Jessie Leong Fashion shoot video 23rd feb: Challenging Orientalism

I received a phone call the night of 22nd feb asking if i was around the next day to film a fashion shoot at Maxi's Chinese restaurant for a photography student at Leeds College of art, Jessie Leong. She told me that she had a Canon 5D mark iii for me ready to use, two models and a fashion stylist. My friend on my course had given her my number because he couldn't do it for her anymore and he suggested myself, with gaining my first bit of experience filming a fashion shoot just days before, i couldn't say no.

I met Jessie, the fashion stylist as well as the models at Maxis and discussed what I would be shooting. Jessie wanted a fashion video similar to what i had done with Jenya,  not a behind the scenes video but a short film that portrayed a strong image of the models, the clothes and the environment. She said to include the flashes from her camera as she would be taking pictures of the models.

The lighting was low but the location had the most beautiful, traditional Chinese monuments. The title is called Challenging Orientalism because Jessie's project is to mix a Chinese theme with Westernised models. I filmed the shoot with the Canon 5D Mark III and managed to get some great results. I was limited to just the one lens, 24-105mm f/4. If i had used a lens with a bigger aperture I could have got brighter images but I felt i captured the atmosphere. Every shot was handheld but i felt without a tripod, i was free to go and explore and really test out some unique angles.

I met up with Jessie not long after the shoot to go through the footage, search for tracks and decide how i am going to put it together. We discussed how to further challenge orientalism with the music for the film and decided to look for a dramatic type of Chinese track. There was nothing that really stood out but we are both discovered that we had an interested in the work of director Darren Aronofsky, so we looked through his scores from films such as Pi and Requiem for a Dream, which is where we discovered Massive Attack - Angels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe3CQamF8k&feature=kp

The song feels dark and dramatic but we could sense an aspect of orientalism. It was easy to edit to because the beat of the song are constant and it has a dreamy effect to it. The location really enhanced Chinese theme to it and I felt Jessie and I worked well together and shared similar creative thoughts. The video was edited in three weeks and the video was almost the length of the song.