During Mid December 2021, Myself and my friend Hani, a third year Advertising and Brand Design student, decided that we wanted to explore and try to conduct our Final Major Project together and do a joint Final Major Project. We both had a idea of what we wanted to do and decided to sit down to discuss how we could proceed forward. We decided that we wanted to do an advertising campaign based FMP where for him as an Advertising student would create a concept, strategy, SWAT Analysis, and as a photography student, I would be responsible of the production aspect of the advertising campaign. Production aspect consisting in the pre-production, product, post production and visual outcomes. 

We wanted to proceed our FMP in tandem with an actual company in order to work either in tandem with said company or to get the backing from the company we were targeting. Based on my first term project from the "To Master" unit, Hani and I decided to pursue a Swiss watch company to work with. Our plan at this stage was to; 

- Number One, Find brands that we both liked, that we believed had promise as well as could create a strategic advertising campaign 

- Number Two, study those brands to see which one of their collections/products that we believed would be the perfect candidate to model/mould our advertising campaign around

- Number Three, Research existing advertising campaigns that those brands did in order to see what they were currently doing, how it was targeting their audience and to see how we could make it better with a creative twist

- Number Four, Create a presentation (pitch) for the brand we selected, find who their Creative Director for those brands, contact them to see if the would be interested. 

The two brands we decided to move forward with was Vacheron Constantin on their Historique 1921 American collection and Alange & Sohne's 1815 Collection. 

For this project (Initial Idea), My partner Hani and I created a pitch where we came up with an innovative idea for said companies. Hani would come from more of an Advertising background for the campaign where I would come with the production based direction. After creating our pitch and Idea, we had to find a solution to deliver our pitch to the right people in the company. Based on our conversations, we decided to use various platforms such as LinkedIn to find who in the company we needed to contact, in this case, either the Art or Creative Director as we believed we would get further traction. 

After finding the Art/Creative Directors for both A. Lange & Sohne & Vachereon Constantin, Hani messaged them addressing ourselves as third year students doing our Final Major Project and how we wanted to collaborate with the company they worked for. We heard back from both companies art/creative directors but schedule a meeting seemed very difficult due to their schedule. 

Below is the presentation/pitch we prepared for A. Lange & Sohne's Art Director, Ms Ewa Babinska. The presentations for both brands were very similar, just slightly altered as we tailored our presentations/pitch for the respected brand. We scheduled a meeting with her which we were give a time and date. Unfortunately due to scheduling issues, she failed to show up so we couldn't proceed forward. However, we did send over our presentation and our treatment forward. However we did not hear back from her. 

Regarding Volker Gehr, The Creative Director for Vacheron Constantin, we decided to just send him our presentation & treatment to him as we didn't want the same result we got with A. Lange & Sohne's Art Director. After sending him our files, we didn't hear back for a bit but we eventually received a response where he applauded our ambitious idea and our creativity, but rejected as he believed that our idea was a bit too ambitious and did not fit the identity to their brand. 

After our unsuccessful attempts in being able to collaborate with a company, Hani and I went back to the drawing board. We first looked at other options, but after a while, decided that it would be best out of both our interests and time if we decided to pursue different ideas separately. 

On my own, I looked at options on how I could continue with this FMP whilst sticking to what I wanted to purse. As an Advertising/Commercial based photographer, heading in that direction, I wanted to challenge myself by doing something big and ambitious. It was not just to see whether I could plan and organise something big, but to also step out of my comfort zone. And based on the initial idea and from my Term 1 "To Master" unit, I wanted to do a Advertising Campaign shoot based on watches and lifestyle.

Whilst I was contemplating the idea for this advertising campaign, I kept looking at the project brief as I didn't really like having full creative freedom. Even though I was a currently student, having actual work experience as a photographer gave me perspective and thoughts that this brief was ideally unrealistic. Ideally I understood why the brief was so open but as someone who prefers realistic scenarios and issues to tackle, I went to meet with my head of course Geraint Cunnick to plead my case. After hearing my points, he understood where I was coming from and gave me alternative options. 

After planning my options as well as my talk with Geriant, it gave me three options I could follow for my FMP. The options were; 

Option 1 - Geraint really liked my idea/concept that Hani and I did and asked us to possible pursue this project by seeing how we could develop it further, and target other brands. Scheduling meetings with other brands, fly over to them and pitch them our ideas 

Option 2 - Pursue this alternative idea of doing something similar to option 1, but more to what I want to do. Continue to develop my own idea in creating a fake Advertising Campaign but with similar final outcomes

Option 3 - To get in contact with Beyond Creative, the agency that the course uses for the "Client Brief" unit, ask them to present me options of actual live client briefs that I can purse in tandem with them. This option would allow me to do what I've been used as a working photographer, working on a structure, following outcomes/restriction that an actual client would give and produce. 

Option 4 - Stick to the the watch industry but create a lookbook. As every year, these watch companies release a new line up or collection of watches, to try contacting them to see if they were willing to have me as the photographer for my FMP and see if I could create a lookbook for their existing or new collection 

Out of all the options, I decided to pursue Option 2 with a hint of Option 1 & 4. I decided to create my own advertising campaign, be ambitious, step out of my comfort zone and decided to do something big, have a team that was led by myself and create an advertising campaign where I ended up with; Campaign Stills, Moving image (Option 1) and a lookbook (Option 4).

Research - Via AOP Photographers on Advertising/Lifestyle Photos/Campaigns ​​​​​​​

Before coming to the conclusion of which option I was gonna proceed forward with, whilst looking through the variety of Magazines within the library, I came across an advertisement campaign image by Audemars Piguet for their "Born in Le Brassus, Raised Around the World" campaign. The image below shows a photo of one of their featured ambassador's Tenzin Wild, Co-Founder of "The Last Magazine." 

Even though the image may have been from a still from a moving image or photographed to looked like the featured ad campaign video, this was the image that inspired me to conduct an advertising watch campaign for my FMP. A hyper-realistic image that seemed so lifestyle based but that was essential empowering the brand's products. To the point where the lifestyle was what they were selling and that the product was the secondary. This became the concept/ethos for my project, the lifestyle is primary and the product is secondary.   

After coming up with my concept/ethos for this project I decided to do Option 2, to create a mock advertising lifestyle watch campaign, develop my own idea and to produce an outcome. I wanted to find photographers who were advertising commercial photographers who had shot for brands that were lifestyle orientated. A series of images that that sold a lifestyle that people could aspire to. 

By looking through the AOP website, through filtering the necessary categories I was look for, I came across a few photographers whose existing work really inspired me as well as had aspect that I could adapt into my final outcomes.  

One of the photographers I came across was Veerle Evens, a food, lifestyle and interior photographer based in London. There was two images that Evens had been commissioned to shoot for for HP Designjet Campaign in 2020. The setting showed a independent woman who is portrayed as a successful independent who by using HP's products being productive, strong and successful. It portrayed a scene where by owning/using products that HP sells promotes a efficient successful life for an individual who uses their products. The scene was obviously staged, but as an aspiring advertising/commercial photographer, it allowed me to understand that in a staged setting, how the product and the environment they chose, helped enhance the product and the lifestyle the creative director for this project and HP was trying to go for. From a observer's point of view, we can't necessarily tell what the talent in the both images has done to get to the point they are documented in, but one thing they have in common is that lifestyle advertising based photography is to sell a lifestyle, showcasing that the product is the secondary element to sell the successful lifestyle one could have. 

I then came across Kate Abbey, a British Advertising photographer who did a series of images that visually seem very lifestyle orientated. On her portfolio website, she has a project that is named "Susana" that came of very lifestyle based. It stars a couple on a large sailboat/yacht living a very luxurious calm-free lifestyle. The series of images tells a narrative, not in direct continuity like a moving image piece would show but sequenced in a way to portray a holiday. The way I saw this series of images, it conveyed a lifestyle of love, happiness and success. Although there were certain images that didn't star both of them together, as a series, each images depict a certain lifestyle that both characters were experiencing of happiness which I want to adapt into my final outcomes whatever it may be. A mix of wide environmental establishing photos to mid close up shots of the individuals help set a different emotion and conviction the photographer or director was trying to express & sell.  

After speaking with the head of course Geraint, who has experience within the Advertising Photography field, after expressing my project and the direction I wanted to go down, he recommended me to access an website called LeBook where they have a series of advertising campaigns that brands, creatives and creators have done. I went through their huge library of advertising campaigns and editorial shots that they did, but more towards watch advertising campaigns and editorials as campaigns/shoot like those was what I was heading towards. 

I came across a shoot that was shot in the US for CBS Watch starring Peter Bergman as their star. Although this may not be a watch/horology based advertising campaign, it showcased a lifestyle advertising based shoot in a luxurious house within the state of California, Photographed in the year 2020 by photographer F. Scott Schafer. If I was to see this and for a moment, see it as a watch advertising campaign with a twist, it allowed me to see my future images for this project where it wasn't necessary to showcase the product in every image. I would let the narrative or setting to tell the story of what the campaign I chose was trying to convey/depict rather than sticking to a traditional product shot. As I knew I wanted to shoot in a fancy location/environment, this series really showed me that picking a location for each shot in the location I wanted to shoot in was crucial, but at the same time being able to connect the different settings together. 

Another story/article I came across via "Le Book" was a joint advertising shoot between the car manufacturer Jaguar and British watch company Bremont. The series consisted of four images. The first three images star a successful young sophisticated male wearing the product. Although it seems like a lifestyle product shoot, the images comes off more in my opinion as a very product direct imagery. The image that I could relate more towards my project is the last picture within the series of four, the image where he has a partner/passenger in the car and the male talent is standing outside the car gazing at her. It seems like a very quick and short narrative where the first image sets the scene and introduces the main character, with the second and third close up images showcasing the product and the final image showcasing that owning a Jaguar and a Bremont watch sells a lifestyle of success which entails love. Although the narrative doesn't speak volumes in my opinion towards my project, the final image and the creative setting really speaks to me. I love the setting, all the creative thinking and planning that has gone behind the scenes prior to the production. The creative planning that links the products heritage to play homage to the setting this narrative is situated in. 

One last Advertising shoot I came across was a shoot for Zenith Watches in 2019. As a horology enthusiast, I have seen this images years ago in their retail stores and website. But I was glad I came across this advertising shoot via Le Book during this research period as I knew I wanted elements of close ups for my FMP final shoot. Although I said I wanted the images to be predominantly lifestyle primary product secondary based, but I needed to have close up of the product being worn. Rather than having an extreme close up of the product itself, the images showed within this 2019 shoot for Zenith, it shows not just the watch but the model in different settings with different outfits. It follows an lifestyle persona where wearing a Zenith product compliments or sells an hypothetical dream of prestige classy lifestyle and clothing. The Zenith watches are meant to be paired with high tier premium fashion of style, class and chic. 

As a novice Advertising Commercial photographer myself, although I can see this as a product based advertising image, I see this as a hybrid of not just advertising but also fashion based. This helps me create an idea of depending what watches I choose to promote in my project, the clothing has to compliment and fit the setting the product promotes. There has to be a connection in between class, colour, styling and that they have to work in tandem with each other. Clothing and product. This is where I would need to get a proficient stylist for this shoot who understands what kind of advertising shoot I'm going for, understand the brand of the products I choose, what works and how the product and the clothing compliments each other and works in unicen. 

As I want to produce a Advertising Campaign for my final major project, I asked myself what I wanted to have as part of my final outcomes. What were the deliverables that I wanted to produce and what I wanted to achieve? The theme of my FMP I chose was based around the word "Aspiration". The definition of the word Aspiration is "A hope of ambition or achieving something".

Although this is a photography course and my deliverables were initially mainly photography based, creating a series of images for main campaign stills, like brands produce when releasing or reshowing a collection, and a photobook like a catalogue lookbook, it didn't seem complete in some ways. It was after further research, I started looking towards moving imagery. Aside from creating still imagery for ad campaigns, the marketing team from these huge luxury companies release a Ad campaign video to go even a step in order to help existing/potential clientele what this product can offer, based on aspirations and dreams. How their product can benefit the beholder either physically or mentally. 

I've always enjoy hearing the steps it takes when producing huge projects from my journey personally as a novice & aspiring advertising commercial photographer as well as from content creators who have been in these positions and have made it within the industry over span of years. At the same time, I wanted to create a cinematic ad campaign video to create a narrative on how these products could convince others that the product I'm trying to advertise can be beneficial and special should they choose or aspire to purchase one. 

By combining two of these major points, I decided to add on to my deliverables a Ad campaign video with a aspect of behind the scenes to not just show what one could aspire to obtain should they own the product, but to also show a deeper reality to what goes behind the closed doors. As humans we see these ads of luxury products and the characters within them as fictitious, a reality that's impossible unless you had a fortune. But I believe that adding a BTS element to it would allow whoever views this a sense of reality, to not just only think yes this is fake but a door open so that they can believe, these are really people like me and if I work hard, I can achieve this outcome too.   

The Audemar Piguet "Born in Le Brassus" global campaign video was the first one I had to find as after research, I found that the hyper-realistic still that prompted me to produce an advertising lifestyle watch campaign was from this very global campaign. They had produced an video of their Global Campaign whilst showing this behind the scenes clips showing what it takes to produce the results they had achieved. This allowing not just creatives but general public to see the steps taken to produced the final outcome which was very instrumental to my research on what I want my final outcome of my video to look. 

Wanting to see what I should include in my behind the scenes element in my ad campaign video, I came across Oliver People's 30th Anniversary ad campaign video. As a director/photographer for my FMP, seeing how and what these companies display in their BTS clips, videos like this was instrumental as they showed more of the main production elements. Whilst showing cinematic scenes used in the actual ad campaign, that BTS element in my opinion really allows viewers to strongly relate and understand the process it takes. 

Aside from the Olivers People ad campaign video, I wanted to find another video but from more of an exclusive well known luxury brand. One of the videos out there that caught my eye was this Emporio Armani video of their 2017 Spring Summer campaign. It also showcased a big shoot with cinematics with a crew that all culminated in creating the final results. It was after seeing these videos which allowed me to narrow down what I wanted. 

I wanted my video to consist of: 

- Cinematic Narrative 

- Behind the Scene elements (Production particularly) 

- Continuity 

- In Colour 

- No Interviews

Treatment for Team/Future Connection​​​​​​​

I realised that in order to pursue this project, but more in a professional industry manner, I wanted to expand my capabilities and decided that I wanted to lead a team. I managed to find two producers who were willing to part take in my final major project. Another purpose for this decision was I wanted to practice in leading a team, sometimes taking a step back and trusting my team to bring in results from my requests rather that having myself constantly wanting to be in control in things. 

From my experience as working photographer the past couple of years, working in a team was something I felt that needed improvement. As I know I like procedures and work done a certain way, result orientated, with this project, I wanted to work on myself as an individual to work in a team again but trusting others to meet my requirements. I'm hoping that this project allows me to develop myself, not just as a person but as a photographer so that it would be beneficial in the future. 

I created a treatment so my two producers could understand the concept with this project. Understand what I want to achieve, how I wanted to pursue this, the look I was going for, references to existing work that influenced my idea and how we could execute it. The treatment covered; concept, theme, research, references, location, styling, etc.  

Locate Productions Contact ​​​​​​​

During a one to one tutorial in class, I spoke with Chris Fraser Smith, a tutor for the photography course as well as a photographer with years of experience within the Advertising Commercial genre. After addressing my ambitious idea for my FMP, an Advertising Lifestyle Watch Campaign, and that I wanted to shoot in a luxurious residence setting, he gave me a contact I could explore. Knowing Chris for years and him knowing my background, my photography journey as a working professional photographer, he passed me a contact for the Co-Founder of a production company called "Locate Productions" who also has a library of various locations for people to shoot. 

Chris informed to me contact them, giving them details of myself as a professional and how this project for my final major project and how this could be beneficial for both parties. I would create an extraordinary series of images and results whilst giving them great publicity with working with a student on a project with their generous assistance. 

Below shows the communications between myself and Angus from Locate Productions. From Angus's reply email, He asked me to write him a simple straight forward brief of my project and to send it to him to see if there was anything his company could do or not. 

Prior to emailing Angus and his team at Locate Productions, I looked through their library of locations they offer. I knew I wanted to shoot in a luxurious residential setting, I came across a few prime potential locations that I could invision my project taking place. After finding the locations I wanted to shoot in, I sat down with a friend of mine who does illustrations, sending him screenshots of the location and sat with him to create a storyboard like sketch so I could try to vision where I would position my models for this shoot. 

This would be instrumental to add onto my brief I wrote and sent to Locate Productions. 

After hearing back from Angus at Locate Production, he requested I write him a simple outline brief of my final major project. He asked for; what my shoot was about, the number of people within my crew, how long my shoot with be and any other essential information I could provide him with that I believe would be crucial. From my experience as a working professional, I knew what to provide him with and writing a brief for Locate Production was easy. 

The images below show the brief I wrote up and set to Locate Productions. I provided details such as; 

- Concept

- Brief Overview

- Shooting Intention

- Weather

- Location

- Equipment

- Ideal Shooting Dates

- Locations (Pre-decided before contacting Locate Productions)

- Compositional References (Storyboards)

- References 

- Example of work previously I've done (Proof of competency on shooting on Location and professionalism). 

After sending my brief to Angus at Locate Productions, I heard a response from his colleague mentioning that Angus had passed on my brief and was happy to help me on my exciting project. From here, I knew I was going in the correct direction and that I was one step closer to my shoot to become a reality. They asked for my budget and luckily I had anticipated this for a while and I had saved money personally earned from my days as a professional photographer. I decided to risk it and try low balling and gave them a number of £600-800 for my shoot and asked if they could help me out as I was a student and this was for a student FMP project. Luckily they understood and we scheduled a meeting with Max & Felicity. 

After having my meeting with Locate Production via our video conference and further phone calls, the owner of my Ideal location that I wanted got in contact with Locate Production saying that they were intrigued and was willing to allow us to come for a location scout. They were happy with the budget I had and was willing to help out with this project. So Max from Locate Productions, one of my producer Jolo and I went to Dalston where the house was located and we did a Recce to scout out the location and possible angles, should we considered this location.

Images below are images from the recce that I photographed. Images have been edited so I could get an idea of lighting and composition. 

Another aspect of shooting on location and with experience shooting on location for my previous client Audi for the Audi on Demand service in Hong Kong, knowing how to use and where the natural lighting would come in from was essential. I used an app which depending on the season informs me where the sun would be rising and setting so I could have an idea of where the natural light would be at certain times of the day which would help my assistant director and I schedule which parts of the house had to be photographed and filmed in what order. 

For this shoot, finding models that had a certain look was crucial because the campaign wouldn't have visually worked if we had two models, one male and one female if they number one, didn't look like a couple or looked like they had a big age gap. Also finding models that could visually look convincing and 'marketable' for an ad campaign was challenging. We used platforms such as backstage where we posted that this was a student project, what the concept was and to see who applied. We had about over 30 people apply whilst also looking at other options such as existing contacts and models who freelanced. 

At the end, the male model we found and contacted via Backstage and the female model we did as well via backstage, but couldn't commit to our shooting date so I had to find someone to fill in last minute. I managed to get a friend who although didn't have modelling experience, visually looked suitable for this shoot. 

It was adamant that in order for the shoot to come out successfully, all aspects of the shoot had to be done and thought out crucially during thee planning/pre-production phase in order for this shoot to look as convincing as an Advertising Campaign would. Aside from finding the correct location or model, which would have to be chosen well, another crucial aspect for this advertising campaign shoot to work was the styling. Regardless what any brand is selling, the styling for the shoot had to be thought out carefully so that it would work on the model we were using as well as it matched with the identity of the brand and would look suitable in the environment/location we were going to be shooting in. 

In order to get a better understanding as well as execute this properly, I had to find and recruit a stylist who had experience, could understand the brief and to see what my vision was for this shoot. Someone who was not afraid to even recommend ideas that I would never have thought of. Even being away for four years from the UK, I still kept in touch with contacts and friends I made when I was last here and I was lucky enough to have an old close friend who was within the fashion industry who was willing to help me as a stylist. 

An old contact and close friend Marie-Louise G. Fischer who works as a freelance stylist on the side came aboard my project and after sending her my treatment, photos from my location scout and explaining to her what I was trying to go for, she went to her drawing board and came back to me with the following moodboards and styling below. Needless to say, as she knew the style I shoot and has followed my journey professionally, she knew what I would want and even suggested ideas I never would have considered which I highly appreciated. We even incorporated accessories that for example the female model would have such as bracelets, earrings, etc.  

After the recce of The Shack (Ed's Shed), I decided that the ideal choice that I had picked prior to hearing back from Locate was the location I wanted to proceed forward with. Below shows further communications between myself and Locate's about the next steps that had to be taken to proceed forward. 

PLI (Public Liability Insurance) Detail​​​​​​​

Being a student again, I knew it would be hard to convince any company to trust me even with my years of experience. With wanting to shoot in a luxury home, convincing Locate Production and the owner of the property to let me shoot had to be solid. One 'weapon' I had in my arsenal being a student was that I would get backing from the university when it came to insurance such as Public Liability Insurance. Luckily Ravensbourne has a PLI for students when wanting to shoot outside of campus. 

After sending Locate the university's PLI, they were curious about the name the contract should be under as the university's PLI was under a different name. I then proceeded to contact Geraint the Head of Course to help me look into this in which he contacted Felicity at Locate who helped provide the necessary information to Locate which they were happy with. 

After finalising all the necessary details with Locate Productions and making the payment for the location, I was sent a contract the Locate Productions had drawn up via DocuSign. Below shows the contract and the financial cost it set me back personally. 

Photographer/Director - (Myself)

Photography Assistant - Tom Bulloch

Producer - Jolo Antonio

Producer #2 - Peace Akintoye-Fatukasi

MUA - Tahsim Rahman 

Stylist - Marie Louise G. Fischer (Lead) & Tulasi Parmar

BTS Cinematographer (Primary) - Josh Bradbeer

BTS Cinematographer (Secondary) - Kameron Shelton 

BTS Photographer - Kyrese Stewart

Second Assistant/Runner - Kit Bessant

AD - Jacob Dawes

Model #1 Male - Guillaume Trounson 

Model #2 Female - Sophie Strand

MUA - Elaine Lo

BTS Cinematographer (Secondary) - Jimmy Nguyen

The morning of the day before the shoot, I sat down with my AD and finalised the shooting order for the next day covering how long we would allocate per shot, what that shot consisted, what equipment would be used for which location and the order of places within location we would be shooting in based off the weather and the shots I needed. 

Within the images below, the image on the left shows the list of photos I wanted and had in mind for awhile and the image on the right shows the schedule we finalised, agreed on and notes made on the day when things went longer than expected and how we worked around it.   

Belows shows the call sheet that was sent to all crew & talent for the shoot day. Certain Information has be redacted for Privacy reasons

After confirming my location, I found out that the location had an Instagram page where the owner would use social media to help promote his location for business purposes. Sharing work that companies or photographers who've shot in his property. From looking through the location's instagram profile, I create a moodboard per parts of the property to use as inspiration for composition, model posing, etc. 

 

😉 😛  Exclusive BTS video clips with audio of life on set during production day. Shows interaction with team & models, set etiquette and how certain shots were done. 

Regarding video editing, I got a second year Film Student Rob Bates to help me with editing the video. We sat down together, showed him my references that I wanted the final video outcome to look like. After that, we reviewed the footage together to see what was usable. I first gave him creative freedom in sequencing the video on what he believed was best while including certain footage that I definitely wanted. For soundtrack, I provided with the soundtrack I had chosen for the ad campaign video.  

After reviewing the first draft, we went back to the footage and timeline where I re-sequenced the footage so there was more of a narrative flow whilst playing with the theatrics of the music. Making sure the duration of the clips were in beat with the music and the cuts were to the shortest clips where to a 4 count beat of the song. I then left him to speed ramp, mask and colour grade the video to my specifications.    

To find music for my Ad Campaign video, I wanted to find a clip that was royalty free but also fits/meet the theme of the type of video/campaign style I was going for that in tandem matches with the identity of the brand I had chosen, which was Cartier. I spent a whole day searching the web and different services that offered royalty free music. I finally came across a website service called "Epidemic Sound" and a found a track that would work. 

For the book, I decided that for every chapter, each chapter began with a main campaign still to establish the scene or setting, giving context per chapter and what may be seen. All two page spreads are main campaign images. 

Regarding the book cover, I initially wanted to go for a minimalistic clean book design that I got a lot of positive feedback from peers as it reflected my personal taste, style and outlook. However, wanting to make the book more premium and luxurious, I decided to do more research and then played around with different ideas. I eventually came up with the final design after getting inspiration from the online watch magazine Hodinkee that from time to time publish a physical print based lookbooks/magazines for their customers to purchase. 

Below shows 4 images of the four designs starting with the original idea I had intended to go with, the slowly trying different renditions which then gave me options. I then went with Option 3 and then made few adjustments.   

When it came to the final book cover design, Everything was designed to keep a luxurious premium quality print, down to the small details such as font types and spine design. No corners cut. 

To be very honest, when it came time to do this Final Major Project unit, I hated every thought of it. Coming up a whole idea from scratch, creating a concept that I had complete creative freedom and control. The reason I didn't agree with it was as working in the industry with real life situations, getting briefs from clients and delivering what the client wants to then coming in as a client for this student project, it didn't seem logical. Maybe I was being arrogant or maybe it's because someone who shoots in the genre of advertising commercial, we normally get a brief from the client, addressing the clients need and delivering what the client wants. Have the creative idea process is done ahead and as an executionist, I prefer delivering what the client would want. However, at the same time, I saw this as a challenge and coming back to finish my final year, I told myself and my head of course at the time that I would only want to create content that I could see as Industry level portfolio worthy. Occasionally I like a challenge. 

Working as a photographer in Hong Kong the past couple years, I've been very fortunate to shoot for some interesting clients, but due to the creative industry not being valued very well compared to the UK, I decided to take on this opportunity to create a project based on what I believed my portfolio lacked, but also to create an advertising campaign style project. I really enjoyed shooting my first term project of a watch repairman for the Sony Competition "To Master" unit and I wanted to try and adapt the ideology to my FMP. So I decided that I wanted to do an advertising watch lifestyle campaign shoot for my FMP. At first I decided to collaborate with someone who shared the same interested who was also a third year and we had this ambitious idea to contact an existing swiss watch manufacturer to see if they would be happy for us to collaborate. But after a few failed attempts, we decided to split directions and go our individual ways. I still wanted to pursue this idea so I decided to carry on it but a smaller scale in some ways. Rather than contacting a brand or having them reach out, why not create a mock ad campaign. Do a project based of an existing product that I liked even if it didn't have the connection with the brand itself. A Mock Ad campaign as there's no rules saying that I couldn't do it based on a brand if I didn't mention it was done for them or sanctioned by them as it was creative freedom.  

In order to conduct my Ad Campaign idea, I needed to understand what I wanted my deliverables to be. The concept from the university was to create and publish a photobook which is a great idea. However, I wanted to do above and beyond the expectations of just a photobook. When companies do an ad campaign, although they may release a lookbook style catalogue, they have other deliverables like main campaign images and a video. I decided I wanted my deliverables to be a photobook, ad campaign stills (8-10 Main Campaign Stills) and a ad campaign video with a bts element. I wanted to deliver the same/similar level of professionalism and standard that an actually company would expect. Rather than shooting this in studio, I decided to stick to my word in stepping out of my comfort zone and do a shoot on location with on-location lights where I would have to factor other variables rather than being in a studio where I know I can control all the variables. 

To do a project this big and ambitious, I knew from experience that it would take a team to deliver what I wanted to deliver, to the high standard and quality I expect from myself. Due to this, I decided to have two producers on board knowing the scale of this project and knowing the preparation/pre-production that had to be in place prior to production day. After a few meetings in the early stages, I knew that we would be looking at a crew of roughly 10-15 people in order to execute what I wanted to achieve on production day. Communication and reliability would be key in order to execute, especially when working with students. I knew that at some point during this project, there would be times where members wouldn't be able to deliver on schedule and that I would have to take charge. I knew it would be difficult working with people who have never worked with me as well as didn't have the same experience I brought, but I took this as an opportunity on myself to learn how to work with difficult people and how to work around this. 

During the pre-production phase, I had times where my producers would give me a date on when certain things would be completed, and when that day came, it was not. Instead I decided to be lenient and gave them an extension. Luckily I predicted this was going to happen which I why I started pre-production earlier so I would have extra leeway. It got to a point where my producers, even after multiple meetings, still couldn't produce and work to what I needed in which I took control and did it myself. I did this not because that I lost complete confidence in them, but from experience working corporate, when there's someone who's not reliable, as the work still has to be completed, as project lead, I had to do it myself. Even to the closing stages of the production days, it got to the point where I acquired the stylist, photography assistant, second assistant/runner, female model and make up artist. Luckily I had one of my tutor's Chris who connected me with a Location Scouting production company which I made sure I was the point person and who made all the decision. I left my producers with the simpler task such as finding me a video team and assistant director so on the day everything could go as plan. Luckily the day before the shoot, we had finally confirmed a makeup artist and female model as the one's I had locked down couldn't make it. A hick-up in the process  the luckily we had everything secured for the next day. 

Regarding Location, I was very fortunate that I was able to collaborate with Locate Production who were instrumental and helped out with my project. After sending them my brief and talks with them, they were very professional and graciously took the time to work alongside me. We managed to get a lot of the location decision and dates secured quite quickly and efficiently. Even down to the recce day, everything was very efficient and went off without a hitch. A special thank you to both the people at Locate Production (Angus, Felicity & Max) and Chris Fraser Smith for trusting me. The only issue we had with the location was rather than having the location from 7am til 5pm was cut short to ending at 3:30pm due to another booking last minute but we managed to work around. 

Shooting day was a tough day. I personally had a 3am start, triple/quadruple checking equipment, props for the shoot, going over the schedule for the day. Left at quarter past 6 in the morning so I could load the transport with the amount of pelican hard cases and bags we had for the day and got to the location a couple minutes early to the location. As soon as the owner let us in a few minutes past 7am, almost to military fashion, myself and my assistant director started delegating and sprung into action. My AD thought he allocated enough time for hair and makeup but went longer than he expected. Luckily we had countermeasures in place and started off with the male model cause we knew he would be quicker and we managed to shoot and get back to schedule. My AD was even surprised when he told me I had 10 minutes for this shoot, I told him I only need 6 minutes and got us back on schedule. Factoring a 8 and a half hour production we had, we managed to get all the necessary photography and video footage we needed, wrapping up at 3:30 on the dot, whilst giving everyone a mandatory legal break and backing up footage. Once we left, I returned all the equipment necessary back at my place and backed up footage and reviewing the files til 11pm. I then spent the whole easter break, 7 days a week from 8am-3am editing and retouch using Capture One Pro and Adobe Photoshop, and then designing my photobook. I then acquired a video editor, a 2nd year film student, who helped me edit the ad campaign video along with me. 

Overall it was a successful shoot, as ambitious as it was to do everything in one day. If I had to reflect on it, there's a few things I would have changed but not as many as I thought. One thing I wish was different was that I was more tough and thorough with my producers so they executed their roles like they should have done. Although people backing out project from time to time is out of my control, but I wish that we could have secured everyone much quicker and efficiently. I was very impressed with the female talent as she was someone I got last minute and had no modelling experience. But although having no modelling experience, on the day, she was able to follow directions easily and after feeling more comfortable as the day went on, she managed to fit into the role to the point where after the final images were done, people thought she was an actual model. When it comes to my book, I wish I did more research with the printing company ExWhyZed with gutter space in my book and sense of scale. Aside from that, I very happy with the results I achieved and will be happy with it for a couple more weeks.