Last semester at University, my classmates and I were given the assignment of styling and directing a photo shoot on location. After already successfully completing a styling module prior to this assignment, I jumped at the opportunity.
My group decided to base our photo shoot on the theme of aliens and after hours of research we discovered that alien life was right on our doorstep. Blast beach in Seaham is where the opening scene of Alien 3 was filmed and when we visited the beach we realised why. The former waste coal dumping site meant that the sand had turned a vivid orange and the rock pools glistened an-out-of-this-universe oily metallic shade. With the beach being only half an hour away from my University, this was the ideal location for the shoot.
We gathered metallic clothing from brands such as ASOS and H&M and we selected brassy toned chunky jewellery to fit in with the theme.
On the day of the shoot it was raining, standard in the North East, therefore the secluded beach was extremely hard to get to. But we pursued on with our mission, put on our wellies and plodded on through the mud. When we got to the beach however it had dried up and the miserable walk was definitely worth it! The location looked fantastic after it had rained and the darkened sand and rocks complimented our theme.
Our model, Mina, was dresses in the short shimmering dresses for the majority of the day and walked barefoot on the beach, I'm surprised she didn't catch a cold!
The photos turned out fantastic and we achieved a 1st for the assignment. I'm really proud of my group and discovered a different side to my University degree which I'm extremely passionate about and I can't wait to start the next styling module in third year.
