I love a mood board. Maybe it was being a high schooler in the peak of the Pinterest age, but I live and die by a mood board; it's rare that I don't make one for a photo project, no matter how small the gig. Recently, though, I have been working as interim Photo Editor at Trails Magazine, a print-only quarterly that I've worked with since their inception. For upcoming issue 13, I produced and art directed a photoshoot to accompany about 10 pages of the editor's lists this week.
Usually, we field pitches rather than assigning out photography; this project was different since we had a list of a dozen or so outdoor products to shoot, and we needed them to be stylized in a desert environment for a cohesive package. While I've been producing my own shoots—down to paying talent and making call sheets—for years, this was the first time I produced and directed a shoot for another photog. Being on the other side was like writing a recipe and waiting to see what came out of the kitchen...wildly fun and slightly nerve-wracking knowing rain was forecasted and I was a full time zone and 1,100 miles away from the action, patiently waiting to see what was created.
Hiring a photographer was a valuable experience too, sifting through dozens of portfolios as a photo editor rather than creating my own as a photographer. I got to see what immediately turned me off, what caught my eye, and what differentiated from "good" to "hell yeah, hire this one."
For mood boarding, I've been using Milanote. Most of the directors and creative directors I work with on film sets have recommended the app for its organization, ability to add gifs, and digital mind mapping capability. I've seen it used as a creative hub for big projects, having HMU notes in one folder, a scene-by-scene shot list, unreleased audio, and more all in one place.
As an exercise in seeing the building blocks, I've put the pre-pro I provided our photographer for the Trails shoot and his preliminary selects that came from it. In a few months, I'll get to see proofs, and few weeks afterwards, the hefty coffee table magazine will arrive at my door.
Credit: Liam Kaiser Photography
Mood boarding for the New Media assignment was like going in the opposite direction: seeing a completed trailer and teasing out what might have been on their mood board. I took note of the color palette, setting, emotion, costuming, and emotional themes presented in The Rip trailer to retroactively create a mood board.
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