KenyaGurl: Great Expectations Inspired Video Fashion Shoot by Joey Oso

Hey guys!!! :D Long time no write! I missed ya'll & I missed blogging! : ( I've mostly been posting from Instagram & Facebook these days. It's quick & easy, but I'm easing myself back into blogging. Even though I haven't been blogging, I'm still contacted regularly by folks for product reviews, etc. I usually decline, but I recently was asked to share a very special project by Joey Oso, Good Morning America & L'Oreal Professionnel Freelance Hairstylist. He's put together a very cool project named "Into the Dark" inspired the movie, Great Expectations, that'll be in theaters in a couple of days. I checked out the video & loved it. It really shows raw creativity. I love seeing a true vision become reality. So inspiring. His excitement about the project is refreshing too! It made me excited to check it out. :-)-K.D.

Check out his words on his short movie below!

"It started out with an idea. This idea came to me in Sept 2013. I would think of this idea over and over for a few days/week to see if it even made sense. I also watched the 1999 movie of “Great Expectations” during my mulling over process. Once I put it all together in my mind and it made sense to me, then full steam ahead. Making sense meant the story line I would come up with had to be entertaining. So, I proceeded with the leg work.

The final story line, as you can see in the mini movie, is Romance mixed with Darkness, I like to push the limits. To see such beauty and elegance all around the video and then to add darkness to it, I feel it adds such a beautiful twist to it. Confuses the minds of those watching. I thought real hard of what type of team I wanted to assemble for this video shoot. I searched far and wide for my perfect team. I finally put together this great amazing group of artists! An amazing super experienced, super talented team and I’m totally happy with the end results. Thanks Guys and Gals!"

The Mansion: This Van Cortlandt Mansion House Museum was built in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt. It’s the oldest house in Bronx, NY where it resides. The Surrounding Park was used as a wheat plantation which Frederick owned. The House was used in the Revolutionary War by George Washington. The Van Cortlandts owned it till 1889 from which it was then sold to the City of New York and made into a Public Parkland. The Process of Creating this shoot from scratch continued. Once The Mansion was secured for Oct 1st, 2013, Ideas for props to use during the video shoot were popping up in my head. I ended up, the day of the shoot, with a Jeep Trunk filled to the top with props.

Props included: Furniture I rented (no one was allowed to sit on any furniture in the mansion), an antique real knife I rented, real fruits, real flowers, vintage clothing I rented from this amazing costume store in Yonkers, NY called Beyond Costumes (914-963-1333) and a ton of other trinkets I brought. Including a case of water for the crew. The day of shooting began at 8am, beautiful perfect weather day for an outdoor shoot. The models were from Red Models and Adam Models and they were amazing. They were so cool and collected. The day of the shoot, I had the story line written down, scene by scene, a total of 9 scenes as my blueprint. The models and talent did an excellent job helping me execute each scene I had written throughout the day. They did so with great joy! No egos. The team was already told how this video shoot would pan out the morning of by me and everyone was super excited to see this unfold, So was I! The video shoot ended at 5pm with all smiles on our faces.

Makeup:
Guys; Embryolisse Laboratories Lait - Cr'eme Concentrate Moisturizer L’Oreal True Match Foundation Carmex lip balm Girl; Olay Active Hydrating Beauty fluid Make Up Forever High Definition Primer Cinema Secrets Concealer L'Oreal True Match Foundation Cover Girl Pressed powder Cargo Cosmetics HD-Blush NARS India Song eye shadow Ben Nye Cake Eyeliner Make Up Essentials Human Hair Lashers L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara Shirley & Josephine Lipstick Berry (first look) Plum (second look) Hair; Guys; L’Oreal Professional Architexture, Blowdryer for direction, where I wanted the Hair to end up.

Girls: (First Look) Her hair was already with a great texture when she first walked in, which was needed for this look. I took a 1 inch curling iron and just curled 1 inch sections just how they fell. The sections started from the top of the ear down. I pinned each section up & then hit them with a cool shot from the blow dryer. Took down the pin set and made three large sections of hair with all of her hair, one to create the curl bun on the very top of her head and the other two for each side of her head, by her ears. For the top section, I realized there was not enough hair to create the final look I wanted, so I placed a donut cushion on the top of her head and wrapped her hair around it. Bobbi pinned it all in place. (Second Look) I dropped down all the hair and it pretty much all fell into place with a little movement by me and some minor pinning and she was ready to go!

The Team:
The Photographer; Kristy Leibowitz www.kristyleibowitz.com
Hairstylist; Joey Oso www.joeyoso.com 347 558 3086
Makeup; William Marshall www.kenbarboza.com
Videographer/Video Editor; Schmirk Pictures
Agnes from Adam Models- 212-944-8870 Justin from Adam Models- 212-944-8870
Harrison from Red Models- Tim Klein 212-785-1999 ext 202

Now that you've got the background, check out the video below!