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Project Trivia
By: Robyn Barnette
- Despite the unusual title, "Express It Yasmin" is not based on Bratz XPress It! Yasmin and my Bratz XPress It! Yasmin doll was never considered for this project.
- Filmed and photographed in twelve weeks. Counting weeks where no filming or photography took place, "Express It Yasmin" took five months to complete, the longest of any Bratz Photography Project I have done so far.
- Filming and photography for this project began in early August. However, because fall had not officially begun, the project was halted for seven weeks. Filming and photography resumed during the months of October and November, since I wanted to shoot photos of my Bratz Back To School Yasmin doll during the period of the fall foliage.
- The photo of Yasmin with the waterfalls and pine trees in the background was captured at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania and was part of another project for my "Yasmin's Story" Fan Fiction. The first attempt at capturing this photo was disasterously unsuccessful, since the batteries on my digital camera died and produced horrible images. I went back to Longwood Gardens a week later to recapture the photo. It took forty takes to capture this photo correctly, even with working batteries.
- That same photo had to be captured during August, since Longwood Gardens traditionally shuts off all their waterfalls and fountains after Labor Day.
- I had wanted to shoot photos of Bratz Back To School Yasmin inside Nazareth Area High School in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. However, security concerns caused those photos to be scrapped. Only two photos were shot at the school, and these were the first two photos of my Bratz Back To School Yasmin doll captured for this project (since school was closed for summer recess).
- The diamond ring that Bratz Back To School Yasmin wears throughout most of "Express It Yasmin" is from the Bratz Forever Diamondz collection. In addition, when I purchased Bratz Forever Diamondz Yasmin in June 2006, that particular diamond ring came with the doll.
- The photo of Bratz Back To School Yasmin at the Philadelphia Art Museum was originally not captured in the manner that I had wanted. Traditionally, I capture photos of my Bratz dolls either on cloudy days or during sunrise or sunset. Because it was a cloudy morning on the day the photo was captured, I ran down to the Philadelphia Art Museum to shoot the photo. However, because I was running behind schedule, the photo was captured in one take and with Yasmin not wearing the diamond ring (since I had forgotten to put the ring on her when capturing the photo). The sun broke through the clouds moments later.
- Only the second photo of my Bratz dolls to have been captured at the Philadelphia Art Museum — the first was when I did the project "Queen Nevra" in 2004. In addition, I shot the photo in the opposite direction, inside the perimeter of the Philadelphia Art Museum entrance.
- There was a plan to reshoot the photo at the Philadelphia Art Museum with Yasmin wearing the diamond ring. That plan was scrapped, since the photo was difficult enough to capture in the first place.
- "Expression" by rap music group Salt 'N' Pepa was the musical track chosen for the video slideshow, and a character description I wrote about Yasmin included a hint where this musical track was to be used.
- For the video slideshow, there are two animated sequences from the first Bratz animated movie, "Bratz — The Video: Starrin' & Stylin'" Additional animated sequences were either created exclusively by me or from the "Livin' It Up With The Bratz" Interactive DVD movie. These sequences were added to make the video slideshow play out more like a music video, similar to those from the old Bratz official website. This technique will be applied to the video slideshows from the previous Bratz Photography Projects that I had completed.
- The original ending of the video slideshow was to include the animation from "Bratz — The Video: Starrin' & Stylin'," where Mr. Del Rio gives Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade each an A+ for their self-expression assignment. This ending was scrapped, since I thought the idea for including this ending was stupid.
- In the early frames of the video slideshow, the phrases that are hidden among the back to school graphics are "High School Style" and "Fortune Favors The Bold." "High School Style" was what the Bratz Back To School collection was originally titled (ironically, before Bratz Back To School changed its name to Bratz Class); "Fortune Favors The Bold" is a motto that appears throughout the corporate offices at MGA Entertainment and was developed by the company's President and CEO Isaac Larian.
- Additional frames of the video slideshow include stills from "Bratz — The Video: Starrin' & Stylin'," "Bratz: Rock Angelz," "Bratz: Genie Magic," and "Bratz: Passion 4 Fashion Diamondz."
- The photo of Bratz Back To School Yasmin dressed in Bratz Genie Magic Yasmin's fashions was inspired by Isaac Larian's daughter, Jasmin Larian (who Yasmin was named after — Yasmin is the Persian spelling of Jasmin). However, there are no direct references to Jasmin Larian in the project itself.
- The "magic carpet" that Yasmin stands on is an Islamic praying rug that one of my friends lent me. Praying rugs are not universally used by Muslims, nor specifically required in Islam. However, I liked the designs of the rug and used it for the photo. Furthermore, Isaac Larian is originally from Iran, which is traditionally considered a Muslim country (even though Larian himself is of Iranian-Jewish descent).
- Two Glade Scented Oil Candles were used for the photo of Bratz Back To School Yasmin dressed in Bratz Genie Magic Yasmin's fashions. I suffered a headache from the strong scents of the candles and fell asleep after the photo was captured.
- This project was to include all the characters from the Bratz Back To School collection, but it was not certain if MGA Entertainment was going to include any additional characters. Thus, this project was a solo project featuring Yasmin and no other Bratz dolls. Eventually, the company added three new characters, but the project had been completed and it was too late.
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