Written by DJM Creative Director Merry Fidler
Fashion videos are some of my favorites to shoot for several reasons. 1. Their creativity sandbox has a lot more room to play in than other genres, 2. The edits have a great musicality to them, but 3. They’re not a music video [shudders with memories of freshman year of film school]. Fashion’s ability to evoke emotion with just an ensemble is a fun challenge to emulate in video form. For example, on the day of this particular shoot I wore my “paintings of cats” dress, which evoked the emotion of acute envy in everyone who saw me. In a fashion video you can’t hide behind scripting or dialogue, only a look and a feeling. So, I was pleased as punch to shoot for one of our favorite local companies, Culture Flock, which specializes in original screen-printing and accessory designs. Culture Flock merges colorful, fun design with a “devil-may-care,” attitude, providing an exciting stage for us to build upon.
Sassy to Southern
Initially this shoot was scheduled for the tail-end of spring, with a brighter colored lineup of products and a vibrantly colored Springfield. The aesthetic was much more “bubblegum” at the time, and was going to involve fancy camera movement and the perfect pop track (below).
But as Culture Flock decided to wait to feature a different line of items, I was having trouble getting the same vision to fit the new line. Finding new locations wasn’t difficult, as Springfield is full of surprisingly urban gems, but the music was literally keeping me up at night. I am sure I drove the rest of the team mad, playing optometrist with an ever changing lineup of songs – “Better one, or two? Two, or three?” But the musicality, as I mentioned before, is so important to a fashion video’s mood, and it would dictate not only the edit, but the camera movement and model actions as well. I probably listened to that sassy track every day for two weeks; it had been so perfect and we were all pretty attached to it. But in my gut I knew that I had to let the track go for something with a dirtier kind of sass. After hours of deep-diving into southern rock purgatory, I resurfaced with the “Tough Tides” track that ended up in the final videos.
fresh out of candy necklaces
We styled our moody models with the inspiration “Arianna Grande and a roller derby girl had a baby,” which paired perfectly with our DP Ben’s style of shooting. The finishing touch was then inspired by our Producer, Ally, who sometimes uses blurred out candy in her photos to create an in-camera color effect. As I hurried around one day for props, I somehow couldn’t find any candy necklaces that weren’t Halloween themed. But, as with many times that shoot plans go awry, the alternate plan ended up exceeding expectations. My substitution miracle came in the form of a rainbow dog tutu I bought for $1, creating one of my favorite effects we’ve ever done. All hail our god whose name is SCRAPPY.
worth it to wrestle
The edit came together seamlessly; in fact, 8 different cuts came together seamlessly. Culture Flock has been overwhelmingly supportive of the videos and approved them on the spot. I’ll admit to some tears being shed over their reaction, not because it’s uncommon for a client to like their video (it’s not, of course!), but because we try really hard to give people something they’ll love, something that will make them proud of their own products. It’s why staying up at night thinking about a music track or a dog tutu is all worth it.
To learn more about our friends at Culture Flock, check out their site here!
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