Kareen Rashelle's Fairy Tale Photo Shoot BTS Video Teaser From 'Photo Asylum Moving Pictures'

Well, the toothpaste is out of the tube...

Or, perhaps a more fairy tale analogy would be the Genie is out of the bottle. Yeah, I like that better, because what I've launched and the direction it appears to be taking me makes me feel as if there is magic in the air. And for a creative artist, that's one of the best feelings you can have.

I'm pleased to announce that the teaser for my upcoming behind-the-scenes video of Kareen Rashelle's Fairy Tale Photo Shoot is finally in the can. And no, that's doesn't refer to the toilet, but rather an old movie expression from way back when referring to finished films being placed in metal canisters and shipped to theaters to be shown to audiences.

In this case, the video, the first non-animation project I've directed and released through Photo Asylum Moving Pictures, will flow throughout the internet to reach its viewers, but the dynamic is the same.


Photo Asylum Moving Pictures Teaser
Kareen Rashelle's Fairy Tale Photo Shoot BTS Video
The ninety seconds that lauds me finally hanging out my video shingle, this miniscule World Premiere that announces my new company and an accompanying slew of new services for creating photographic and fashion motion content, contains only one shot of actual moving footage, a handful of stylized (degraded black & white) still frames, and a couple of visual and audio fx to playfully create an atmosphere that (hopefully) makes you anticipate and want to see the full bts video when it is finally released later this summer.

And that is exactly what a teaser is supposed to do. 

The feature-length film equivalent is the trailer: a short "mini movie" that ranges from the length of a television commercial to something up to several minutes and serves as a preview or coming attraction in a movie theater or on a dvd.

On the surface, it may seem like a bit of smoke and mirrors in the sense that it maintains a level of viewer interest in a motion project (for marketing purposes) without me really having to do much heavy-duty visual or audio editing. 

In that respect, it buys me time.

But don't be fooled by this false simplicity. The significance here is that the workflow, from start to finish, of a short teaser compared to a fully completed video, is exactly the same. And in this case, the learning curve and software choices to be made organizing and editing all the bits that go into what you eventually see here are also identical.

And so to me it is a big deal. I didn't just arbitrarily yank one take of a scene out of a pile of motion footage. I didn't just throw a dart at a board to help me decide how to create the audio soundtrack to put with the visuals. And I certainly didn't just string a bunch of random words together to pass along the particulars of what this film is about and when it will be available.

Like most art, and certainly most videos, much thought went into it, and there was a great deal of trial and error. Seeing (and hearing) what works and what doesn't. Altering the looks and lengths of scenes and sounds, and figuring out if they go together or not. Creating a pace and emotion to the entire piece that fits the time limitations, yet still gets across what both I and Kareen need to register with the viewer.

Speaking of Kareen, I want to be sure to get my credits, props, and thank yous in. One important aspect of the teaser is to give a glimpse at the variety of costume looks and locations she planned and used with model Lisa Fuhr to complete her Fairy Tale Series. That will suffice for now. Interviews and explanations of the nuts and bolts of the shoot come later. As do the obligatory humorous bloopers. Kareen was great in pausing her own work to allow me to get all the shots and multiple takes needed to complete mine.

A tip of the cap also to Lisa, who thankfully, knows how to play to my camera in both a deadpan as well as a comedic fashion, something I can assure you, a director does not take for granted.

And let's not forget Dennis Panzik, a pleasant last-minute surprise addition to the crew who not only was a big help with styling and makeup, but ended up serving as an assistant to both me and Kareen. Oh, and he can juggle as well, which many of you will find out soon enough.

Future motion projects will be featured on my Vimeo page, my YouTube page, and of course the video page on my website www.stevenpaulhlavac.com.
 
And as I've said before, and will undoubtedly say again, feel free to subscribe and follow me on my video sites, and please leave comments or ask any questions that come to mind...

'Photo Asylum Moving Pictures' - Audio Track Promo

As I prepare to publish the teaser this Friday for my current motion project (a behind-the-scenes video of photo artist Kareen Rashelle's Fairy Tale Series Photo Shoot), I wanted to take a moment to address a crucial aspect of filmmaking that often gets overlooked: the audio element.

Below is a video I currently have on my Vimeo page. It's the teaser mentioned above, but the actual footage is intentionally missing and replaced with narrative text to allow the viewer (listener?) to actively concentrate on the audio soundtrack, and better understand it role in the process.



Photo Asylum Moving Pictures Audio Promo
Kareen Rashelle's Fairy Tale Photo Shoot BTS Video
In this instance, I used SONY Acid Music software and some wonderful loop collection music clips to build a melodic, yet haunting aural picture that emphasizes the emotion and tension of the teaser footage, and hopefully makes you anticipate and want to watch the actual video when it comes out.

I'll go into much more detail in an upcoming blog post of how I choose, create, and edit not only the music, but also the dialogue (there will be interviews in the behind-the-scenes video), as well as ambient sound and additional noises and efx I choose to include.

The reasoning, both of this promo as well as future posts dealing with the subject, is to make clear my skills with audio, and showcase my ability to include that as a valuable service provided by 'Photo Asylum Moving Pictures'.

In an interesting twist, I think of this audio promo as a sort of teaser to the teaser that will follow in a few days.

BTW, the idea of revealing a project piecemeal (the full video coming this summer) is one that is currently used on nearly all levels of commercial art, be it movies, videos, music, or books. It is all part of marketing my creative work to the public, social media, and hopefully clients and potential clients.

As always, I invite you to subscribe and follow me on my video sites, and feel free to make comments or ask any questions that come to mind...

Photo Asylum 101: Holy Crop! Photographers PLEASE Keep Those Model's Hands And Feet inside the frame!

As I look at much of the fashion photography being posted online by younger shooters (and this is mostly self-publishing, not actual magazines), I'm a bit stunned by the number you that don't seem to have a firm grasp on the fine (and I have to assume elusive) art of cropping an image.

As a photographer, you have three opportunities to crop a photo. Once when you compose in the camera. Again when you crop making the print in either a wet darkroom or on a computer. And finally when you present a printed photo by trimming and/or window matting it.

Now, in a sense, composing and cropping an image go hand in hand, as they are essentially the same thing. By cropping, you are altering the composition of your shot. Obviously, the nice thing about cropping is you can do it after the fact, often correcting mistakes or making the composition of a pic stronger after you've had time to look at and think about it.

And much like the art of composition, the full art of cropping is way too encompassing to get into here. So I'll simply deal with one small aspect. One tiny, yet incredibly annoying aspect of cropping fashion photos that I spot with disturbing regularity: cutting off your model's hands at the wrists or feet at the ankles.

Now, let me be clear: you have the right to pose your model, then compose your frame and eventually crop your shot in any way, shape, or form that you see fit. Far be it from me to tell you how to create your own art.

But I see things through the eyes of someone who's shot editorial and advertising work for a lot of publications, and worked with many Editors and Art Directors over the years. To have your work accepted and respected in a larger and much more critical world, you can't just have a free-for-all going on in your photo.

Random doesn't usually work. The way you crop is critical to whether the image is successful or not, and in the commercial world, other people's opinions do count.

Think of it like this: you can drive your car like a madman in your own back yard to your heart's content, but at some point, if you decide to venture out onto the street in the real world, you need to know the "rules of the road", because they do exist.

So, with that in mind, let me start by saying arms and legs at the edge of a frame with either the hands cut off at the wrists or feet cut off at the ankles tends to look really bad.

Really. Bad. Whether you realize it or not...

So, assuming you do not want a full-length shot, where do you crop? Easy. You crop much further up the arms or legs. When you do that, it appears to the eye that those body parts are simply out of the frame. Nothing unusual.

On the other hand, when hands and feet are cropped at the wrists or ankles, it actually appears that those parts are missing, and makes the overall composition look very awkward, or even freakish.

To our left here is a perfect example. Our beautiful model Lucy Marchany (agency: Wihelmina New York) has graciously volunteered to let me slice and dice her lower extremities at various spots in the interest of advancing cropping knowledge for all humanity. What a sport. In return, I promised to buy her new boots. I'm sure you can see the irony...

Now, the shot on the left is properly cropped. A symmetrical composition cut off just above the knees. It looks perfectly natural, what we would call a three-quarter length shot. There is enough of her legs out of the frame that our eyes don't even think about it. They instead concentrate on the part of her that we can see.

The pic on the left is poorly cropped. Lucy's legs lead the viewer's eyes all the way down to where her feet should be. And because of that, you expect to see her feet. When you can't, it seems as though they've been removed. Taken away. Missing. It looks unsettling.

Here is an example of the wrong and right way to crop a model's hands in a shot. Poor Chevonne in the first pic looks like she was involved in some horrible industrial accident that lopped off her left hand. And she's married no less. You can imagine her anguish. Russian beauty Svetlana on the right has her left arm flow smoothly out of the frame, the crop done much higher up the arm and at an angle.

Now, as much as I try to refrain from pointing fingers at any specific individuals with these "lessons", I feel I have to mention a photographer whose online book I viewed recently. Not by name, of course...

They had many shots of extremely attractive models in some very good poses, but almost all of the pics have the poor girls' feet cut off. Yep, you guessed it: at the ankles. It was so odd because it was done so consistently throughout their portfolio. As I've been saying, it would have been much better to either show the models' feet entirely, or crop much higher up on the legs.

What's even worse is many of the shots gave credit to a Wardrobe Stylist, making it quite bizarre, as this stylist was either too lazy or didn't have the resources to pull shoes for these shoots (shoes obviously being one of the most important styling elements of any fashion shoot). Either that, or they simply didn't care that their hard work was eventually cropped out of the photos.

My point is even talented shooters can show they are completely clueless about certain things, and this obvious and easily fixed issue, IMO completely ruined their portfolio. Much like my initial reaction, an Art Director or Photo Editor would cringe viewing the work.

So class, pay careful attention to your in-camera composing, and especially your post-process cropping. Let's either keep those hands and feet safely inside the frame, or crop them out the correct way...

All photos ©Steven Paul Hlavac.