The team had agreed to have a meeting today at uni before the Easter break since we had numerous items to discuss and a deadline to agree our female model 100% so we could purchase her outfit.
Our timetable stated we were in to do a pinhole shoot with Colin all day, but the processors were to be shut off at midday and we either had our finals or needed to shoot in alternate locations. Sacha was the only one had to still get a pinhole image today so she spent a short while working on that. Ian and Amie worked on the casting forms for the new individuals, collating and formatting them for the team. Lucie and I did a bit more casting and as we did we discussed the dress and the input we'd had from fashion. We were soon joined by the rest of the team (well done Sacha for getting the pinhole image so fast!) and then we all had a focused discussion on our direction with regards the female models outfit. We'd all met up on a fashion floor where a student was mocking up a long red dress which was very much in it's formative stages. The steer from our fashion associates (and my own personal direction) was to steer away from the cliche of the overtly nationalistic garment, and we all (as a group) liked the movement and drama that a longer garment could provide. We'd started our pitch with this type of garment (images created by Tom that both JS and SC seemed to really like) but prior to the pitch we'd moved away from that concept slightly before coming back full circle to those dresses. The project is organic and the concepts grow and are shaped by increased knowledge and outside advice or influence (such as our fashion collaborators and tutors)
Imaging that a real female spy would attempt to blend in with western dress codes we all found ourselves inspired by the more glamorous high end more formal/evening wear concept. A lot of time was spent looking at retailers/manufactures/suppliers in China (via e-bay and amazon etc) who could provide such an outfit but we all had concerns about not being able to physically see the garment, and the shipping times were a concern as well. At one point I was ready to purchase something (whilst making an assumption we'd not get it on time and still have to buy an alternate) because we liked the dress so much. We knew our model was soon to become free and was willing to spare us some time so in the end I suggested we go look at some garments in Bluewater and let our model try them on, so that's what we did. Not much point in buying something on-line when you don't know how your model carries various dress designs etc. We split up across two cars and met up again at Bluewater for a serious research/shopping trip. We found a perfect dress within ten minutes of entering Bluewater but as expected it was very expensive, so the shop was asked to hold it for us after we'd explained our project and intentions. We then proceeded to search every shop and every rack that had any glamorous red 60s' inspired or classic timeless looking designs. After visiting every shop we returned to the initial red dress and investigated rental or loaning the garment. With massive rental rates it made more sense to purchase the dress (two days rental rate would suffice to purchase the dress), so now we have our dress!
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| The final selection for the dress. Here worn by our model in a photograph taken on Sachas phone (we weren't allowed to use cameras to photograph the dress!) |
Having sorted this milestone we then discussed how important it was to decide on the male model, who will also need costume and consideration. Using the latest casting list we reviewed what we had. With most of us liking Sam Chick who we had cast and had stated he would sit for us, several people shared concerns about his availability (due to the demands put on his by the nature of his job). Knowing Sam could be called away at short notice we decided to ask someone we'd only cast this morning. It was me that decided to cast him because he wore shirts and jackets frequently and carried the look very well, he always looks dapper and fitted the bill for what we wanted. He was someone from UCA who'd I'd spoken to previously (very briefly), and seems like a really nice and reliable guy to boot. The team wanted someone with presence, so we were all happy to cast Ollie Gapper who was contacted and who agreed to sit for us!
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| Ollie Gapper cast (and photographed) by myself and confirmed by the group as our male model today |
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