During my first quarter here at Seattle Central’s Creative Academy, we were tasked with many larger scaled, high-speed projects that had very quick turnaround. We would have to pre-plan, organize, set-up, and execute multiple photo and video shoots all within one week most of the time. Our guest speaker this week, Abdul Kassamali, discussed what it is like being a producer for a real production company here in Seattle. Many times, things do not go as originally intended and one must have back up plans for almost every single part of a planned shoot. Pivoting is a skill I had to learn quickly in this program. One of my assignments was to do a three-part shoot featuring the same model in three distinctly different lighting scenarios. I was thrilled with the assignment and had my model set and had the concepts ready to be executed. I was going to shoot in the early morning with my model dressed in an alternative style complete with euphoria grade make-up, wearing a big fur coat and utilizing tons of bold and punchy color choices. Part two was meant to be a low-key afternoon shoot where my model would be in her home surrounded by personal things like her vinyl records, favorite novels, and even smoking a joint to relax and make for a chill vibe. Lastly, for the finale we were going to find a neon drenched bar somewhere in Seattle to have dinner and get some awesome, gritty, colorful night shots. Alas, the morning of the shoot I received a massive thread of texts from my model flaking on me, mere hours before we were supposed to start. I did not have any back up in mind. I had been so focused on creating the best work possible for these singular shoot ideas that I had nothing left to fall back on. In the end, I got one of my classmates to pose for me and got the assignment done more than adequately at the last minute. That was the only time I needed to learn this lesson though. Since that day I have planned my shoots the very earliest I can and try to have at least a mostly developed back up plan to pivot to in case of necessity.
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