Over the past 3 days here at Hallmark, our class has been challenged to unlocking our creativity in preparation for our final portfolio due later this spring. We just got back from spring break, and had been told we had a guest speaker, but were not prepared to be thrown in a 3-day-creativity-extravaganza that Claire Rosen brought to the table of teamwork, brainstorming, planning, shooting, videotaping, problem solving, editing, and presenting. The assignment was to take a social/political/environmental issue and portray it with a fairytale in a single image (or series of images).

Day 1: On Monday, we listened to Claire’s presentation, brainstormed & created a mood board using the ever-wonderful Pinterest >>>see our mood board here<<<, and met with Claire to discuss our ideas. Here was a look into our thought process:

People being tied to technology –> People being tied to Facebook –> Social media as an isolator –> Using Facebook to compare yourself to others –> People use Facebook (& other social media) to compare themselves to others like the Evil Queen from Snow White uses her magic mirror –> “Facebook, Facebook on my wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

Then we were off to gather props/costumes/materials for the following day’s shoot (this ended with me in an antique shop on the hunt for an antique brush). Lucky for us, one of our classmates had previously done a shot of Snow White’s Evil Queen >>>see it here<<< so we had a costume. Between what the 5 of us already had & two trips to local antique stores, we were able to put this shoot together for under $15.

Day 2: Work started back up at 9am Tuesday morning right in the classroom at Hallmark. With lights gelled & set up, a huge silver reflector, a little purple & green makeup, and lots of coffee–we were ready to go. Our test shots were running smoothly (minus a failed attempt to locate dry ice or a smoke machine to add in a smoke effect, oh well!) so once Claire & Greg stopped by to give some final input (including but not limited to adding a light with a grid & orange gel to really make the frame light up… genius!), the final shooting began. Working in a group can be tough, but our group had great dynamics. We didn’t have people assigned to certain roles (besides Megan being our great Evil Queen) so we just all jumped in when something needed to be done–switching between being the photographer, videographer, stylist, errand runner, and digital tech. We were all wrapped up by 1pm and had the afternoon off!

Day 3: Check in was at 8am, then we had 4 hours to edit the photo and create a behind-the-scenes video. We split up– Bear, Ryan & Megan took on the photo editing and Sarah & I complied our behind-the-scenes video. Overall, I’d say we’re all very pleased with our final product. I think I can speak for everyone here at Hallmark when I say that it seemed like an overwhelming task to complete in such a short amount of time. But by the looks of other group’s photos I’ve seen, I’d say everyone did pretty well :) This was an awesome kick-start to Phase 4… can’t wait to see what will come in the next two (crazy) months.

Photo/Video Credit: Ryan Brantley, Myself, Sarah Hoder, Megan Shotwell, and Bear Stanley

Check out our photo & behind-the-scenes video below!