'Certain Defeat' Production

After unsuccessfully having Kornelija as the model, I managed to find another model who was equally as fantastic if not better. Zarah has lots of modelling experience and was very comfortable with the idea of wearing just underwear. Her skin tone was very different from my original model and I feel it works really well with the brighter colours. Her complexion and facial features also allowed her to carry a more theatrical makeup with ease.

What was particularly challenging about this shoot was that I had one previously that day which took about five hours to complete. The tiredness had to be quickly overcome and Zarah was extremely understanding of my stress. My photographer stayed with me all day and really supported me, which was a vast improvement from the previous shoots.

We had some difficulties with the studio booking and a misunderstanding occurred with another student but was quickly resolved and our set up was moved to a different studio.

In the end I decided to use paint to represent the blood rather than foam. The paint had a really glossy sheen, which added to the glittery aspect of the project’s aesthetic. As expected it got a little messy and we really had to plan each position with shooting then filming. Then once that position was complete the photography lighting was set up to shoot again, and then altered for the filming.

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of the shoot and how the concept looks in comparison to the original images. I feel that her vulnerability is captured but in a really glamorous, almost animated way. The only thing that does irritate me with the images and footage is that the purple lips have a blue tint in the images due to the photographer adding a filter on postproduction that I was unable to match with the film editing.