Monday, March 2, 2015

The #ProjectScouted launch takes over Windermere Road

There is no way that the #ProjectScouted launch could have set the bar higher for what is to come in Cycle 2. Windermere Road was a flurry of activity this past Saturday as the #ProjectScouted ladies and team descended upon #Hashtag Social Restaurant and Bar for Phase One. #Hashtag was also the venue for Phase One of the Project in Cycle 1 last year and it being the venue for Phase One again this year made it evident that there are much bigger things to come!




Phase One was organized so as not to be daunting or nerve-racking for the scouted girls as all they had to do was show up and shoot a strip of images – three in total – in the photobooth, provided by Photo Booth PAL, which was specially set up in #Hashtag for the event. The girls were encouraged to let their personalities roar. As there was no editing of the images or direction from scouts or photographers involved, the photobooth images managed to capture the girls as they are. But of course, it wasn’t just the scouted ladies who had their time in the booth. The #ProjectScouted team managed to sneak in their (many) shots too.



This being the launch of the Project, there could not have been more excitement or anticipation surrounding the event and there was no way that it was not going to turn into a party. Just Green, the Durban deep house and official #ProjectScouted DJ, and his accomplice, Ryan Rockwell, kept the atmosphere buzzing with their skills on the deck in the upstairs VIP area where the photobooth was situated. Girls also had the chance to win one of the prizes being chosen for the best images shot on the day by getting a selfie with the DJ, which Just Green – aka Deon Francis – couldn’t be happier about! With the music paired, the drinks and meals generously provided by #Hashtag’s owners Brendon Kader and Trushin James, as well as the amazing vibe; the #ProjectScouted ladies and their supporters – friends, family, parents, and scouts – did not need any more motivation to stay long after they had shot their images.



With the variety of the girls scouted this year, the judges are definitely going to be having to make difficult decisions. The judges for this first phase – consisting of Clodagh Francis, partner with Ryan Francis of Shoelaced Clothing; Iman Sheik, model at Ice Model Management; Robbie Muller, one of the videographers capturing the Project; and Sholene Ramdass, Lee Folkard Photography’s blogger and former Miss Teen K.Z.N. – could almost not bring themselves to let the 15 girls, of the over 70 girls who were scouted, go. From the success and popularity of the Project last year; the stakes and the competition have definitely been raised.



The scouts did a fantastic job in their task of finding the gems of Durban, not forgetting the Open Casting panel who also contributed to making this group of #ProjectScouted talent so diverse. The girls’ photobooth strips, along with the other crazy images from the team, have already been uploaded onto the Lee Folkard Photography page. Also keep an eye on the page as the behind the scenes images are released from the brilliant photographers who were at the launch – namely Dalton Green, Jessica VanGoeverden, Jerome Stoffels, Nilufer Yucel, Skye Cripps, and Yuveer Karunchand – as well as the videos shot by videographers Robbie Muller, Tayla-Rae Coetzer,and Stefan Rust.




Without skipping a beat; Phase Two happens this weekend, the details of which can soon be found on the Facebook page and on the #ProjectScouted Instagram profile where you can also track all the images with the #ProjectScouted hashtag. We will see you this weekend!


Images used in blog post by: Dalton Green Photography. 

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