Evaluation

I felt that I did a good job with the music photography layouts.
If I could go back and do it all again, I think that I would have taken more images other than some of the location shots that I did. This was mainly because I was design producer so was needed in other places when the shoots were going on, but I would have liked to try to do something different and creative had I had a real opportunity to take some studio images. The images that Lucy took were what we were hoping for, and there was a number of them that I wanted to use for my layouts. In the end I went for one where the band were messing about with the microphone and being natural, and another one I took on location.
In regards to the text I used the interviews Jess recorded to pick out key points and put them on the layouts. I used a quote to put in the bottom left corner of the location layout, and I used information about the band for the studio layout. For the studio layout I wanted it to be simple, and not too colourful, which I stuck to, and kept the colours red and black and white to draw the audiences attention to the text and the information about the band. The location layout I wanted to be colourful, as the area itself was colourful, so I decided to put a glow around the text to draw attention to it. The quote itself was one that made me laugh, and I felt that it summed up the energy and laid-back nature of the band itself.

Music Magazine Layouts

Shooting Schedule

After talking to the band we decided that we would use Wednesday 19th January as a location shoot. This will be where we shoot the band in the forest using different angles and shots to get the type of shot the band wanted. We decided we would meet in the Atruim at half 10, and then drive to the forest together once we had chatted about the style of shots.
On Wednesday 26th January we then booked the studio for our studio shots. This started at half 1, and ended at 4.

Music Photoshoot Ideas

After meeting with our band (Are You a Wizard?), we went over their ideas for what they wanted and outlined some ideas that we thought would work well for the band's style and genre.
Are You a Wizard? wanted a shoot on location at a party, where they were sitting on the sofa drinking beer and eating pizza. Myself and Lucy weren't too sure on this idea as it may have been hard to get the party to look authentic and we also thought that there may be too much happening in the picture and draw attention away from the band. We managed to convince them of this and instead decided on having a picnic in a forest, possibly with some destruction in the background.
We decided that we wanted natural looking shots of the guys having a laugh in the forest as if Jess, Lucy and myself were not there. We thought about images facing the sun, looking up into the trees, looking down at the band, the members far or close to the camera, etc.
Other ideas we came up with was to have the band in a tight corner, and if we could get hold of a fish-eye lens, take a picture of them in the corner. This would give a weird visual effect as the area would appear larger than it actually is.
The studio shots are going to appear like a police line up, with their names alongside and their roles in the band. We are hoping to re-create this Blink 182 photoshoot, as this is the sort of style and genre the band play.



We were also thinking of playing around with an idea that we had previously seen in Eleanor Hardwick's work, where the models are "plugged" in to electrical products. Our idea was for the band to bring along their amps and guitars, and plug them in.



We thought about making the studio shoots simple, using tried and tested methods to show the audience what each member plays and trying to bring out their personality. We thought that having shots taken down the length of their instruments would be a sure fire way to acheive this; we could then put text along the instrument (such as member name, instrument, age, etc).
We also thought that group shots were a good idea to show chemistry within the band and show the connection between the four of them. We would acheive this by using different levels to alter the set-up and make the shots more interesting to look at. This would also help to give the photo a new angle due to the different levels.

Examples of our work

Location Ideas

Photographer: Jill Furmanovsky

Jill Furmanovsky was born in Zimbabwe in 1953. She is a well known photographer known for her iconic rock pictures, especially Oasis, with whom she released a book "Was There Then - A Photographic Journey with Oasis"
She has also photographed well known bands such as The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Blondie and many more. She has also produced music videos for Oasis and The Pretenders.



This picture of Amy Winehouse I particularly like as it is completely different to what you would expect from an image of an artist. Furmanovsky has changed the way in which portrait photography can be undertaken; she is like a fly-on-the-wall and takes portraits of artists when they are being natural and doing what they do. I think it is a beautiful shot of Winehouse as it is completely different to pictures that were being taken of her at this time, most of the pictures taken were of Winehouse all done up or drugged up.



I like this shot as it shows the Gallager brothers before they were torn apart by arguments. It is simple, and I like how they are focused on the camera and not posing for it.



I love this shot as Courtney Love is lit really nicely and is the only person in the picture that you can clearly see. Everything else is dark and you can only just see it; another way of doing this would be to use depth of field to make the people out of focus except for Courtney. I think that the way lighting has been used to accentuate certain areas of the picture is really clever and makes it appear more dramatic.