Erin Featherston – Fashion Fairytales and my thoughts on videography
August 20th, 2009 | M | Fashion | 9 Comments »I am growing increasingly interested in videography as a means of communicating messages in fashion. I don’t have a TV anymore. I don’t have time to watch one. I still getting lost in a screen although it’s moments rather than hours at present. I guess it now comes to a question of quality rather than quantity so I can fit in short stories like the above and satisfy my visual needs.
I’ve discussed videography with Manaboutworld recently and I feel it’s an important way to represent fashion. I completed my thesis on the etiquette of dress in Victorian fashion - I analsyed crowd scenes like painted by artists like Frith. Costume was also being recorded by photographers at this time but the images always looked posed, outfits perfectly pressed, etiquette perfectly adhered to so a lot of vital information and social references were lost. I guess I have a similar opinion regarding videography versus photography – it’s important to see how clothing moves, how it works on the body. With videography, the stories are more obvious that in 2D editorial representations and the use of sound can create atmosphere that is not possible through images alone.
The above is collaboration between Erin Featherston and director Marisa Crawford to create a fashion fairytale. My fashion stories are always more on the nightmarish side. There is however something slightly sinister bubbling under throughout this short film. Simple and clean, with strong composition provided by the sweeping angles of buildings, streets and pavements, I was actually most interested in the use of sound – fashion can be so visual but it’s the sound that really stimulated my senses – the birds providing a subtle reference to Hitchcockian suspense, why are they following her? Where are they going? How will it end? Why all the masks?
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I think it’s really interesting, it has sort of a Pied Piper feel. And is also kind of a commentary on fashion itself (the “followers” and the trendsetter).
Exciting video M!
Have mixed feelings about putting the fashion into video. The pieces seem to be constricted more by the narrative than in stills shoots fr some reason but I do still think it’s creative and can see why you been selling it too me for the last couple of months…
I think that’s quite a general statement as fashion shoots are often very heavily photoshopped and sometimes the use of lighting distorts the realistic representation of the garments. This might not be the most directional example of fashion in film and to be honest, I’m not entirely blown away by the styling however I think like how the narrative embellishes the clothing and taps into the magic associated with high end labels.
I guess I’m intrigued by what exactly they are following – I like the suspense, is the blonde girl the trendsetter? Maybe she’s hiding because the trend has filtered to the masses and she wants to move-on much like looks that start on catwalks and filter down to the high-street.
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I usually don’t post on Blogs but ya forced me to, great info.. excellent! … I’ll add a backlink and bookmark your site.
aww bless, thanks we’ve only been blogging two months but we’re loving every bit!
x
I have worked in many areas of videography, but I keep coming back to fashion.
As a fashion videographer, I’ve mostly filmed fashion shows and photoshoots. The idea of creating a fashion influenced narrative is extremely exciting to me! What a great new concept! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hey no worries, glad to be of assistance.