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Notes and Commentary By: Robyn Barnette
It's about time I did this project, and I'm happy that I finally got around to doing it: "Heavenly Jade." This is the eighth Bratz Photography Project that I have completed, and the second devoted to Jade, one of the four original members of the Bratz Pack. After the huge disappointment that resulted from "Kool Kat Jade" in November 2005, this project was long overdue and I am grateful that the opportunity arrived for me to do it. While I would not consider "Heavenly Jade" to represent the best photography I have captured of my Bratz dolls, my primary objective for "Heavenly Jade" was not to create the best Bratz Photography Project of all time — it was to make up for what happened with "Kool Kat Jade" and to present Bratz fans with the true Bratz Photography Project that I and many Bratz fans were expecting from me and for a project devoted to Jade. However, Jade almost did not get this project: I had stated that after "Express It Yasmin," Meygan would get the next Bratz Photography Project, regardless of what collection she was in. When MGA Entertainment announced the Bratz Fashion Pixiez collection in October 2006, I was excited that there would be a Bratz collection devoted to fantasy. I was even more excited about the prospect of Meygan being included in the Bratz Fashion Pixiez collection, since I had Meygan's project planned out and Bratz Fashion Pixiez would be a perfect collection for what I wanted to accomplish. Upon the release of the Bratz Fashion Pixiez collection in December 2006, it was learned that Meygan was inexplicably not included in the collection. Shocked about this news, and in an attempt to salvage any hope that Meygan would get this project, I half-jokingly suggested that I could use the character Breeana from Bratz Fashion Pixiez and name her Meygan. That suggestion was met with disapproval, so the idea emerged to use Jade, because of the disappointment of "Kool Kat Jade." I'm happy to say that things worked out very well for this project, although I sometimes wonder what would have been if Meygan was included in Bratz Fashion Pixiez. But in something of a promotional push for "Heavenly Jade" — and what would eventually confirm Jade for this project — an amazing milestone happened on January 9, 2007, when Bratz Heaven was featured in The Shanghai Bund Pictorial, a magazine based out of Shanghai, China. This marked the first time in the history of Bratz Heaven that the website was featured in a major international publication. The article gave me the opportunity to express my opinions and perspective about Bratz, since Bratz was a new thing to the people of China (it is interesting to note here that the Bratz dolls themselves are manufactured in Shenzhen, China, located 960 miles south west of Shanghai). Included in the article was a photo of Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade that I submitted to the editors of The Shanghai Bund Pictorial for them to use in the article, and it was supposed to be a photo I was going to use in "Heavenly Jade." However, I was so disappointed with how the photo appeared when I originally captured it. The photo appeared slightly blurred, and it was a mild winter with no presence of snow. In addition, I made a change to the fashions that my Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade doll was wearing, by using the black blouse that came with Bratz Midnight Dance Fianna. This was in tribute to the original Fianna-Jade M&M's photo that I captured from "Funkin' Out Fianna" in October 2004. Furthermore, the blouse was a protest to Wal-Mart, which freaked when they saw the initial designs for the Bratz Fashion Pixiez collection and declined to sell it if MGA Entertainment did not remove black from the fashions. I went back to the same location a few weeks later and recaptured the photo, with traces of snow in the background. This photo made it into the project and was officially the first photo captured. Despite the mild winter that took place in Pennsylvania, we did get snow during the month of February. I was able to capture two photos of my Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade doll in the snow, and both photos were inspired by the movie "Sleepy Hollow." The first was a basic photo of Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade standing on a snow-covered ground in the woods; the second was a photo of Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade standing between a tree branch, and what I truly loved about this photo was that Jade "glows" in the photo. The glowing was the result of a natural effect caused by the sunset reflecting off the snow, thus no special photo editing techniques were necessary to create the effect. Perhaps my most favorite photo from "Heavenly Jade" is the Easter photo featuring Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade and Bratz Fashion Pixiez Breeana. It is one of the most beautiful and most colorful photos I've ever captured for any Bratz Photography Project, and my goal was to encapsulate everything associated with Easter within the photo: The colored Easter eggs, the stuffed animal Easter bunnies, the colorful Easter grass, the Easter basket....all the way down to the Bratz "Bunny Boo" bunny hiding behind the Pixie friends on the bowl of M&M's candy. Yet, my Mom did something special with that bowl of M&M's candy, as well as the photo itself: She came up with the idea of including the name "DARIO" on there. This is in reference to Dario Gutierrez, the grandfather of a Bratz fan who passed away on the same day that Bratz Heaven was featured in The Shanghai Bund Pictorial. My mom suggested that I do something in the photo to pay tribute to Gutierrez and honor his memory, and it actually was an idea that I had reserved for my Bratz Photography Project devoted to Meygan. But I felt that it was unfair for one project to include a tribute to Gutierrez, so I decided that "Heavenly Jade" should include a tribute to Gutierrez as well. Even more fitting was that both my mom and myself felt it was appropriate for the Easter photo featuring Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade and Bratz Fashion Pixiez Breeana to be the next to last one in the project. As fun and enjoyable as creating "Heavenly Jade" was, it did not come without the usual frustrations I encounter when doing Bratz Photography Projects of this magnitude. A "reflections" photo featuring my Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade, Dee, and Lina dolls and a series of mirrors was a big disaster. It could have been one of the most innovative and revolutionary ideas I've ever thought of for my photography of my Bratz dolls, but I did not plan it out correctly. As a result, I replaced it with a boring photo of the three dolls and Skittles candies, and I was so disappointed since I felt that I "copped out" and did not try harder to capture a better photo. Another photo featured my Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade doll at a cemetery, but while this photo was not as bad as the "reflections" photo, I considered the location too frightening to fit within the overall scope of the project — and since the location was to be considered for a future Bratz Photography Project. But perhaps the biggest frustration I encountered with "Heavenly Jade" was one that had nothing to do with the photography of Bratz Fashion Pixiez Jade — it had to do with choosing the musical track for the video slideshow. I spent six months researching over 800 songs in various music categories, until I found one that was a perfect fit to the project's fantasy theme: "Take A Bow" by Madonna. It is quite simply one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, and I don't believe that I could have chosen any other musical track that was any better. When I remastered the song through DTS surround sound technology, I made what sounded beautiful sound....heavenly. Even though "Heavenly Jade" replaces "Kool Kat Jade," the only direct reference from "Kool Kat Jade" in this project was the photo featuring the original four Bratz characters (i.e. Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, Jade) and the M&M's candies. This was an updated version of that same photo from "Kool Kat Jade," and I had the colors of the M&M's candies in the photo customized to be the same as those featured throughout the Bratz Heaven website. Masterfoods, Inc., the manufacturer of M&M's candies, has a plant located in Hackettstown, New Jersey, and the people at the company gladly cooperated with me during the project and provided me those M&M's candies free of charge. While I admit to having eaten some of the M&M's candies, the majority of them were given away at a birthday party. "Heavenly Jade" will represent the last time M&M's candies will be featured in a photo of my Bratz dolls. But this project will not represent the last time that I'll be using Jade for any of my Bratz Photography Projects. I do intend to use Jade in future projects, depending on the Bratz collections that MGA Entertainment includes her in. And my primary goal is to make those projects as outstanding and brilliant as "Heavenly Jade." This project was certainly unlike "Kool Kat Jade" and certainly unlike any of the previous Bratz Photography Projects I've done. I put in a lot more time and effort with this project than I did with "Kool Kat Jade"; in the end, I'm very happy and satisfied with how the project turned out. I know there will be many more Bratz Photography Projects I'll be doing that will surpass "Heavenly Jade," but I'm glad that this project is completed and that I did this project to make up for what happened with "Kool Kat Jade." I believe I made up for it in a big way. And if I look back on "Heavenly Jade" a year from now, I will definitely remember that this was a project I really did. | |||||||||||||||
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