KATIE LEONE - MUSIC INTO METAPHOR
This week sees the start of a new job/project for us; creating a series of portfolio and possible album cover shots for the very talented singer/songwriter, Katie Leone - check out her MySpace page here.
Katie approached us with a desire to translate and summarise her music into a series of shots that she could go on to use to promote herself. Katie's opening brief to us was "I love colour, quirkiness and vibrant images. I don't want to portray a moody serious 'singer' image, more funky, fun, different, colourful, modern and quirky".
We exchanged a few emails throwing in some 'out there' ideas to get more of a firm grip of the brief and give us a starting point. Through these, Katie gave us some visual references of 'yay' and 'nay' shots from which we quickly developed a much better understanding.
It was from this that Michelle then set to work on a mood board. A really simple, widely used technique for gathering ideas, linking them and allowing them to visually develop. At the very least it's a collation of everyones input for discussion.
Michelle drew on some of her previous encounters with her two favourite photographers; Nick Knight and Lois Greenfield and found some distinctly individual shots that really hit all of Katie's opening brief. Incredibly vibrant, a little bit 'out there' and loads of colour.
These images are meant as reference points from which to develop a further narrowing of the brief to a point where we would be able to start to think about locations, type of shoot, props, clothing and so forth.
Talking through each image, defining the good and bad of each, Michelle and Katie worked down to the images from Lois and Nick (yes, first name terms).
Michelle explains; "What really came out from these conversations was a redefining of how Katie wanted to portray herself and her music. The Alice in Wonderland concept and styling was reminiscent of an old image and was therefore binned, but the textured and patterned wallpaper backgrounds was retained.
Although the fairground idea was full of colour, the prom dress styling really wasn't what Katie wears, and she again emphasised the desire to keep her true identity stitched within her photos, and not to be something that she isn't. Scratch prom dresses.
We discussed other types of styling for this shoot, but Katie was really taken with the idea of movement and colour shown on the concept beneath this on the mood board and our conversation centred around this for the continuation of the meeting.
Coloured background and clashing fabrics were a definite, taking inspiration from two images from Nick Knight and one from Sarah Silver.
Clothing, hair and make up are an essential mix in this type of concept and must be matched, or in this case, 'clashed' with background and lighting.
We then introduced the pattern wallpaper from the Alice in Wonderland concept as a potential background to this idea and we both began making noises of appreciation."
In the meantime, I was doing some further research into the use of projections in compositions. It's something I had previously experimented with before, having seen some rather excellent, almost abstract, portrait images. Given Katie's penchant for the quirky, colourful and vibrant images, I thought that perhaps this technique may suit.
Half an hour research later and I had a set of very different images sourced from Flickr and Deviant Art - I will attempt to relocate the links for each and credit the photographers!
A date for the shoot arranged, the next steps for us are to decide on the lighting and any gels or gobos, design the image to be projected, and source potential patterned / textured back drops. As always, we will have structured images in mind for the days shoot, but will be ready for the unexpected and the extraordinary images it brings.
Watch this space for further updates.

KATIE LEONE - MUSIC INTO METAPHOR

Katie LeoneThis week sees the start of a new photography job/project for us; creating a series of portfolio and possible album cover shots for the very talented singer/songwriter, Katie Leone - check out her MySpace page here. 

Katie approached us with a desire to translate and summarise her music into a series of photographic shots that she could go on to use to promote herself. Katie's opening brief to us was "I love colour, quirkiness and vibrant images. I don't want to portray a moody serious 'singer' image, more funky, fun, different, colourful, modern and quirky".

We exchanged a few emails throwing in some 'out there' ideas to get more of a firm grip of the brief and give us a starting point. Through these, Katie gave us some visual references of 'yay' and 'nay' shots from which we quickly developed a much better understanding.

Katie Leone's Mood BoardIt was from this that Michelle then set to work on a mood board. A really simple, widely used technique for gathering ideas, linking them and allowing them to visually develop. At the very least it's a collation of everyones input for discussion.

Michelle drew on some of her previous encounters with her two favourite photographers; Nick Knight and Lois Greenfield and found some distinctly individual shots that really hit all of Katie's opening brief. Incredibly vibrant, a little bit 'out there' and loads of colour.

These images are meant as reference points from which to develop a further narrowing of the brief to a point where we would be able to start to think about locations, type of shoot, props, clothing and so forth.

The next step, was for Katie to come down to our base in Canterbury to discuss the ideas put out on the mood board.

Talking through each image, defining the good and bad of each, Michelle and Katie worked down to the images from Lois and Nick (yes, first name terms). 

Michelle explains; "What really came out from these conversations was a redefining of how Katie wanted to portray herself and her music. With a new album and sound on the way, we decided that the Alice in Wonderland concept and vintage styling did not set the correct tone and was therefore binned, but the textured and patterned wallpaper backgrounds were retained. 

Although the fairground idea was full of colour, the prom dress styling really wasn't what Katie wears, and she again emphasised the desire to keep her true identity stitched within her photos, and not to be something that she isn't. Scratch prom dresses. 

We discussed other types of styling for this shoot, but Katie was really taken with the idea of movement and colour shown on the concept beneath this on the mood board and our conversation centred around this for the continuation of the meeting. 
Coloured background and clashing fabrics were a definite, taking inspiration from two images from Nick Knight and one from Sarah Silver. Clothing, hair and make up are an essential mix in this type of concept and must be matched, or in this case, 'clashed' with background and lighting. 

We then introduced the pattern wallpaper from the Alice in Wonderland concept as a potential background to this idea and we both began making noises of appreciation." 

Katie Leone Screen IdeasIn the meantime, I was doing some further research into the use of projections in compositions. It's something I had previously experimented with before, having seen some rather excellent, almost abstract, portrait images. Given Katie's penchant for the quirky, colourful and vibrant images, I thought that perhaps this technique may suit.

Half an hour research later and I had a set of very different images sourced from Flickr and Deviant Art - I will attempt to relocate the links for each and credit the photographers! 

A date for the shoot arranged, the next steps for us are to decide on the lighting and any gels or gobos etc, design the image to be projected, and source potential patterned / textured back drops. As always, we will have structured images in mind for the days shoot, but will be ready for the unexpected and the extraordinary images it brings.

Watch this space for further updates.

Gareth