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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> I need some help with a client & inspiration
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 01/22/2012 12:45:22 PM · #1
Long story short: I think I am screwed! But here is the background of my self screwing!

My other half praised me up so high that his boss hired me to shoot his girlfriends CD cover. I actually had no choice in the matter, as Mark just went ahead and accepted the job for me. Normally, I wouldn't have minded so much, but this is HIS boss and wtf happens if the girlfriend hates it, I can see the repercussions trickling down to Mark and his job. (((Mark has been told in no uncertain terms to ever do this again when it is his bosses etc)

So trying to delicately put them off using me, I named a price ($400) for a head shot and 2 looks and recommended 2 other great photographers who would do it cheaper. No dice, they wanted me. SO fair enough.

She wanted to do her own hair and make up as she was a MUA and told me that she had modeled before a lot in NY. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh, Nope that was a slight white lie (ok big) so now hired a MUA/hair. She also has not modeled. She then drops the bombshell that she needs the finished product by the end of January. So I scramble around looking for all the components that will pull this together on such a short time line. Of course, it takes her 2-4 days to respond to anything via text, phone or email. SO now we have burnt up another week from not hearing from her, now she wants to shoot next Friday and have a turn around of 1 day on editing.

Her song is titled Jekyll & Hyde, it is a mix of Jazz and Dance music. What she wanted was a front picture of her singing into an old microphone the split in half on the front and her back end sticking the cord into a speaker. So blended photo. That would be fine (ish) She was also going to go with the Pin UP look. Fine, but she has now changed her mind and is wearing a long red slinky dress, this was changed lat night at 11.40pm (I just read it)

But now she wants to incorporate this car into the shot and possibly a big speaker. She does not seem to understand that this is gong on a 4x4 cd cover and after the graphic dept have put on their bits it is going to be tiny. I did come up with about 6 different ideas and concepts that would work for that size and make it look good, but she really wants this idea. And she is paying for it, so so be it.

I do not know how to do this, I have no inspiration or idea as to how I can do this, I am stuck in my brain as to how the end look would be. I am basically drawing a blank. I can not well i dunno, i am blank totally and utterly.

Can anyone visualize how I can do this, can anyone visualize anything on this and give me an idea. Because I have spent so much time on all these concepts and now they are all thrown out of the window. I am a blank piece of paper.

Help!!
 01/22/2012 12:46:49 PM · #2
I did think of sticking the speaker in the boot of the car, but then noticed there is not really a boot in this car.
 01/22/2012 12:50:24 PM · #3
Stick the speaker next to the running board. Have her stand on the running board bending onto the speaker?
 01/22/2012 12:52:54 PM · #4
Pfffttt.... sounds like... er.... yes well.

Speaker?? Um... Speaker on one side of the car her on the other with a mic and the front lights of the car to try and get the look of a face from the front of the car with the speaker and her looking thru the windscreen???? That sucks but trying to fit them in sucks as well.

Um....car dragging her by the mic cable with the speaker been dragged by it's cable??

Um... Speak about to be run over by the car with her standing on the running board with the mic??

Good luck, not sure I helped any at all :-/
 01/22/2012 12:56:53 PM · #5
I know,,,,,,,,,,,

I am thinking that I wouldn't mind the car running over me, so I have an excuse as to not to do this !!! =P
 01/22/2012 02:42:42 PM · #6
Wow, that's a crappy situation you're in.

only thing I can think of is looking at some car magazines to hopefully get a general idea of different angles you can shoot the car and then try to think of ways to incorporate the speaker and her?

the elemnents she wants and the title of the song don't really seem to coincide. this is a toughie.
 01/22/2012 02:51:56 PM · #7
one of the photovision cds had a photo shoot with a hs senior standing in front of a bmw. It was really slick looking and I think adding a speaker next to the model could work. I couldn't find a screen grab but if you wanted I could pull up the dvd and grab a shot to post.
 01/22/2012 02:56:53 PM · #8
You may have to explain to her that shooting a setup like that isn't just click and done. The short lead time, with the new elements and changes in the shot make it even worse. If you can, try to get her to dig up elements of the shot on line, like girl with car and microphone, so she can tell you something more about what she's wanting before you start shooting. You may be able to find some as well, to show her when you meet up for the shoot, so she can say "like this" or "not this".
She may have to understand that the day after the shoot is a work day, and you may not be able to stay up all night with photoshop. The deadline may not be as fixed as she makes it out to be.
Generally speaking I feel that kind of work with that short notice before deadline would be over $1K.
In any case, you will do fine with it. You're good with your camera, and with processing.
Who knows, maybe someday you will be going on a tour with the artist : )

01/22/2012 03:04:20 PM · #9
MinsoPhoto PLEASE DO!!!!!

She is also 5 foot 1, which is not helping either. SO having a context i.e a car or speaker, is going to make her look even shorter. I personally , can not see how any of these elements fit in with J&K song.

I believe the expression is " Up poop creek with no paddle" let me also add, that I left the boat behind.
 01/22/2012 03:11:00 PM · #10
Not knowing any of the players, my idea may not work at all. But, since the client is also an artist, maybe a collaborative creative approach at the time of the shoot itself will help resolve some issues. She likely has no idea that what she is seeing in her mind is not a small task to achieve in reality. Doing a lot of variations at the time, especially any ideas she comes up with on set that are workable (even if not likely to look good) will make her feel included, supported, and invested in the shots themselves.

Also, since she has likely not done much of this, she will find herself getting creatively and physically exhausted as the shoot progresses. So, if she has an idea that is problematic, something like: "we can try that, but it will require a huge change to the lighting and set up--let's work on a few more variations with this lighting/set-up before we break it down. It will probably take an hour or two to get the new lighting in place, and some more time to work out the intricacies.." or words to that effect.

Also, for lower cost shoots, I include in the quote/agreement how many lighting setups, etc. are provided. If the client is unsure about limiting the setups, then I switch to an hourly rate for the shoot itself: that tends to make them more conscious of time spent, efficiency.

Your work, your skills are superb. Trust yourself. If she is open, a positive, excited mood at the shoot about the pictures you are getting, can get, will be contagious. She'll be jazzed up, too. If she asks for something that you simply cannot achieve, go with "Oh, I love that idea! That would be fun to do! Unfortunately, with the time, light, location, gear, facilities we have available today, we just can't make that happen. But let's keep that in mind for a future shoot for sure." or words to that effect

or you could just liquor her up a bit... :D
 01/22/2012 03:16:01 PM · #11
And one final thought: you may be psyching yourself out a bit before the event. Likely she will have never had professional, high quality work like yours before. On the set, you can direct her into poses that make her look taller. Subtle directions like chin up a bit, slight head tilt etc are normal for you to provide, but unusual for her to hear. She'll realize quickly that a lot of stuff is going on that she doesn't understand, but that you do.

And even if she does select a shot that makes her look short, that may be just fine with her.

I bet you will have a lot more fun with this than it appears now.
 01/22/2012 03:17:08 PM · #12
So if you bear with me for a second so I can bounce off and hopefully get some ideas. Here is a couple of the ideas that I gave her and where rejected. MAYBE if we forget the speaker and just leave the car in, or leave the car out and leave the speaker in.

So 1 was do the classic shot of face and microphone on one side with her in blues/jazz, then on the other side have her in her dance make up stuff with the microphone in the middle, so left and right hand side face facing each other having a sing off.

The other was in this train carriage and I darken it down so it looks like all these spotlights on her (reason for this, she saw a trash the dress in a dump and wanted that shot, but with a load of junk around her)(((I know, i do not get it either)

Another 1 was have her with her speaker on this road

Another 1 was hitch hiking with speaker in her dress.

So those ideas where pretty much nixed.

Can anyone come up with any other sort of idea, cus now I am blank and getting slightly upset with the whole thing.

P>S. and you guys rock, thank you for not making me think I am totally stupid as to not having any ideas, and you all seem to think this is as hard as I think it is!!!

Edited cus every single The was spelt teh. Urrrggg

Message edited by author 2012-01-22 15:19:18.
 01/22/2012 03:26:10 PM · #13
chromeydome you are correct, I am freaking out right now, I have no idea how to do this, the more I think about it the less confidence I have in myself and her. But mostly myself. And I think most of it comes down to the fact that I have no inspiration at all , or thoughts or ideas. I can not see the end product. I have photographer block!!!

01/22/2012 03:35:13 PM · #14
Pull out a blank piece of paper and pencil and just start sketching, maybe something will pop in your head!
 01/22/2012 03:37:34 PM · #15
Does that car have a rumble seat? Put her, the speaker and a microphone in her hand in the rumble seat.
 01/22/2012 03:53:37 PM · #16
Here is the idea that immediately came to my mind: on the front cover she stands in front of the classic car, wearing the slinky red dress, with the antique style ribbon mic - high fashion type of shoot. On the back photo - wearing black, torn stockings, grungy and dark photo, standing in front of a rat rod... like this.

01/22/2012 04:01:55 PM · #17
fldave I like that idea!
 01/22/2012 04:07:48 PM · #18
For some reason when you were describing things I instantly thought of librodo. I can't find the photo that came to mind, but it was a combination of these two below. I thought he had a photo that was pulled back more showing the lady in the car with the wet window. Perhaps I'm thinking of the wrong photographer...


01/22/2012 04:16:40 PM · #19
kawesttex it is a 1934 Cevy coup, I do not think it has a rumble, (I could be wrong)

I can also imagine that leaning on it, laying or throwing one underneath it is not going to be allowed, it is pristine,
 01/22/2012 04:17:32 PM · #20
aliqui you are correct, that is Manny's muse, I had forgotten about her!
 01/22/2012 05:28:17 PM · #21
Juliet, first things first: you are in charge, not this inexperienced little girl who clearly has no idea of what she wants. So get your boss face on, gf. The first thing I'd do would be to ask her how her vision feeds into her CD title. And what ideas she has to present the Jeckle/Hyde aspect...

Also, what sort of speaker are we talking about? How big? Old/new? Does it even go with the car? To get all of that into one shot that won't look absurd on the CD I'd use the speaker as a seat, place it in front of the grill, and shoot dead on to get the headlights on either side of her. She can be lying/sitting on the speaker, singing/not singing into a microphone/no microphone. Some dramatic "spotlight" type lighting. The red with the chrome would be splendid together.

Not that any of this has anything to do with J/H.

Unless she's going for grungy in which case that's the wrong car...
 01/22/2012 05:28:49 PM · #22
Her are the shots from photovision 2011. bad quality as i shot a pic of the tv but it should give you an idea. Let me know when you are done with them so i can remove them please.

edit: I removed the images, let me know if you need to see them again.

Message edited by author 2012-01-23 13:07:24.
 01/22/2012 05:45:07 PM · #23
I need a Like Button for all the reply's!!
 01/22/2012 05:50:34 PM · #24
Originally posted by JulietNN:
I need a Like Button for all the reply's!!


This is why I had no problem renewing my membership :) Love this site and these people.
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