Fashion Film
In conjunction with "Hey, Wanna Get Outta Here?" is the feature fashion film, illustrating the narrative and pieces of the collection.
The film encapsulates the essence of a night out on the town, the energy of partying and celebration in a nightlife setting, along with the fast-paced movement throughout the night.
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The film debuted at the RMIT's End of Year Graduate Showcase Exhibition in 2024, which was an amazing honour to present my work in front of thousands of attendees.
"Hey, Wanna Get
Outta Here?"
Concept Inspiration - Audience
The inspiration and references for this film were identical to the inspiration for the collection: fashion brands such as Diesel, pop artists such as Charli XCX and appealing to a younger crowd all influenced the direction of this film.
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To appeal to Gen Z audiences, I wanted this film to be produced with the intention of being consumed on a mobile phone, most likely on social media, in bite-sized, smaller formats. Nights out on the town with friends are memorialised and documented through photos and videos taken on our mobile devices, of photos of people's outfits or what club they are at, so I wanted this film to harken back to that.
Furthermore, popular TikTok trends of social media influencers showing off 'fit inspo' and their outfit of the day, with the wearer usually in centre frame and in idle or on a walking pad, gave ideas on what the models could be doing in the film. I sourced a walking pad for the film for this reason, as well as to allude to the concept of the models moving through the night.
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The rough cut, amateur nature of popular TikTok videos, with green screen clipping and editing done on handheld devices, inspired me to create this film with the use of a green screen. This allowed the production to focus mostly on the models and the garments they were wearing, rather than the issue of scouting multiple locations and potentially shooting over multiple days.
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Concept Inspiration - Music
Naturally, Charli XCX's 360, the first song from her album Brat, gave inspiration. In particular, the vibe and attitude of the song's music video, the characters elevated sense of self and the music itself inspiring how the film can materialise.
The song made for this film, composed by Matt Yousatoff, looked to Charli XCX but more importantly to the nightlife energy being captured on screen for inspiration. Thus, the song channels a high BPM, deep hard techno vibe typically seen at a rave doof. The music also gave a framework for the editing as I wanted the frame cuts to synchronise with the beat of the music and to emulate the fast pace of a night out; the editing was completed by Julian Shnider.
Concept Inspiration - Other Fashion Brands
Lastly, I looked to brands such as Diesel, Mugler and Balenciaga, to see how these high fashion companies showcase their collections and narratives for their audience. The use of lighting, camera movements, attitude of the models and highly stylised aesthetic all gave insight on how this film should look. The attitudes of the models in these films were given as prompts for the models in "Hey, Wanna Get Outta Here?" - they are effortlessly cool, elevated versions of self on a night out, however the twist is that they are a little all over the place, since they are at the peak of their night out and are starting to tire.
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These examples also gave me the idea to make this film a runway hybrid film rather than a narrative film with dialogue and a three-act structure. While there is the overarching narrative of a night out on the town, this film's main focus is showing the garments in the environment they were designed to exist in.
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These inspirations served as a reminder that the focal point must always be the clothing, despite it being a film with a myriad of other elements now involved. As a fashion designer and now creative director and producer of this portion of the collection, this served as an important learning experience on how production of a film or photoshoot requires the juggling of many components which all serve the one goal, meaning that the garment may not always be the main priority but must share that status.
Collaboration
Being the first film I ever made, I could not complete this project alone. I am thankful to have had my producer Vivian Tang in coordinating the run sheet for the day to ensure we ran on schedule and that everything was prepared on the day.
Furthermore, my cinematographer, James Dryden, stylist, Shelantha Fernando, hair and makeup artists, Eve Louise and Rochael Perera, editor, Julian Shnider, composer, Matt Yousatoff, and models, Melody McKenzie, Silas Williams and Amelia Rose Lee, all took on the roles I myself could not complete with such professionalism and ease, and I could not have done this without them.
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Behind-the-scenes shots of the film day can be viewed by clicking the link below.
