Tron Legacy and Hpnotiq

Tron Legacy is very inspirational. After several shoots with one of my favorite models, Haylie Myers, we kept playfully describing a Tron™ Concept shoot. We had been inspired prior to Halloween to start testing new innovative Black Light [UV] techniques. After each test shoot I did, people began wondering and asking how each photo was made, considering they progressively became better and better. The goal wasn't at first to do great themed shoots, it was to prepare for the big shoot; the Tron Legacy inspired shoot with Haylie Myers.

The first test shoot on Sunday I decided to do was with Maddie Bourne, to test out the Black Lights, Light absorbtion, Color refraction and side/hair lights using such methods in preparation for the Tron Concept Shoot.  I discovered 3 important factoids: 

1) White glows blue, under the modified "Cloudy" White Balance.

2) The more neon/flourescent the color, the brighter the refraction of light.

3) My computer LCD screen doubled as a "warming" light!

Used:

Computer Monitor [warming light], White comforter, and Neon/Fluorescent objects.

The second test shoot on Monday was with my artistic painter friend, Tiana Fleshman. We came up with the concept of a Neon Tribal Shaman, where she had started the makeup design and I added the perfect points and final brush details with Neon Acrylic paints.

What I learned from this test shoot was much more valuable:
1) Who the hell knew I could do makeup like that!

2) Neon-fluorescent poster board made the "red" side lighting possible.

3) Silky white fabric made the "Cool White" right side lighting.

4) New methods for painting the body [makeup] and props.

5) I'm lacking a hair-light [color refracting object] for the head!

Used:

Blue and white Neon Acrylic Paints, Painted tree limb, white silk sheet, Orange Poster Board and Black UV Lights.

The third test shoot on Tuesday had been with Elayna Balter, a friend and 2 months prior I had the privilege to photograph her wedding! The main concern of this shoot was to create more props, with limited resources I used a black light on my room. It was cleaner than you thought! I targeted some bright white sketching paper, as to which I used the entire book of paper to make her armor. Yes, her armor is made out of Sketching Paper, within 30 minutes! Awesome, right? 

Here is what I learned:

1) White silk fabrics work great as "hair/catch lights"

2) White can easily be inverted to "brushed steel" black in Post prod.

3) Adding light flares in post production really make the photo pop!

4) Who knew I could make paper armor well and makeup also??

Used:
Sketch paper cut for armor, Duct Tape, blue and white Neon Acrylic Paints, white silk sheets and Black UV Lights.

The fourth and final test shoot was with Bekah Jorgenson, to test my "Paper Prop" abilities in regards to conceptualizing a creative theme. I wanted glowing wings, from paper; so I did just that. The main challenge of this shoot was makeup, I did two rough drafts and ended up wiping her face clean of makeup in frustration, as I forgot what wardrobe looked like. Lesson learned, models should wear the bazaar outfits during makeup, so conceptualizing the theme is much easier and not forgotten! Inconvenient, yes, all be it a learning experience.

Here is what I learned:

1) Wear costume or pre-draw makeup

2) Add more color to skin, brighten the photos!

3) Body language, facial cues, and posture REALLY help.
4) Practice, prepare, and make sure everything is ready pre-shoot!

Used:
Sketch paper cut into tiny feather pieces, Duct Tape, blue and white Neon Acrylic Paints, white silk sheets and Black UV Lights.

After all of these test shoots were out of the way I learned three major things. I can do makeup well, fluorescent paper is great "color/side" lighting, and body language is really key to success. While experimenting with different tools to generate a glow under a UV light, I noted what would be required for the Tron Concept Shoot.

No more tests! The day came to shoot with Haylie Myers for the Tron inspired shoot. I had been preparing all week non-stop and we were both ready to make it a stunning concept shoot! To the right is the first image, the more "portrait" oriented imagine for Haylie, as she is a big Tron fan.

What I learned:

1) Paper lines do glow, yet they also rip, deform, and peel off.

{Paint would have been better, but more time consuming}

2) Side (glow) lighting really helps accentuate low-light photos

3) Costume details don't matter as much, if the photo is dark enough.

Used:
"Bobb" hair style wig, Wooden hanger pole painted black and wrapped with white paper, Long white paper for glowing lines and circles, doubled sided tape underneath the paper, silk sheets for side lights, and Black UV Lights.

The second image, listed below, almost never even happened! We were both exoughsted, high fived and called it a day. Then I shouted "GLOW STICKS!" As we forgot to cut open her blue glow sticks, put them in a glass, and play off the "Livations for everyone!" theme in Tron. This is during the "End of the Line: Club" scene, where they are drinking beverages that glow. The original concept was for Livations, having fun with Tron scenes. Little did I realize during the shoot, the glowing blue liquid looked scary similar to Hpnotiq [www.Hpnotiq.com], the alcoholic beverage. 

Bouncing off this immediate inspiration, I decided to look for a Hpnotiq Advertisement. After I found the perfect slogan "It's Hpnotiq" I decided to narrow my search, through the images, for a Hypnotic posture and gaze. I found it. This was it, after cleaned up, here is the final draft and "Mock Up" advertisement. Tron Legacy and Hpnotiq Inspired:

Thank you for visiting, reading, and learning with me!

What CRAZY props, items, and "McGeiver" setups have you used in photography, or for that matter, any form of art?

*Note / Disclaimer*
I do endorse Tron Legacy™ as well as Hpnotiq™, however, I did not collaborate with them for this shoot. This was simply a series of test shoots, with the main goal being a Tron™ based inspirational shoot for educational growth.








Sources:
http://disney.go.com/tron/ {TRON: Legacy}
http://www.hpnotiq.com/ {Hpnotiq's website}
http://www.devonwayne.com/#!__creative {Devon Wayne's website}

Initiation

"The world runs on incentives and people are defined by their actions, without incentives would there still be actions?"

Actions speak louder than words and this is because an action is the final step of a thought which is the beginning stage of an action. Every second by split second your brain has sporadic thoughts that will eventually define you as a person. At times emotions can change the ability to take proper action, yet in the end we always stick true to our own thought process. Trust your gut, trust the instinct, this is what will locks happiness for us in the end.

We all want to be happy, most people want to be rich. We've all heard the saying money doesn't buy you happiness and some rich people will argue that just isn't true. We all want what we cannot have while what we need is always around us. A piece of chocolate can calm someone down from a horrible day of insults where as another person can eat the same chocolate and have an allergic reaction; happiness is different for everyone. The key to happiness is not knowing what to buy, where to go and what to do. The key guideline to achieving happiness is knowing your own thought process. Once you can control and predict your own thought process happiness is only a few more steps away by thinking it, speaking it, and acting on it. It being your thoughts.

I think I want to travel to brazil. There is always a goal in the back of our minds. You know, where our concious goes to take a break! Why is it that this place you go to, is no where near where you actually are? We want what we cannot have. What's stopping you from going there; nothing! You should work in a place that inspires you, motivates you and gives you a passion for life. Where you live should be a place you are comfortable to end the day by being yourself and in turn happy. Too many of us have a job where people are horribly rude or we hate it there. Too many of us have people at home who affect us in a negative way. We know this, yet we stick through it as if we're gaining a merit badge for doing so. You're not doing anyone a service by sticking around and supporting their drama, negativity, or bad habbits. You are ultimately in control of every single part of your life - Whether you like it or not.

Most of us are afraid to set goals, as if by setting a goal we no longer have free will? This isn't true, you can set a goal, anything on this planet and achieve it! It just takes a simple thought, some intelligent designing and brainstorming of that thought, discussion about the good and bad, then simply taking action on the thought. Once you take the initial action it doesn't mean the goal is over! If your goal is to become the president and the first action is to apply to be a counsel member - Then take action on that first step! Think it, speak it, act on it. Progress your goal, repeat the process. Anything is possible!

In the back of my mind there has always been a spite against college as an institution for true growth. I never understood how people could go through 4-10 years of school to have to wait another 2 years after graduation to actually, finally, get into the field they actually want to be in. Then at times they still need to wait 6-10 years to be where they would /really/ like to be at. It's always been an insane point for me to wrap my head around. This is because I've never had teachers who have been successful, until now. I've usually had the teachers who "If you can't do it, teach it." Which means people who fail at their dreams and quit at the first fork in road - Deciding teaching the subject would be easier. I wanted to learn from people who have actually had success, stood next to the tallest industry heads and shook hands with them on deals. I want to be taught by someone who taught themselves and carved their own path.

There is always an opportunity to grow and to me it just seems more wize to speak with a successful business owner than a school teacher. One reads a text book and one lives the process. I want to understand the process so why should I pay thousands of dollars to read a generic textbook hundreds of other people also read? True success means finding out secrets, finding out what really makes business thrive, knowing how to predict people. School doesn't really teach these attributes, I want to know the theoretical chemical and social makeup of everything involved in photography, cinematography, painting, rock climbing, base jumping, flying,  boating, writing, directing, connecting people and creating opportunities for people who thought they never existed.

While we might toss the idea of schooling aside, we all know book smarts is common knowledge yet it is common sense of the business world. You can be street smart all day long but that doesn't help when you don't even know the definition of Supply and Demand, Target Marketing or even proper Networking. Learning is a great thing and you may not always need a teacher, maybe just a book or two or even two dozen. Right now I'm going to Santa Rosa Junior College for very specific classes to test the waters with higher education. So far it's helpful and inspiring in ways I thought it never could be. I'm a creative and artistic person at heart, yet, taking business classes has opened my mind to un-found creativity! Right now my classes are Business Promotion [A-] Marketing [A] Advertising [A] Quantitative Mathmatics [B+] and Business Strategy [A-]. All of these classes have well suited teachers that have confidently had their foot in the field they speak of which I deeply respect. Business promotion has forced me to research different tactics to promote and sustain my business[es] and so I have come to several brand new innovative ways to do so. My marketing class has taught me to mold my product specifically towards the people I want to come to me. Do I want the rich and classy, the rich bohemians, the middle class soccer moms, the college students, who am I going after? Advertising has taught me to be creative, to use metaphors, aftermath, and intricate thought processes when executing on the basis of briefs. Quantitative mathmatics, is of course, a math class - Which has taught me to crunch numbers and play with them just to see the answer. Math has never been so inspring as it has been this time around.

I was curious how much I could make off a Walmart deal with my Scenic Swimsuit Calendar. After researching Walmart I found 3,500+ locations. I gave a rough estimate of 25 calendars per walmart and came to about 100,000 calendars [87,500.] Then I did some more math to find out what I would sell the calendars for, while still making good profits, which I decided is $2-3 per calendar. $3 x 100,000 is $300,000. Accounting the production cost of $47,000 and the distrubtion of $12,500+/-, I realised I could easily make a quarter of million dollars just with a single national Walmart deal. Taking a photo could never inspire me to truly pursue selling calendars, but doing 3 math problems inspired me more than anything else has in the past. Finding out a $300,000 deal is possible with the right effort was a great motivation. Now I'm using my innovative promotional ideas to generate brand awareness, where my main goal in sight is to lock in major retailer deals at Target, Walmart, Kmart, REI, Big 5, BassPro.com, Calendars.com, Amazon.com, E-bay.com, Overstock.com, and even more! Walmart has already agreed to take my products locally and requested me to put paperwork with corporate to decide if a national campaign is possible - I've decided to wait until I have more research, sales, and information to bring to the table to confidently secure a national deal when I'm ready with Walmart. This started with a single thought, from a math class. College was just a simple thought. I used to hate college. Your thoughts control your life, yes, they really control your life. Be careful what you think.

Once I have proof the united states approves of my product on a national level by purchasing posters and I have clear definitive research proving the target market[s] I can easily approach a very lucrative deal with the largest retailers in the United States; soon the world! Right now I have over 20 people who I will give 10-40 posters [that have GPS coordinates, Scenic Swimsuit Branding, my website and the fan page on them.] They will sell those posters to people for $10+, then kick me back $1 per poster to print more. Everyone has already sold 5 each and /I havent/ even gotten the posters yet!! Within a year, with this tactic, I could easily spread massive awareness of my Scenic Swimsuit Calendar from just this form of promotion. This creates small jobs as well! Each poster makes $9+ profit for the person selling them, if they sell 10 posters in a day that's $90 cash money. Let's say they sell 20 a week, that's an extra $180 a week or $720 a week they are getting from what started as an idea in my head. Most minimum wage [$8/hr] 25 hour a week jobs make $800 a month. I will be giving people the opportunity to work ULTRA part time and still make that extra money, whilst hanging out with friends and enjoying life. Dream big, think bigger, talk often, and act every chance you get!

Do you like the city or do you like a small town? Are you okay with making little money in a small town or do you prefer to make a bigger paycheck? Does education matter or are you happy just living life a day at a time? What matters to you? What matters to your family? What matters to you? Does life bore you or is there an buried inspiration? What are you passionaite about? What matters to you?!

Take more out of life, when your mind speaks to you, let it be heard. Take your own advice, speak your own advice, and act upon your own advice. Your thoughts are you own key to happiness and by ignoring your true inner thoughts you will never be happy.

Think, speak, act - Life is progression.

I'd really like to know, you who just read this, what was the last thought you turned into an action?

www.DevonWayne.com
www.Facebook.com/DevonWaynePhotography