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.