I am lucky to have a creative family - many of them who are successful in the creative world! My aunty Rikki Finlay is a fashion stylist who is based in London and has worked with the likes of Kimberly Wyatt and has had 2 successful years working on the X-Factor. Initially i wanted to try and get my work experience by myself by emailing out CV's and cover letters just to see if i could break out of the saying "its all about who you know"
It was getting closer and closer to easter and i still handout secured myself a work experience - i turned to Rikki for help! She was really helpful and sorted me out straight away, the weeks that i could work she didn't have that much for me to do so she spoke to 2 of her stylist friends - Laury Smith (head stylist at the x-factor and for Nichole Shirzinger) and Frank Strachan (another x-factor stylist and head stylist for The Saturdays!) to see if they needed an extra pair of free hands.
Before this i had to try and arrange somewhere to stay for 2 weeks... i cant express how handy it is having a best friend living in London! I got the best of both worlds for them 2 weeks, living with my best friend in London and working with top stylists - i could defiantly do this for a living.
The first day i met up with Rikki in Topshop on Oxford road whilst she gave me an insight to what a stylists' job actually involves. It sounded like a lot of returns and quite a tight, close knit community, everyone knew what everybody was doing - not in a bitchy way but it is a competitive industry. In Topshop i met James who was Franks 1st assistant. He had just been doing lots of returns to Topshop and was back off to the office. Little did i know i would be working along side James for the remainder of the 2 weeks!
My first task was quite nerve racking! Rikki had gone back up north to Manchester and left my phone number with Felicity (Laury's first assistant) I had a phone call Wednesday morning from Felicity asking if i could make my way to Dalston, to Laurys house and wait for a FedEX parcel which should be arriving with a credit card inside. Once i had the card Felicity was going to ring a car to come and collect me, she explained that there was a few Topshop bags on the bed, all that stuff needed taking back to Topshop and putting the money onto the card that i was waiting for. Eeek.. i was very excited for my day ahead!
My first thought was ah god, how on earth am i going to find this house! Poppy who i was staying with lives in North Acton so it was quite a treck to get to Dalston from her flat. It took me an hour anyway, i got a little lost on the way after getting off at Dalston Junction as my stupid iPhone map decided to stop working (TIP- always have your phone charger on you & a phone with maps!!) luckily mum came to the rescue and got the directions up on her laptop from home and directed me.
I FOUND IT! woop.. finally got to the gorgeous house, walked up the steps to the large door and let myself in. Wow.. there was about 10 Topshop bags lay on the bed.. by 10 bags i mean 10 bags full of shoes & shoe boxes - these bags arent light!! I had a feeling this was going to be my first Devil Wears Parada moment.
These bags didnt see Topshop for another 2 days... to cut a long story short FedEX never arrived that day, so i left around 2pm and Felicity told me to come back tomorrow and she had arranged for FedEX to come between 8am and 11am. FUN- i had to be up at 6:30 and out of the house by 6:45 to try and make it to Dalston before FedEX because knowing my luck FedEX would have got there at 7:55 - nope this didnt happen. I was sat in the house from 8am to 6pm waiting for FedEX who never arrived. In the end Felicity had to get them to FedEX it to Poppys flat and i had to go back to the house the next day to collect the bags and do all the returns. Safe to say my first experience of being an intern was an experience. (a good one)
I'm finally getting round to blogging about my work experience - with a little help from my current PPP module.
After e-mailing my CV and a cover letter out to millions of different companies, magazines, stylists, modelling agencies and either getting ignored, or an email back saying the position is already filled is pretty gutting! However after many tries i finally got an email back from Underground England! Amazing! They emailed me asking if i could come down to London to their Brick Lane office for an interview to be a, Showroom Sales Assistant. The interview was literally 5 days after the email and at 10:00 in the morning, luckily I have somewhere to stay in London so this last minute offer was not a problem.
I hadn't had my portfolio ready or anything so them 5 days were dedicated to portfolio work - stress, but i wasn't complaining as i felt so lucky to had been given an interview at such a well known respected independent company.
The nerves were awful, the night before i had planned my journey to the office, i have been to London many times before so getting there want too bad. When i stepped in the large building of offices in the heart of Brick Lane i couldn't breathe! The nerves had got so bad, but i was so excited at the same time.
I found the office and knocked on the first black Underground England door i saw and asked for Linda - she smiled at me calmingly and directed me to another door for me to sit and wait as she wasn't quite ready for me.
I was sat in the showroom with all the sample Underground England shoes - creepers mainly. I felt so much calmer as i was sat down it meant i could have time to sort myself out and breathe.
If i could advise anyone now it would be to take a bottle of water, tissues and an umbrella as i got caught in all the rain on the way there, (not a good look) & it was freezing cold so i had a runny nose (nothing worse than a sniffly nose) and my mouth had gone so dry because of the nerves!
Linda entered the room with a sheet of paper with questions she was going to ask me. In the e-mail i wasn't required to bring a portfolio but i did anyway just incase i ran out of things to say, its so easy to talk about your own work. She was also impressed that i used my initiative.
The questions she was asking me were quite easy to answer, i was getting worried that i would have to do the whole.. 'umm, ermm, could you repeat the question please' to give me time to think of an answer. But it was all good! The questions were good because it was questions about me, my work, what i wanted to do in the future and why i applied for the internship. The interview lasted for about 10 minutes and i felt myself just talking and talking which was good because I'm usually rubbish in interviews!
Overall it was a great experience, i didn't get the job as they found someone else with more experience (...annoying) however when i emailed her back asking if there was anything i could have done to improve my interview or any tips for the future she messaged back saying she was very impressed with the interview & impressed that i brought my portfolio.. however they wanted someone with a little more experience.
POSH SPICE: Oversized sunglasses, heeled chelsea boots, little black dresses (classic) - not much has changed!
GINGER SPICE:
SPORTY SPICE: New Balance trainers, high waisted Levi jeans
(add mood boards)
:( because of the short amount of time i have to do this video, it is becoming quite difficult to get the 5 girls i wanted to come down to leeds for my film this week!.. ah well, back to brainstorming!
I feel as though i have an idea on how i want my video to look - location wise.
PERFECT!!!
Yayyy, vie finally found a video which i love and would like to take influence from...
LOVE this Dr. Martens video starring Agyness Deyn
The camera angles and effects are fantastic and pretty straight forward to do.
Now i have found a solid piece of influence i can start to think about what i would like my video to contain, who i am going to use as my model., think about location, props, garments, makeup, style.
LOTS to think about
There are so many little quirky effects that id love to try out on mine!
I have tried to screen shot the majority of the effects that i like however because it is so fast paced i could not catch them all !
The simplicity of the screen sliding across, screen sliding up or the same thing happening in 3 different boxes are cool.
Hopefully i will be able to learn how to do this on Final Cut
Gritty & real similar to the Dr. Martens video.
I would like scenes to include; greasy chip shop, colourful fruit and veg market, leeds indoor market, the fabric shop?, milkshake bar? on a bus?
MODEL..
My best friend Georgia Jones is perfect for the type of look i am going for.
Her quirky individual style will look great with the type of shots i want to do.
She is also a massive fan of Dr. Martens.
Fingers crossed she is free to come down to Leeds for a few days!
FILM IDEAS
Where to film ???
Rough idea of scenes below..
Park
Flowers
Dog? - walking a dog - edgy
Boxer dog - Staff
On the bus
Walk to the bus stop
Head shot next to window looking out - messing with hair?
Different positions on the bus
Back seat - full body shot
Leeds indoor market
Meat stalls?
Fabric shop
Leeds market (near coach station - outdoors)
Looking, picking up colourful fruit & veg
Blue plastic shopping bag
Paying for fruit - close up shot of her hand - exchanging the money
Because of the timings and deadlines for this project i need to get cracking with the filming as soon as possible!! Georgia has confirmed which is amazing but she cant travel from Manchester to Leeds until Monday due to work commitments. For the first scene i have an image in my head of Georgia in a field of long grass with my Daisy Dr. Marten dress on, running round and playing with a dog.
I have decided to go for minimal make up on Georgia as we have gone for a very causal look.
As i don't have a car, or know of any nice fields with long grass where i would like to shoot i have decided to travel down to Manchester so i can film Georgia in a field there. Cheating a little bit as it's not in Leeds but ah well, a fields a field!!
Also i really want to use her sisters boxer dog - i think this will add a fun & quirky element to the opening scene.
I got a few helpful tips & advice whilst i was in Manchester off Georgia's sisters boyfriend, Dean. He helped me get the correct camera angles, helped with the settings and also let me use his camera & tripod.. so going back home to Manchester was a win win all round!!
HERE ARE A FEW STILLS FROM MY OPENING SCENE...
Georgia Jones & Lola Tallulah
SCENE 2:
For scene 2, i decided to shoot the video indoors at Leeds Market. I really wanted to get a shot of Georgia on the outdoor market with all the colourful fruits and veg however the weather was a disgrace and i do not have the camera skills to make it not look as though we were stuck in a blizzard!! So the indoor market will have to do....
I always go to the same B&M Fabrics store to buy my fabrics, so i thought with the brief being Leeds and fashion this would be a perfect connection!
The fabric store is extremely vibrant and colourful so i decided to put Georgia in:
Dr. Martens love heart t-shirt (red lipstick to match the sequinned love hearts)
Leather pants
Dr. Martens loafers
Georgias nannas fur coat!
SCENE 3:
It was pretty easy to find a traditional greasy chip shop in Leeds believe it or not! (joke). I asked the guy working behind the fish bar if i could set up camp and get filming Georgia, he seemed quite intrigued and happily let me film.
I bought Georgia a portion of chips and a Rubicon passion fruit drink. I had an image in my head of the exact scene i wanted to shoot. Like in the Dr. Marten video, when Aggy spills the washing liquid, and it reverses so instead of it falling on the floor, it reaches the floor and then gets sucked back into the bottle. - well yeah that. I wanted to create that fun effect with the ketchup.
For this shoot we went for a 50's look with red lips.
With this scene because of the bright red door to the chip shop i wanted to take influence from the Dr. Marten video again and have an effect where there is 3 of Georgia walking out of 3 doors.
SCENE 4:
As the idea and concept of my fashion film is almost like a day in Leeds, starting off with a casual morning dog walk, then onto the fabric store to purchase some fabric, afterwards for a bite to eat, and now.. again my character is eating! We can call this desert.
I really wanted a contrast between the greasy traditional chip shop and a nice, pretty vintage cafe - however i wasn't sure of where i could find one! So whilst we were in the fabric shop i asked the woman there, and another customer told us about 'Mrs. Athas' - a very nice coffee shop right near the Corn Exchange, behind House of Fraser. The staff were really nice in there as it wasn't a huge cafe and i had my tripod they were really accommodating and interested in what we were doing.
I loved the huge wall full of paintings in different frames, this worked really well.
SCENE 5:
The last scene was based on Georgia getting ready for a night out, using my bedroom as the location.
I felt as though i could do a lot with this scene because it involves quite a few tasks to get ready for a night out! Such as choosing outfits, hair & makeup, getting dressed and the finishing touches!
Theres quite a gold theme going on in this scene, Georgia wore:
glittery crop top which was a bargin find in a chairty shop in London for a fiver!
Gold hoop earrings which were her own
Rings which were also her nannas
Shoes - Asos
Leather jacket - M&S
Black mesh top which was also her own
I added a few effects into the last scene such as the 3 different boxes at the same time with different things going on.
For our context of practise module (COP) we had to write a 3000 word essay based on our lecture notes and seminars. I decided to write my essay on something that i was interested in, 'Drugs in Fashion from the 20th Century to the Present Day', even though i moaned and had a few breakdowns during the essay writing week, i actually enjoyed it.
However the part of my course that i love the most is getting hands on and creating interesting and exciting things - the practical side. I enjoyed the second part of our module much more where we had to write a magazine article based on our essay for a magazine of our choice... enjoy!
