12/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Fashion Film)

Filmography/ Editing: Caroline Wong

Styling: Christele Mbosso, Beau Scarlett-Pitt

Models: Phoebe, Dieter

12/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Video editing)

Editing process on iMovie - Caroline Wong

During editing, there was one minor problem. The first film that we finalised featured classical music as the backing track and it was decided that whilst the film showed modern designs, the music appeared to be too 'old-fashioned'. Because of this, we spent a good few hours then looking into different music before eventually settling on Jamie XX- My Girl.

Due to the music change and my style of editing where I edit to music (rather than edit and then find music), I had to quickly re-edit the film which luckily didn't take too long and only ended up shaving a second off of the original time. I did this by deleting clips and slowing down a few other ones so that just the clips of utmost importance were being shown. 

I really enjoyed making the film from both the filming aspect and the editing. As I make films in my free time anyway, it was nice to be able to use my abilities again and I was very happy when my group and the tutors said that they enjoyed it. 

One thing I would change were I to remake the film is to use the Glide Cam for stability. As I was filming by hand, some of the shots are a little too shaky for my liking but saying that, they are almost undetectable anyway. I've found it difficult to use the Glide Cam before but it would be a good idea for me to face the fear and come into my own with using it. I'm sure that with a bit of practice, I should be able to wield the Glide Cam in no time. 

11/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Lookbook)

Photography: Caroline Wong

Assistant: Beau Scarlett-Pitt

Styling: Christele Mbosso

Models: Phoebe, Dieter

11/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Fashion adverts)

10/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Photoshoot)

Contact Sheet II - Caroline Wong

Photographs taken during the shoot from both Beau and I will be used in the lookbook and advert campaign. During the photo-shoot, our largest problem was getting lighting to work. The room we worked in had no working lights and so we ended up borrowing flash lights in order to light the room enough to shoot in. This worked to our advantage however as the lighting bouncing off of the white walls left an interesting green tint to everything that was captured by the cameras beautifully. 

Another funny problem we had was also caused by the flash lights we had up. As some shots required gusts of wind to blow the models' hair, Christele was assigned the role of acting as a human fan to create wind. However, on almost every occasion, the shadow of either Christele or the board she was using to generate the wind would be captured in the frame and whenever she moved away to be out of shot, the wind would not reach the model. To combat this problem, I decided when looking over the footage that I would simply crop into the model's face and therefore it was impossible to see the fan working in the corner. 

09/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Hair and Make-up concept board)

Hair inspiration for catwalk - Caroline Wong

For hair and make-up, it was decided by Christele that due to the genderless concept we're going for, the male model would have wavy hair and the female model would have pin straight hair. On top of this, eyebrows would be unkept and bushy and the consensus was that there would be a 'no make-up' look that went along with no facial hair too. 

We also decided that for the catwalk, models would have shaggy updo's as this is a hairstyle that can fit both men and women. On the catwalk (irregardless of whether or not it's mens and womenswear), both sexes will walk and model the new collection.

08/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Fashion Film concept board)

Sample of film concept board - Caroline Wong

For the film, I decided that I wanted the aesthetic of it to be clean and sleek in order to tie in with Jil Sander's ethos. The film is also to be filmed in black and white as I believe this will help achieve a cleaner cut and look to the final film. 

Whilst planning the film, I have decided not to do a storyboard due to two reasons. Firstly, I have made a note of the types of shots I want and I have a rough idea in my mind of what I want to create however I don't want this to be set in stone. I feel that if I have a rigid idea put down on a page I could end up overlooking a number of great shots and therefore one reason I have decided not to storyboard is so that I won't limit the footage I collect and therefore there is room for a happy accident. The second reason is that because there is no direct story to the film and it is being used solely to showcase the clothing for the collection and the atmosphere/concept for the collection, it is difficult to put down exactly what shots I want and how they will look in sequence. I wish to be free in the creation of this film from the concept and structure right down to the footage and editing. 

08/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Fashion-shoot concept board)

Images from fashion shoot concept board - Caroline Wong

Above are some images I've used in the concept board for the shoot. As I am working with Christele for the shoot (Christele has the role of styling the shoot), I am leaving the most part to her as it was suggested to us by the tutors to keep roles and jobs separate so as to not cause confusion. The styling for the shoot is therefore not being determined by myself but the types of shots I want to capture are similar to that above.

The photographs will be shot in color (as mentioned before) as they are going to be used for promotional purposes and therefore must give an indication of the colors used in the collection.As the garments for our collection are minimal, I wish to photograph simple poses against a solid background in the same way that Jil Sander usually does their promotional advertisements. For this advert campaign, I want to ensure my work runs in line with Jil Sander's usual campaigns but still carries a touch of my own influence. 

In hindsight, I should have added more images that weren't fashion images to my concept board. These could have been images that revolve around the feel of the shoot or the coloring for the photographs I want to take.

07/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (teaser campaign)

Teaser campaign - Caroline Wong 

Shooting the teaser campaign proved to be semi-difficult but I was able to reap the rewards when I began post-production editing. As I shot the campaign myself, I had to use a tripod and a self timer as I was also the hand model in the photographs. I waited until the sun was beginning to set as I found that the photos I'd taken earlier in the day without flash were a bit lack lustre. When I tried photographing with flash, the resulting photos were a lot more interesting and felt like a new Jil Sander. There is a rawness to the images that wasn't seen in the photographs taken earlier in the day.

Were I to recreate the shoot again, I would have experimented with different hand models. As the print I used was that of the 'male' face, I thought that using a feminine hand could send a subliminal message that would have to be sought hard to find. I believe it would have been interesting to have been able to create a series of teaser campaign images that featured women holding the male print and men holding the female print because then the underlying concept to the collection may have appeared to be a little more obvious without being overbearing. 

07/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Teaser Campaign concept)

Inspiration image - Caroline Wong

I decided to do a teaser ad as I wanted to create a hype surrounding the new collection. With the teaser campaign, our goal was to raise curiosity and arouse interest without giving anything away from the collection. I decided that a way of doing this was to feature the print Beau had designed as this is a way of highlighting a key element to the collection without making it obvious. The teaser campaign was also decided that it would be shot in black and white so as to not give away the colour way of the collection either. 

06/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (perfume advert)

Jil Sander 79 (7 side) - Caroline Wong

Jil Sander 79 (9 side) - Caroline Wong

06/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (shooting the perfume advert)

Initial perfume advert outcome - Caroline Wong

In order to shoot the perfume ad, I bought a sheet of metallic card from Cass Art and used it as a means of creating a more interesting photo. As the design of the perfume features the 7 and 9 on opposite sides of the box, I wanted to ensure that both numbers could be seen and the mirrors allowed me to get this effect. 

I enjoyed shooting the advert for the perfume as I was able to be free to photograph it in any way I liked. There were a few problems shooting with the mirrored card as my reflection kept appearing but I was able to disguise myself by shooting with a white cloth over my head and covering my hands with black material. When editing the final photos, it proved difficult coming up with the final design. Whilst I wanted to use the Jil Sander font (Corpid), the numbers in the font did not look the way I wanted them to and so after asking the team, we settled for a different font. 

Again, the font we used gave the perfume advert a sort of American football team vibe as the numbers looked like those on the back of varsity jackets. To combat this, we ended up editing and cropping a section of the number 7 and the final outcome was much preferred.

Another problem we faced when editing was that 'Jil Sander' was written in white and therefore was blending in with the photograph towards the Sander end so that it couldn't be read. To remove this issue, Beau suggested putting the words on a different background and it was decided that we would crop a portion of the image where the mirror had distorted the photo and lay the font over that. This resulted in a much more interesting image and we were all very happy with the final outcome. 

05/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (researching Jil Sander)

Jil Sander, Dover Street Market - Caroline Wong

Jil Sander, Dover Street Market - Caroline Wong

When looking into the target market for Jil Sander, I decided it would be a good idea to check the stockists. As creating maximum revenue is a priority for Jil Sander, we want to ensure that our range would have the ability to sell. Because of this, I found that Jil Sander doesn't have a boutique in London and is only sold as concessions in department stores such as Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Dover Street Market. 

To conduct my research, I looked into the difference in stock at Selfridges and Dover Street Market. Selfridges, as it is catered toward the mass market, sold more of Jil Sander's trend pieces that are not typical 'Jil'. Dover Street Market, catering for the more informed and design conscious customer, only stocked the range that was typical of Jil Sander- modern and minimal, with coats and knitwear being the main focus of the range. 

I then relayed this information to the designers in my group so that they could make a range that would feature both the usual Jil Sander-esque designs and the more trend-related pieces. With this knowledge, the designers were able to finalise their designs for the final collection. 

05/11/14 INDUSTRY PROJ. (perfume prototyping)

Maquette of the perfume box - Caroline Wong

As I share the role of promotion with another member in our team, I worked with Molly to design the perfume packaging. Molly directed the shape of the box so that it would open on both sides as this is a fundamental point to the unisex product. I didn't really enjoy the designing aspect when making the prototype for the perfume but I liked getting hands-on and physically crafting the maquette and final box. 

For the design, I chose to stick to a blue and white color palette as these are are both cool toned colors that correspond with the collection the designers are coming up with. In order to give the product a more luxurious feel, I taught myself to emboss by hand which turned out to be a physically draining but technically easy technique. The final perfume box was made from two sheets of cartridge paper stuck together to ensure the box's sturdiness. 

Had I had more time I would have also made an inner box for the fragrance to sit inside. We had also planned to make a prototype for the bottle itself using the 3D printer but as we have been quite ambitious with the number of promotion campaigns we want to create, we've had to rule out making a bottle in order to allow time for our other plans. 

04/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (perfume concept)

Collection concept board - Caroline Wong

Perfume advertising concept board - Caroline Wong

Since the collection concept was finalised yesterday, today I focused on working on the concept for the film, photoshoot, advert campaign and perfume line. During our research, we found that Sander has a number of perfumes including Scent 79 for both men and women. This discussion led to the idea that we would also bring out a perfume for the season as with most fashion houses, a cosmetic and perfume line is usually the main money-maker.

We discussed working and designing in the way of Raf Simons, bringing the minimalist side back to Sander that we felt was somewhat lost in Rodolfo Paglialunga's SS15 collection which had nods towards his part Prada designs. Because of this idea of going back in time, we have decided to call the perfume '7.9' to pay homage to the year Sander began producing perfumes. The scent will be unisex with hints of floral and musk and I've since begun designing the packaging for the perfume.

The fashion film and the teaser campaign will be shot in black and white whilst the collection campaign and lookbook will be in color. The film will feature a number of close ups as well as a few panning shots. I want the look of the film to be clean and slow without being boring. The mood will be sombre and somewhat melancholic too.

For the shoot, I have been working with Christele and Molly to come up with a number of different concept boards. As Christele is styling all the promotion campaigns, we've had to work closely and it's been interesting to get a feel for how it would be like to work in a company where it is not just one person doing the work but a number of people all working on one thing in order to get it done. As the 'creative director' for the film and the advert campaign, it's been extremely crucial to see what the stylist has planned for the shoots in regards to hair and make up.

04/11/14 - INDUSTRY PROJ. (Sander AW15/16 concept)

Team Jil board - Caroline Wong

Brand board - Caroline Wong

For this 2 week project, I will be working as part of the promotion team for Jil Sander, a design house that has seen Sander herself leave 3 times. I chose Jil Sander as the aesthetic of the brand fits my own personal style and I knew I'd be able to have fun and work well if I was in a team that also liked the brand for this reason. Our team consists of two designers (mens and womens), a stylist and two promotions people. 

The quote we chose to start from is as follows:

All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and men at last are forced to face with sober sense the real conditions of their lives and their relations with their fellow men. 

(The Communist Manifesto)

And the parts in particular that we decided to focus on were 'solid melts into air, 'profaned' and 'relations with their fellow men'. Having been given the task to come up with a collection along with all the promotional aspects for AW15/16, we came up with the concept of a line that would be somewhat androgynous. During the presentation, something that John said resonated with the team and it was that 'a Sander woman wouldn't want to sleep with a Sander man and vice versa'. We decided to make it our team's goal to create a unity between sexes where gender boundaries were hazy and as such, this corresponded with both 'relations with their fellow men' and 'solid melts into air'. We thought about ideas such as gradients between genders and following a look on WGSN for macro trends, we came up with a finalised concept which proved to be useful as we were all able to work on moodboards overnight to bring in the next morning.

The profaned aspect refers to our approach to this collection. Since the menswear and womenswear do tend to differ despite both having aspects of minimalist design, we wanted to ensure we weren't going to play by the rules and stick to what is typically known of Sander. Similarly, the word 'profaned' can be used to describe the blurred line between man and woman that will be shown in our collection.

We've worked really well as a group so far and have a number of ideas in our heads of different promotion techniques. As we worked with each other, our ideas flowed and things bounced off of each other so much so that we ended up recording our conversations rather than stopping to write everything down. This group work already seems like it'll be very enjoyable.