R+P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

We decided to take promo shots both in a studio and on location. To schedule our studio shoots, we sat down with Tom and compared all our timetables to see when we were all free. We ran into some difficulty as we could only have all of us together for a forty minute period, but we agreed to focus on single band member shots for the other times so that we could focus on shooting all our whole band shots in this short space of time.

Prior to the shoot, we sat down and drew some rough ideas for what our character/whole band studio shots should look like. This would save us time coming up with poses in the real shoot. We planned to shoot close-ups, mid shots and long shots for each band member, and mid shots and long shots for the whole band.

We agreed that the studio shots of the band should focus on showcasing each member's character; for example, as Hugh is a goofy, energetic character, a lot of my character shots will involve me jumping,  giggling, pulling odd faces and fooling around with props. As for the whole band, we plan to portray the whole band as happy - smiley and arm-in-arm - so that they seem comfortable and enthusiastic together as a unit.

Inspirations for studio promo shots:

• In a line, highlighting each member of the band.
• Each member having their own expressions and personalities. 
• Similar colour scheme, but a variant on the theme for each member. 
• A mixture of professional (looking into camera) and unprofessional (laughing, smiling)

We agreed that the location shoots should be less fixed/serious that the studio shoots and have more of an 'insiders' perspective on the band members lives. These photos would be more personable and would be more relatable to audiences, portraying the band members less as pop stars and more like a normal group of friends. We planned for the members to behave more casual and free in these shots; for example, we decided that it was ok for movements to look slightly blurry or for people to be blinking, just as long as they looked like a classic day out for the band. We planned some shots between Casey and Hugh to capture their everyday sibling relationship, such as climbing a tree together and playing on the swings. Emilio kindly agreed to use his Nikon camera to shoot our 'out-and-about' shots, which we agreed should take place in locations around London to enforce our band's London roots. This included locations such as Embankment, Whitechapel and London bus stops and parks (most likely one close to our school).

Inspirations for location promo shots: