Magnifying Our Minds: Behind the Scenes

As our minds can become warped beneath the perception of our past and the promise of our future, we find solace in a simple truth: We’re just getting started.

BEHIND THE SCENES

“Magnifying our Minds, and almost all of the shoots from Issue 07, was a challenge for us, to see how far we can go in our creative process. The models in this shoot demonstrate how we are inundated with thought when answering the issue’s question ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ leading them to be overwhelmed and be mentally larger than life.”

— JACOB WALL, CONTENT TEAM ORANGE DIRECTOR

“Our team built that set from scratch, so to be able to see it all come together was amazing. Even building the set was pushing Strike’s boundaries since we haven’t done something like that yet. The set is trapping our models with its suffocating walls; showing the growing pains of the creative process and magazine in general. We have come so far as a magazine, so to be able to represent that in a shoot and reflect on what that means for us is super rewarding. This whole shoot, from concept to the actual production, was about pushing our boundaries and growing.”

— CLAYTON BUSH, CONTENT TEAM ORANGE ASSISTANT

“Magnifying Our Minds is a visual representation of how we must go out of our comfort zone to achieve creative greatness. The goal was to make a trippy effect by playing with the size of the model and the set. The set was insane because everything was small and our lenses were wide, so we played a lot with distortion. ”

— SAM ASFOOR, FILM DIRECTOR, PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT

“Magnifying Our Minds, to me, means being loud and daring. It is essentially our ability to create a name for ourselves and stand out in small spaces. I think the obvious favorite was the set for this shoot. I loved the usage of a small set since it pushed us to put an even greater emphasis on the styling of the model. When styling for this shoot, we were thinking of really funky patterns that were up to date. We wanted the models to look very eclectic and bold as it was supposed to demonstrate our creative power. This shoot greatly differed from the others since we probably came up with the outfits in around 15 minutes. Once we put the models in the pieces, everything just flowed and perfectly matched the set.”

— TAJAY COOTE, STYLING DIRECTOR

“During a few of our initial meetings, we had toyed around with the idea of placing Easter eggs throughout some of the shoots that would reference past issues. As soon as we started thinking of how to decorate the set for this shoot, I knew that this would be the perfect place to do it. If you look in the picture frames on the walls of the set, you’ll see pictures from some of the past issues. The size difference between the model and these pictures can be seen as a representation of how much we’ve grown after each issue. It’s little details like this that make me smile when looking over the finished magazine.”

— ASHLEY RICKMAN, CONTENT TEAM ORANGE ASSISTANT

READ ALL ABOUT IT IN STRIKE UF’S ISSUE 07: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Strike Out,

Beauty: Tamar Abrahami, Katie Geremia, Mackenzie Potts

Bookings: Katherine Ovadia, Alexia Stoupas, Tess Foels, Gabriele Gedvilaite, Emma Mack, Gal Malik, Heather Parrish

Castings: Tara Gaines, Skylar Sabol, Silvana Hanrahan, Isabella Teke

Concept: Tanner Crews, Gabriela Donati, Jacob Wall, Jordan Witt, Clayton Bush, Sophie Collongette, Ella Kulak, Kaicha Noel, Ashley Rickman

Film:  Patrick Amistoso, Samy Asfoor, Taylor Long, Ryan Rivas, Kyle Totkze, Angel Silva

Photography: Allison Epstein, Jared Neikirk, Brooke Ross, Johann Vazquez

Models: Jazzmyn Falloon, Joanne Kim

Stylings: Tajay Coote, Karis Perusek, Liv Vitale, Bianca Boor, Eva Duran, Eva Kamp, Shrinidhi Kumar, Gabi Purcell, Huntleigh Zhang

Writer: Kaicha Noel Editor: Hannah Shelton 

Gainesville