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Plymouth University Project

by Carys - Stylist for The Prop Factory

Monday 6th January 2020 08:37:29

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Being situated so close to both Plymouth and Exeter Universities we are ideally placed to collaborate with them for course projects and student events. Being such a creative company, with products that look fabulous on camera, we seem to be the ideal client for the university photography students. 

I was contacted recently by the art department at Plymouth Uni for a client project that the first year photography degree students would be working on. Carrie, the course leader, asked if we could provide some props for the students to photograph in their on-site studio. This happened to be perfect timing for us as we have plans to transition into using white infinity backgrounds for our inventory photos next year and this would be a great start.We do love our fabulous styled product shots and they are amazing for providing you with inspiration, but there are also plenty of times when a customer might need completely unthemed product photos - if their event has an entirely different theme to the one we have styled for example. This is where the white background comes into its own. We now have our own studio here at the Prop Factory, so very soon we'll be producing our own unthemed, white background, photos for our website.Carrie had asked me to send the students a client brief and a list of the products that I would be bringing along. I chose to take a collection of our unique oversized props as it can be hard to show how giant they really are in a photograph and I was intrigued to see how the students would create the sense of scale I was looking for.In addition to the white studio shots, I wanted the brief to have a creative element, so the students could play around with the props and have a bit of fun with them too.Here's the brief and props list I sent to the students: 'We will bring along a selection of our giant, or oversized, props as pictured above. We need clear images for our website inventory of each item individually and creative shots of items grouped together. Our website images serve the dual purpose of assisting our customers with making informed choices about the props they hire and also providing styling inspiration. Scale is the most important thing to capture as customers need to clearly understand the size of the props they are hiring. We are flexible about how you create this sense of scale but, as a creative company, we often think of 'The Borrowers'.

Props available for hire - 

Giant Old Key HSE006

Giant White Teacup and Saucer HSE003

Giant Ornate Key HSE019


We have lots of giant props now for sale on our ebay store, take a peek here.



I sent the brief a week before the scheduled shoot day, then I travelled down to Plymouth with a van-load of props to hand over to the students. They met me at the College of Art to help me unload, obviously finding the props really amusing before they had even got them to the studio.Once there, they asked me a few questions about the brief before starting their assignment. I also heard that they had a few models with costumes lined up for some of the photos, which sounded super exciting.I was incredibly impressed with the university's on-site studio. It had multiple infinity backdrops in white, blue and black - all of which were planned for use in the assignment. After helping to build the giant dining chair (it arrives in pieces, for ease of transport) and snapping a few quick shots of the setup, I left the students to it.It was really inspiring to be back in a university environment and I set myself up to work for the day in the student canteen, so I was still available for any questions or queries - and to drive the props back to our warehouse at the end of the shoot.Everyone seemed really happy with the photos they captured and were looking forward to editing them the next day. Part of my brief was to give them the image sizes and resolution I would need for our website, so that when I received them back I would be able to input some data and use them straight away.The students seemed really excited about their images being featured on our website and I received them back very quickly!I have to say the shots are exactly what I was hoping for. The students captured the fun of each prop and delivered on all aspects of the brief - I hope you like them too. I would love to work with the university again with some of our new props that are due to be finished in the new year! 

Carys 

See all of the oversized props used in this shoot here



Tags: Plymouth Arts University University Of Art College Of Art Arts University Giant Props Prop Hire Giant Furniture Giant Dining Chair Giant Clocks Creative Events Event Hire Party Props Giant Party Props Plymouth College Of Art Client Assignment Student Project University Collaboration The Prop Factory Props Prop Photos Fun Props Fun Event Decor Fun Party Ideas