Micro-genre: Mad Hatter's Banquet

Considerations for the compositions meant conducting the actions of 10 people, in their clothes, mannerisms and characteristics. Although this proved difficult to orchestrate at times, leading some photos to have certain people not as focused as others, the playfulness and freeness of the subjects contributes to the overall intentions of the design. 
As such, focused moved onto the set design itself, with how the table prep and wall hangings could bring the relevant elements of parody and pastiche into the success of the outcomes. 

Behind The Scenes:
I wanted to capture the process and vibe of the event to best exemplify the scene in the outcomes as seeming real rather than rehearsed (like Dali's Dinner). The production wanted the outcomes to resemble stills from a film, and so conducted the setting as an event rather than a photoshoot. 

Outfit Considerations:

Outfit considerations were pivotal to the success of the images. The design sought to have an array of characters with their own individual styles which in turn feed in to a coherent and placeable aesthetic. As such the boys wore suits and the girls skirts and dressed - as they would have at the time & for a formal banquet - however with different colours and styles to consider the vibrancy and reflect the colour swatches from Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Having various distinct characters is more intriguing for the audience as it adds a greater sense of realism to the compositions, as well as giving them more to look up, or make up their own stories from. 

Lighting Issues & Space Limitations:

Setting up something like this on a low budget and with the resources available to me meant the design was to encounter certain unpreventable obstacles. Lighting was especially one. The shoot could only take place in the day and the setting for the table was in front of a large window. This meant that film pictures would experience bad lighting. However this was known prior so considerations were made in using various cameras to make room to expected faults. 

With more room the table could have been captured more naturally as a whole, however in order to get the best facial depictions the subjects had to be sectioned off at times. Nonetheless, this intimacy of focusing in on various characters adds to the story better, so this could be seen as a natural progression of the design. 

Finally, on reflection the wall hangings would have been placed different. Initially they were to prevent all the light from affecting the photographs, however the left wall turned out too bare in comparison to the rest of the scene. The white table cloth further enhances the white wash of the images, and so a darker covering may have diffused this jarring. Still, the editing tools available helped diffuse the issues faced from have limited resources for the desired outcomes (expectations vs reality).