her. She was excited about the idea and yet concerned as she didn't think she was photogenic. After convincing her that this would be more like putting on a character rather than just taking a selfie she agreed. We planned to do a test shoot on the weekend to warm her into it and for myself to experiment with lighting. We weren't going to worry about styling for the test.

It rained. And then it rained again. Both test shoot evenings didn't work out and in the end I was forced to plan the entire shoot without really knowing what would happen on the night.

Styling: Torum decided she was more than capable of doing her own make-up and hair.

Costume: I searched high and low for an imaginary dress I wanted her to wear and in the end opted for her to be wearing my own coat. I really wanted to work with red and I couldn't anything close to this through any of my contacts.

Lighting: After experimenting with the MIT portable lighting kit during the first test shoot I knew there was no way I would be able to get far enough away from the sensor to be able to get the shots I wanted. I researched online and decided to use two basic lamps from bunnings. Each cost $10 each. One used a tungsten bulb and the other a halogen worker lamp. Where needed I added the blue gels from MIT to soften the light.

Planning the shots: I worked with a very basic hand written storyboard so that I knew what shots I wanted to get. I imagine they would make no sense to anyone else!

On the night
Prepping for the shoot became a bit of a weather nightmare but I decided that no matter what we would go ahead and if it rained then we would get wet.

Torum got ready at my house (the location). It took a while for us to get our groove on but by the time the sun started to decend we were working well together and with the help of my Dad (holding lamps and reflectors) to get the shots I was after to create the story. Our biggest trouble shooting was which shoes she should wear so really it went far better than I expected.