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| Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved |
In my previous post, I wrote about the usefulness of mood boards; especially when discussing with the models/friends the concepts for the photo sessions, and how they help me overcome any language difficulties -if any- with the photo shoot team.
I thought I'd illustrate this usefulness with an actual example from a photo session in Shanghai a year ago...by posting one of my photographs (top) of Ms. Tian Yi Yi alongside another photograph I had found on Pinterest that I liked and added to my mood board.
I sent the Pinterest photo to a photographer friend in Shanghai who thought it had been taken at the Shanghai Film Park in Chendun which has sets of urban 1930 Shanghai. His ample "Rolodex" provided Tian Yiyi; a model who fit the persona of Ruan Ling-Yu, the late actress who was to be the subject of my photo-film The Immortal.
The film park opened in 1998, the 400,000-square-meter compound hosted the production of more than 100 films and TV series every year, with titles like "Lust, Caution," "Perhaps Love" and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."
When the team and I were there, we walked up to the main square and true enough, the tram on its tracks was waiting. It was most probably the same as in the original photograph, although it actually looked a little less spruced up.
Tian Yi Yi, all dolled up in her qi pao/cheongsam, pretended to be a passenger alighting from the tram...and as they say, the shot was "in the can".
