The editorial series

Learning goal

From dozens of fashion frames shot on different days in different places, you will be able to draw out a story built from six, seven or eight frames that fits on a few pages of a magazine. With a table you will check that every garment appears at least once in the series in a readable way, and that none overshadows the others. You will think about how the frames will sit on the page, where room will be left for the headline and the text, and which detail will fall where two pages meet. You will prepare the lines under each frame stating which garment and whose work appear in it. In frames shot in three different lights, you will keep each model's skin in its own true tone and consistent throughout the series.

The question

On the table there are hundreds of frames from the pier, the studio and the bazaar. The magazine sets aside eight pages for the collection; your friend chooses the fifteen frames they like most and lines them up side by side. What comes out isn't a story but an album: four frames show the same mustard jacket, the navy jacket isn't there at all, no bridge has been built between the morning on the pier and the noon in the bazaar. One of the models' skin is cool on the pier, warm in the bazaar. What does it take to build a magazine story?

Context

In the story structure lesson you learned to build a series with an opening frame that places the viewer in the location, a peak moment that carries the most intense instant, and a closing frame that leaves them with a feeling (Lesson 23.2). In the photobook lesson you met the spread, the two pages seen together on the left and right when a book is opened, and the rhythm of pages (Lesson 26.10). At the opening of this track you told apart the editorial, the fashion series that breaks away from the catalog and whose frames are read together (Lesson F.1).

In a fashion editorial this structure is adapted to a collection and to a magazine page. The series must both tell a story and show every garment; the pages, too, carry both the photograph and the headline, the text and whose garments they are.

Simple explanation

How does every garment find a place?

A look plan is a table showing, in an editorial series, which model wears which garment in each frame, and in how many frames and at what scale each garment appears. The frames are written in the rows, the garments in the columns; in each box it is noted whether that garment appears whole in that frame, half, or only as a detail. The table reveals at a glance a jacket that appears four times and a coat that never appears.

The table is read together with the story. In an eight-frame series, the opening frame sets the place and the mood, the frames that follow show the garments on people and in motion, one or two detail frames show the fabric's texture or a button up close, the strongest frame comes at the peak, and the closing ends with a look or a moving away. Every garment appearing whole at least once is a condition discussed with the client. The models' share in the series shows in the table too: who stands at the opening, the peak and the closing decides whose story the series reads as.

How does a frame live on the page?

Copy space is the area in a frame left plain and without detail where the headline, the text or the garment information can be placed. In a magazine editorial the opening page often carries a headline; a cloudy sky, a blank wall or a dark studio background makes room for this text. If copy space is thought about before the shoot, the framing is set up for it; if it is looked for afterward, it either isn't there or the text falls on the face or the garment.

The page's shape also decides how the frame will be used. A magazine page is vertical; a vertical frame fills a single page, a horizontal frame can spread across two pages. In a frame spread across two pages, the gutter in the middle curls inward and becomes invisible; if a face or a button falls right there, it is lost. That is why in frames that will be spread, the models are moved off the middle and an area whose loss won't stand out, like sky, sea or wall, is left in the middle.

How is the series completed?

Fashion credits are the lines beside or under each frame in an editorial series that name the garments appearing in that frame, their maker, and the team who worked on the shoot. When a reader likes a frame, they learn from the credits whose jacket it is; the stylist, the makeup artist and the models also see their names there. The credits are prepared from the notes kept on the day of the shoot, because weeks later it is hard to remember which scarf was in which frame.

The series' last job is consistency. When frames shot in three different lights are put side by side, skin can look cool on the cloudy pier, neutral in the studio and warm in the bazaar; the reader perceives this not as a story but as a muddle. Applying the same preset to all the frames, though, doesn't even out the skin, because every light leaves a different mark on every skin tone. Each model's skin is brought to its own true tone by looking at a reference frame shot in the same light; the surroundings and the garment go on carrying the mood of the light.

Visual evidence

Your friend sets the fifteen frames aside and draws a look plan. The table shows the mustard jacket appearing four times and the navy jacket never. They take out two frames with the mustard jacket and put in their place the frame with the navy jacket in front of the blue door in the bazaar. At the opening stands the two models' walk on the pier with their backs turned, at the peak the cover portrait from the studio, at the closing two silhouettes moving away from the bazaar.

Above the opening frame, in the cloudy sky, there is wide copy space for the headline; on the day of the shoot your friend had deliberately lowered the framing. In the pier frame that will spread across two pages, one of the faces falls into the gutter because the models stand in the middle; a frame where the models stand on the right is chosen instead, and the sea comes into the middle.

Finally the skin: the dark-skinned model's skin has shifted to gray on the pier and to orange in the bazaar. Your friend compares the skin in each frame with a reference frame shot that day in the same light, and brings only the skin to its own tone; the pier stays cool, the bazaar warm. From the stylist's daily notes, the credits for each frame are written.

Common mistakes

Summary

An editorial series is a story of not much more than eight frames moving from the opening to the peak and the closing: a look plan checks each garment's and each model's place in the series, and copy space and the gutter decide how the frames will sit on the page. Each frame is completed with fashion credits, and skin is kept consistent across different lights according to its own references.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will build a fashion or clothing series from your own shoots; frames of people you shot on two different days, with their agreement, are enough.

1. Gather your candidates and draw a look plan; mark in how many frames and at what scale each garment and each person appears.
2. Choose a series of six to eight frames: an opening, a development, a detail frame, a peak and a closing; find copy space in the opening frame, or take it into the framing in your next shoot.
3. Write the credits for each frame, and make each person's skin consistent throughout the series by looking at a reference frame shot in the same light.

Check yourself

• In the look plan, does every garment appear whole at least once?
• Is there room for a headline at the opening, and does anything important fall in the middle of a frame spread across two pages?
• When you flip through the series from start to finish, is each person's skin in their own tone and consistent?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What does a look plan reveal at a glance?

• A) Which frame is the sharpest
• B) Garments that repeat and garments that never appear
• C) Which lens was used
• D) How many hours the shoot lasted

2. Why is copy space thought about before the shoot?

• A) So the framing is set up for it and the text doesn't fall on the face or the garment
• B) Because the magazine legally requires it
• C) Because empty space makes the file smaller
• D) So the model poses more comfortably

3. What is left in the middle of a frame spread across two pages?

• A) The model's face
• B) The garment's most important detail
• C) An area whose loss won't stand out, like sky, sea or wall
• D) The headline

4. How is skin kept consistent in frames shot in different lights?

• A) By applying the same preset to all the frames
• B) By turning the frames black and white
• C) By painting the skin in the surroundings' color
• D) By correcting each model's skin according to their own reference frame

Answers

1. B — Crossing the garments and the frames in a table shows the imbalance at once.
2. A — Space looked for afterward is often not found, or is in the wrong place.
3. C — The gutter in the middle curls inward, and anything left there can be lost.
4. D — Every light leaves a different mark on every skin tone; a single setting doesn't even them all out.

Summary card

• The editorial series: opening, development, detail, peak, closing; six to eight frames.
• Look plan: every garment whole at least once; the models' share shows too.
• Copy space is taken into the framing before the shoot.
• In a frame spread across two pages, leave nothing important in the middle.
• Fashion credits from the daily notes; skin by its own reference.

Bridge to the next lesson

After the magazine takes the eight chosen frames, it sends the designer a list: the jackets' colors must match the colors in the catalog exactly, the lint and thread ends on the fabrics must be cleaned up, but the models' faces and skin must stay real. Your friend doesn't know how much to touch the fabric, the skin and the color. Where is the limit in retouching fabric, skin and color? The next lesson takes up what is corrected and what is protected when bringing a fashion frame in line with the brand's standards.