The end...

This project had been long, stressful, exciting and new. The whole experience had allowed me to discover my strengths and weaknesses as a creative director and make-up artist as well as other skills along the way such as stylist, photography and graphic design. I would love to continue down this path of creating and designing new stories for individuals as I have proven I can do it once and I can only get better.  My major issue is time management, I must learn how to not waste my time and use it wisely as it prevents stress and increases good results. I also need to get better at trusting others in assisting me in my work rather than relying only on myself to do numerous jobs.

The power of time travel...

Looking through my final physical outcome and product, if I had to re-do it or make changes I would have DEFINITELY got a team together. Although you can only rely and trust yourself, having a photographer, stylist, graphic designer would have contributed in taking away a lot of stress and expertise in polishing and making the book even better. I would have also used my time A LOT more wisely, although my models were unavailable, I should have made better plans with them in advance. Following that, I would have also used extra time to shoot in better locations with nicer scenery such as rivers and flowers rather than plain woods and parks and swings in my garden. Although the images have turned out great, better choice of rural landscapes would have improved the final images vastly. Another thing I would have done is explained to my models how important it is to keep their appearance the same, I realised working with younger people, they do not understand the severity of small actions and how dying her hair blonde, my model could have ruined the continuity of my project. I had had more money I would of LOVED to design my book to look like an old leather bound, gold engraved fairy tale book, centuries old. This would have needed a lot of time to be created and would have been over £100 per book, but I will keep this in mind for future projects.

I forwarded my final images and storyline to the target audience I was in contact with throughout my proposal and have been throughout the development of the project to see if the final outcome matched their original ideas and contributions to the design. I am so happy in their feedback as all answers and replies were positive. The overall consensus was the storyline was fantastic, original although sad. The imagery was perfect especially having two incredibly 'normal' looking individuals they could relate to and were not the usual Hollywood looking faces and body shapes that Disney always portray. I also surprisingly have been asked by 3 individuals I could have copies printed for them and they will pay for them. This was a wonderful feeling as it has tied the whole project together by proving it to be industry relevant as the target audience have successful approved it and want to pay for and own the final product.

The curse is lifted and they live happily ever after...

THE BOOK IS HERE!!!!

I got an email saying I couldn't pick my book up until Tuesday, the day before the deadline so I called and explained it was too late and I was busy all day. Luckily the company pushed my book to being completed for that afternoon. I got to Imagewise as 5 and I looked through it there. It looked amazing, although it had been put together completely wrong. The odd thing about this is I LOVED IT. My intentions were to have the text on translucent paper over white paper on the left hand side of a double page and the image on the right. They put the translucent paper with text over the image on the right hand side of a double page and a blank page on the left. It looked amazing and completely added to the effect of this dream like feel to the book. Because of this mistake it did result in the book also have a few odd blank double pages which I could stick together with double sided tape, although not ideal, also not a major issue. The images also all looked fantastic and looked a lot better than hoped for! I am so so happy with the final outcome and it makes me excited to submit it and proud to show it off.

The final check...

Thursday morning Imagewise gave me a final call to ensure the layout and order of the book was correct. I sat on the phone with a team member explaining each and every page until there was mutual agreement and understanding. I am finally feeling more relaxed that everything will be done correctly and on time just still a little apprehensive. Another positive is that the price of my final 5 books had reduced in price when I had predicted they would increase. Instead of £215 they cost a charming £161 and after returning the dresses that cost £480, my budget was looking healthy and was happier.

The plot thickens...

Tuesday evening I get an email from Imagewise saying I must send my page layout before Thursday morning or my books will not be printed in time. This confused me a lot as I had sent them the previous evening. I call the office straight away explaining and they instantly apologised and told me they have had issues receiving things via Wetransfer. I re-sent the documents for a third time using a different email address and called back again to confirm they had definitely received my work. They had. I felt relief knowing they finally had my work and could start Wednesday but still panicked that I have lost 2/3 days and with a bank holiday approaching, deadline day was closer than around the corner.

The curse of the printers...

I waited until Monday to submit my page designs as I wanted to go the the Imagewise office myself to explain where everything should be on which paper and so on. Thank goodness I did go as I discovered my layout was wrong. I was so frustrated with the lack of communication and explanation of how everything should be laid out. I found out that anything printed on the translucent paper needed an extra white page after it on Indesign so It could lay on top. I went back to Uni to fix the problem which took hours, as it shifted all the other pictures and was a mini disaster. Finally I used Wetransfer to send my documents to the company so they could get started Tuesday morning.

Pages and pages and pages...

Similar to Photoshop, I have no technical ability to use Indesign. I was a little nervous to get stuck in and really wished I had hired a graphic designed to help me but once again I had left it too late to organise any help. I got stuck in and I was surprisingly whizzing through and completed my document after 2 days of working on it! I had shocked myself again and was so proud. Another confidence boost. The book worked ad flowed really well, I ensured all spelling was correct, the layout was central and neat and I was ready to head off to Imagewise to get it all printed.

I have got it 'covered'...

Imagewise informed me that the longest part of printing a book is the book cover. Therefore I designed that first on Indesign. With the help of Ken and a few phone calls later to the printing company, the cover was ready to be sent off straight away. I wanted my cover really simple with the title of my fairy tale; 'Adriana' and my name on the back, all black. The font I found online that I could download for free called 'Italiano' which had a script style but still easy to read.  I originally wanted the cover font to be a dark pink but although I would have loved it, it was inappropriate for the overall product and could have made it look cheap, tacky and silly. I also though white looked to boring so I played around and went with a gradient of white to grey to black which complimented the style and edit to my image with a dark filter fading on each of them.

Photoshop is the fairy god mother...

I was worried about editing as I have NO IDEA how to use Photoshop. After consulting with peers and adopting youtube tutorials as my best friend I soon got to grips with basic editing. A couple of my images needed extra work as my tutor noticed in one of my images I had a shadow on my models face but it was the best image to use for my book, It took a long time to do but I managed to remove the shadow. My tutor also said I should make her appear paler as she was supposed to be dead in the image and she still looked quite flushed so I cooled the image down making her look pale and cold compared to the bright flowers surrounding her. Another image I needed to do more work on was the image where Adriana is about to die and she protects Teddy from the fire. I needed more smoke in the image, so I researched how to do this and I was able to add a smokey effect over the top to create the same look as the narrative was describing.

Considering I had no idea how to even create a new file on Photoshop, I am really proud of the job I did on editing my pictures. They all still look really natural which is what I wanted and needed for the product with a few essential tweaks here an there. 

The chosen ones and a final tutorial...

After hours and hours of trolling through my shoots I have found the final images. I have increased the amount of pictures I will have in my book as I love more than one from a number of shoots and they help the story flow better. This may increase the price of the book but I am willing to take that risk to increase the quality of my final product.

I have favourites and least liked , the images I feel are most successful are mainly shoots with Jen alone. The best quality image is on I re-shooted, one where Adriana's character is crying, I am so glad I took the time to re do this image as the results were great. I love the images of my model in the green dress, in a black floral dress and the two together laughing at the cottage. I feel they show the Disney fairy tale element I was to add to the product whereas the storyline displays aspects of the darker tales told centuries ago. The combination appears to be working together well, proving my idea successful.

A particular image I am not overly keen on is the two models together sat on chairs under the tree. I love the location and layout but I feel their facial expressions and posture is awkward. I wanted to re-shoot this particular picture but had unfortunately run out of time due to me needing to edit and submit for printing and my models going back to college.

I showed my final images to Jennifer and she gave advice on editing. On a couple pictures she said it would add to the effect and theme of the storyline if I had a dark filter to the image and then to add it to all of my images to create a theme and style throughout the book. I loved this idea as it was as though the characters are in a dream world with a nightmare of curse lurking around them about to consume all happiness.

It's a wrap...

Yesterday I finished my final shoot and have all of my final images. All I have to do now is find the lucky images that make the cut for the book, edit them, create my indesign document and send it off to be printed. Getting closer but still a way to go.

My two models worked fantastically together. It definitely helped that they have been friends for yeard and that Luke understands how to behave in front of a camera but I have been really lucky, they also both look great in the images. Exactly the look I was going for, young, naive, natural.

Although the images have worked out to be great, I would have really appreciated a team behind me. Having a photographer who can work a camera with ease allowing me more focus on directing the pictures would have been so much easier and more convenient. I am really happy with the styling for the female model, she looks gorgeous, the dresses fit like a glove, they suit her and suit the theme and style of the story, I feel the male models' styling is very poor and could have been a lot better, but it allows more emphasis on Adriana's character so I guess it will not look too bad or obvious.

An up and a down...

This week, I went to Eastleigh to visit them and talk more about my final book design and see previous examples. Patrick filled out forms of all my book details, paper style, amount of pages, type of cover and bind etc so he could give me a cost estimate.

I decided on an A4 landscape, aluminium clip bind, approximately 30-40 pages half text half imagery, my text would be on translucent paper and images on silk paper, my cover black and glossy and I would order 5 for the moment, this was estimated at around £215 a lot cheaper than I thought! 

The agreed date to submit book to the company was the week commencing 27th April.

Later that day I received really bad news about my model. She died her hair blonde. Naturally I went into crazy panic mode, thinking the worst, thinking my project was ruined and there was no solution. I managed to see a picture of the damage and she had dip-dyed the ends of her hair a bright blonde, I had my final shoot starting early the next day with both models. I was planning of seeing her hair first, then potentially going out to my brunette hairspray, brunette extensions, or re-shooting all the previous shoots. I felt the latter was the most sensible idea so prepared to go out an buy more flowers to re-shoot the death scene and planned potential solutions to shoot on other days.
Once I met up with her in the morning I looked at her hair and you couldn't see any blonde. My sigh of relief must have echoed across the whole country! In the picture I saw there was a filter and effects, her hair actually looked like it was shining in the sun. Luckily this allowed me to not dig deeper into my budget and to not waste any more time than I already had been. 

Half way point...

After doing the first half of my shoots for Adriana's character images, I feel a lot calmer and confident in how my project is going. There is a couple of shoots I want to add to or re-shoot and that is the one in the green dress and the ones of Adriana crying as they are a little out of focus.

The unsuccessful shoot...

I planned to do my first and many shoots over the Easter weekend, my female model agreed to be free Saturday and Sunday as my male model was away on holiday for just over a week, allowing me to shoot all images of the girl alone. On the Friday the weather was forecast to rain all weekend, causing me to cancel 2 whole days of shooting putting me even more behind than I already was! Luckily she agreed to work with me the following Tuesday and Wednesday when the weather was hot and sunny!
Although I wanted to get shooting as soon as possible this gave me more time to organise locations and props. I went out and bought another of my tiaras for the shoot as one could be used to wear and one for throwing into the fire. I printed out and teas stained two letters the character would read. I found local parks 5 minutes drives away from my house. I found a local cottage and got permission from the owners to use as the cottage in my story and they were so kind and willing to help.

The extra organisation and confirming everything did allow me to have more confidence in shooting my picture so this small bump was actually a big benefit to me.

The lonely journey...

As my models' Easter holidays were approaching, I was trying to get a team together to assist me. I was incredibly unsuccessful as during Easter people are busy with their own work and go home! This is my fault for not being organised and leaving it too last minute. Luckily a close friend of mine allowed me to use her camera over the duration of 3 weeks for shooting and she gave me huge amount of advise in the best way to take picture which was really helpful! I also would have liked a little help and advice on styling as I have no real experience of direction in what suits individuals and projects. Instead I went on ASOS and went through all dresses from £0 - £50 in a size 8 choosing styles mid-length to long in a range of colours and floral patterns, I eventually ordered 13 dresses, a few too many than needed in case some did not fit or were not appropriate, I requested next day delivery and my order came to £480.
The next day I received an email informing me my order would arrive in 5 days time, this sent me into panic mode as I asked for next day delivery, Furious and worried I emailed and called until they ensured I would receive the dresses within the next 2 days. They arrived, one day late but I had them,

The discovery of Imagewise...

I had continued searching for printers in both the Southampton and Reading area and was really struggling so asked some of my peers who they had found and got in touch with, The company Imagewise kept cropping up so I emailed them and they called me straight away. I spoke with a man Patrick and he was amazingly helpful. He assured me they could print everything how I needed it and at a lower cost than expected in a short amount of time. I was getting very worried I wouldn't find anyone and when I finally did it would be tight with timings and be a huge amount of money.

Tutorial, planning shoots, writing stories...

After talking to my tutor about my overall final storyline, Jennifer told me not to worry so much about having narrative first. She recommended I go straight into shooting images I have imagined and love then the storyline will flow from that. This regained a huge amount of confidence for myself as I was starting to worry about accuracy and timings etc.

I went home and started to think of ideas, poses, places to take pictures I would love to create which worked a lot better, quicker and easier for me, and just as Jennifer said, the storyline wrote itself.

The final storyline came together incredibly quickly and I am so proud of myself for the words I wrote myself. I really fell in love with the tale and when I read it back I hope other feel as connected and touched as I do. Finger crossed my words are a success!

Say cheese...

I finally managed to find a quick moment to test shoot my models, FINALLY, although it was not long enough to do an actual shoot and although I chose my models knowing what they looked like because of how they looked, I also wanted to see if they would definitely look right in a rural environment and setting and if chemistry could be seen between them.

Luckily they work really well together and it helps they are already friends. this helps portray a comfortable familiar relationship between the pair which is what I need for my story. They both also have a very naive, innocent youthful look which is exactly what I want as I don't want them to look too 'movie ready'

Whilst I had Jen available for a short while I also practised some potential make-up and hairstyles. I want the make-up simple but pretty so that on camera she has a gorgeous glow but still showing her sweet freckles through. Her make-up will remain the same throughout the book due to continuity but her hair styles will change on a daily basis. As my hair skills are stronger I will due a vast range of braids which are stunning elegant and simple. 

Luckily, her hair is super long and glossy with a rich chocolate tone perfect for my photographs! I also love the make-up I have created on her although extra concealer needs to be added under the eye as her bags make her look tired when she should look glowing and sprightly. 

Once upon a problem...

I have been in contact with my three models, and it is worrying me when I am able to shoot my final images let alone test shoots to see how they work and look together as individuals. The three of them are incredibly busy at college with mock exams and homework, something I did not consider. I am going to be brave and leave my final shoots until the Easter holidays, I hate how late this is leaving it, but I do not want any other models. I am also worried as it is hard to predict the exact weather 1/2 months from now. 

On the bright side, it gives me lots of planning time and I have already decided to start writing up the storyline in which I have got many alterations in mind:

- 2 characters only, main girl and main boy

- to prevent confusion with Romanian storyline, young girl sent over from Romania to England when she was 5

- main girl adopted at 5 to wealthy family with a son of similar age, they grew up to be friends rather than siblings

- item received with inheritance at 18 is cursed causing her to act cruel

- main girl horrible to boy on several accounts

- both destroy tiara together

- girl destroys tiara but dies with it

Having only 2 models to organise will make shooting easier, costs will be cut and it will create a stronger possible romantic connection between the two throughout the storyline.

The hunt for book publishers...

After scrolling through the endless list of potential printers online and making phone calls, I got a train to Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh, to meet a couple of the printer companies I had come across. Although I am sure their work is fantastic, I had trouble communicating what product I was after and if they did understand, it was not available and could not be provided to me. I visited three to which all were a disappointment. This did knock my confidence in the idea of creating a book, and although it is early days, I am worried I won't find anyone. I am going to keep researching for local places around Uni and at home (Southampton and Reading) my fingers are crossed.

The quest for further research...

After doing some more research into Romania during the early 1900's, the high immigration links well with the storyline of the main character moving from Romania to England as a child.

I have also continued to look at attire worn in England during that time period and have started looking online at possible dress choices. Although, the wardrobe will not be complete period drama style, it will take influences from the clothes from over a century ago and will be blended with modern and updated fashion. 

I feel ASOS has the widest range at an affordable price to purchase numerous outfits for the female models. Although the boy must also be styled, my main attention is on the female characters as I want them and their styling to stand out more considering it is a fairytale. The boy will be wearing simple smart/casual garments such as black straight leg trousers, loafers, shirts and ties.

I have also been looking at more locations and although some that I had in mind were gorgeous, I will not have a huge amount of time to style my models, travel, shoot, touch up, change outfits in the short amount of time I have with them. Therefore I am planning on looking at local parks and even the woods out the back of my garden. I am fortunate to live in a very rural area at home with nature on my doorstep, ideal for the shoots I am planning.

Mirror Mirror on the wall, you're the fairest of them all...

I have sourced and contacted the three models I intend to use in my project. They are currently at Sixth form college close to my family home therefore easier to meet up and shoot images. The boy I have chosen is also a model with Models1.

 Myself and the models have agreed to shoot images around their school work at weekends. I feel this may be tricky considering the possible large amount of photographs that need to be taken, therefore several shoots will have to be planned for one day/evening with outfit changes and altering hair and make-up, especially on the girls. Choosing these particular individuals I feel is a good choice as both they and I will feel comfortable with each other as are in regular contact outside of the project and as they are 'normal' teenagers, it will help portray a more 'normal' and natural feel and look to the final images, as majority of the feedback from my questionnaires stated they wanted to see REAL girls, something and someone they could relate to,

The tale to be told...

Throughout this final major project, I intend to design and create my own fairytale story inspired by a combination of the traditional tales by The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Disney. 

The feedback received was pleasant and constructive.  It states that although creating fairy tales is a difficult subject matter, it is good I am inventing a new story and will not be something that has been done over and over. It has been suggested to develop my 3 characters more, give them stronger personalities and the history of why they are connected. As all traditional tales portray a dark underlying message it was suggested I go down the path of mental illness which links perfectly to the storyline, I will integrate this into the narrative. It has also been stated that locations, props and styling will play a very large part in my final images in which I strongly agree, therefore I must source the final choices thoroughly and well. I finally need to look into perhaps creating a team to assist me in photography and styling throughout my project.