My Photography Instalment

In terms of my photography series itself, I am very happy with the result. I really like the cartoon feel it has to it, as well as collage to make it interesting. In terms of presentation, I originally wanted the photographs in a strange shaped family photo frame, however I couldn't seem to find any. Instead I wanted to paint a tree and then place the photos on the tree, similar to the image below.

However when I came to do this with my photography, I found that it did not look as good as I thought, and it was just too much as there is a lot going within my photography piece and the tree would distract the viewer from the photography itself.

I decided to keep it simple, and arrange it in a circle like shape. Looking back, if I knew how much space I would of had, I probably would of made the wall look like it was a living room,  having an item of furniture and curtains, with the photography framed in the middle. However due to the colours, I think the simplicity still works fairly well.

The Evaluation

This project definantly pushed my skills, especially in times where I felt I held a big responsibility in this project. Based around the video, 'Plastic Bag', we wanted to create a beautiful, cinematic feel like film, that experimented with a scarf being the main subject rather than a person. Although a scarf can just been taken anywhere, I still found it challenging due to the unpredictable movement of the scarf, and this project being heavily reliant on certain weather conditions.

What this film means to me

Even though this was Tori's initial idea, during the editing process I wanted to reflect some of my experiences within the journey of the scarf. The journey of this scarf shows that anything can happen, whether it can be controlled or not, and at first change can leave you feeling lost and down, however out of the bad you always manage to find good thing in the end.

Pre Production

Being the producer I felt that we were prepared during pre production, as we managed to complete the product on folder early. However due to weather circumstances we had to postpone filming. It showed me how even though you can be prepared there are still things that can prevent filming, and therefore have to be rescheduled. I enjoyed thinking and setting up the small sets, including the dyeing and shop window scene, as it allowed me to use my imagination to make my kitchen into  fairly realistic shop window. In these scenes I also experimented with lighting, making sure the items were well lit.

Filming

Filming was a challenging part in this production as it required a lot of different locations. Even though we spent a whole day in Virginia waters, we still found we had quite a lot of shots to do. If I were to be producer again for a film like this I would of improved our planning and made a more detailed schedule to film everything in a week, rather than having to get pick up shots over a longer period of time. Also in some scenes a tripod wasn't used, sometimes this can be effective however I think in this film it should of been used at all times.

Post Production

Editing the clips together was fairly straight forward as we had a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve with the story. The voice over which we had recorded in the sound studios was fairly tricky to pick out which would suit the film and place it in relevant places, without seeming too over powering. If we would of had more time, I possibly would of re recorded the voice over, to a more natural voice. However due to time restrictions and feedback from class mates the voice seemed to work with the beautiful tone we have tried to reflect in our piece. 

Most of us in our group took part in editing.  The skills I learnt from this project was how to use premiere pro to edit, fade clips together and colour balance some footage.

Final Verdict

Even though we had quite a few issues through the production process, I feel we managed to create a good short film, reflecting the journey of this scarf. I definantly managed to put my emotions and interpretations into this piece. If I were to change anything, I would of improved my organisation and time managing skills, as some of the shots could of been more betterly thought out with more time and consideration.  Also next time I will consider on focusing on the sound side more, and getting successful sounds of the environment, as we didn't include the environment sounds I'm our piece, mainly due to the wind interfering with equipment.

Making the Shop

One of the tasks I quite enjoyed in our film was artificially setting up some of the sets. Using a clothes rack, white card and lots of lights, I managed to create a shop set. Lighting was really important especially for a shop set, as usually shops are well lit.

Editing, Colour correcting, and all that nice stuff

During editing and little colour correcting is need to make the colours balanced in each clip, due to changes in light, weather and location. To do this I watch some videos on youtube to learn how to colour correct successfully, and get the more cinematic 'pretty' look that we are going for in this film, as we want it to look at pretty as possible.

I defiantly helped with the scarf being orange as it contrasts against the blue, white and green colours.

Lost scarf

We had a few scenes that needed filling and rethinking. Seeings I live extremely near the beach I thought I would use this to my advantage and do the 'scarf getting lost' scene at the beach as it is windy, giving it a more realistic chance of it flying away.

I think the beach scenes came out well as I was able to experiment with different angles and depth of fields.

Presenting my photography

Because my photography pieces are based around my family, even though it's main purpose to show the different stages in life, to present my photography I wanted to present it similar to how family photos may be presented.

I was trying to frames that were joined together and we slightly unique, however during my trip to ikea I had no luck in finding any. Looking around a bit, I saw photos displayed similar to a family tree in one of the set up rooms. I really liked this as it really drew my eye to the wall, but also it carries the theme of the family tree.

Ive bough 5 square frames which I hope to attach to a large board where the tree will be painted on. If this idea does not work out I may change the shape and set them out in a circle, and paint clock hands in the middle.

Final Time Art Piece

My final time art, put together in one video.

Time Art Evaluation

This whole project definantly helped me become more familiar with After  Effects and the basic tools it has to offer. I am fairly happy with my final piece, as I have managed to show techniques using After Effects, as well as following my main idea of showing how the body responds internally and externally, to different situations/moods.

I used Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop to create my three screens. The teachniques I used in After Effects for my screens included, color correction, clip rotation, blur transitions, masking, clip stabalization. I also created the hear monitor animation from scratch on after effects.

Screen shot of how I created the heartbeat monitor. I changed the speed of it depending on how fast the rate should of been going. When I show the scared and excited reactions, I make the speed of this animation faster as the heart heart would be going much faster than resting.

I also used photoshop to create the outline of Josh for my middle screen.

How I created the reflection in the eye by using the mask and eraser tool, and stopping at each frame at the beginning, to make it as realistic as possible. 

Exported at the required settings.

I feel like I could of improved a lot of things in this piece in order to make it more personal, and experimental. Even though there are clips of Josh's reactions in this, I still had to use reactions and close ups of other people which I sourced, in order to make the piece more effective and clearer of its purpose. I could of tried to film the reaction of more than one person. I also feel that the transition to each reaction could of been a lot smoother and maybe more spaced out, as there are a lot going on each screen. Even though there is a lot to look at on each screen, I think this is good as it gives the audience a chance to watch it over again finding something new in the piece and take some time to work out how the three screens connect.

Experimental Sound Evaluation

Although I had some issues with the mixing levels, and my piece being too quiet at -10db, when turned up I am happy with my sound piece and the story I am trying to portray. I have also become a lot more confident using audition, which was a fear for me at he beginning of this project as I had never used any sound program before.

Using the reverbs and effects really helped to create a sense of wide space which is key for my sound piece, as it involve the subject running around this big hall.

The next sound project I will make sure my input levels on the microphone are loud enough and to make sure my levels when mixing are correct too. I possibly need to use speakers rather than headphones next time.

My final Photography series

Experiment Sound Final Piece - Embankment

Originally I was going to do toy sounds coming from each box, however I found this hard to put together different sounds to make a track similar to One Pig (Matthew Herbert), but also I felt that it needed to be more personal, seeings Embankment was a personal based exhibit for Rachel Whiteread.

Instead I made the each box that is opened to say a word on how I felt when I moved away from home to university, which is suggested by the first voice "your life is going to change". I wanted to use phones so it seemed a bit more realistic instead of just noises coming from boxes. When I first started university it was very over whelming and I suffered with anxiety for a sort period last year. This is reflected by the repeated words such as 'I'm scared', 'independence', 'alone', 'work', 'you can do this', which are over laid with each other to created an over whelming experience for the listener.

To create the sense that a person was in a massive hall I firstly imported a soft humming sound. Then I added reverbs to make certain sounds echo. Effects were added to my voice to make it appear as if it coming out of a phone. I also had to adjust the levels of each sound, especially the phone ringing as the person got closer to the phone in the box.

A well as recording my own sounds, I used some extra sound effects from freesound.org , as I was unable to record a traditional phone sound ect.

https://www.freesound.org/people/Cabeeno%20Rossley/sounds/175039/

https://www.freesound.org/people/cbakos/sounds/50646/

https://www.freesound.org/people/JZProductions/sounds/147386/

https://www.freesound.org/people/YOH/sounds/144479/

https://www.freesound.org/people/crz1990/sounds/135902/

https://www.freesound.org/people/thegoose09/sounds/125384/

Over all I am fairly pleased with my piece considering I was slightly scared of Audition and what I could do on it, seeings I have never experimented with sound before. I have learnt a lot from this sound unit, and hopefully my sound skills will approve a lot more in the future!!!

Photography 1,2,3 & 4 (coming soon!)

Slowly getting there with my photography, Im going to post some screenshot below as well as my completed pieces

I create each picture by cutting around the figure and then adding a stroke. I then layer the photos and erase the edges to fit the shape. I then paint in the other solid colours to give it a more cartoon feel.

Photography Progress Photo 1, 2 & 3!

Slowly getting there with my photography pieces. Because I know what technique I want to use its a little easier. Below is the baby, child and teenager photo, the next two will be an adult and a elderly woman.

Photography testing and finding the right technique

For my final photography series I wanted to go for a collage technique, which I researched previously, as I feel it gives more depth, colour and interest to the photography, as well as being able to show multiple things and representations on one photo piece.

I started off collaging photos of me and my family as children onto the shape of a baby. I found that this was fairly difficult and that I needed a large amount of baby pictures to make it effective, and I just did not have the achieve for this.

So I decided to try different collaging techniques instead. And after looking at the photographer Andre B Myers I wanted to incorporate this cartoon feel into my photography, as I really like this colourful technique, and will be a reflection of what I like.

After playing around on photoshop for a while I came up with this as my first possible photo. I am now working on the other four, creating them in the same style like this, but just at different ages (child, teenager, adult and elderly) to show a life cyle. I also need to consider text in this piece, so the audience has a clear idea of what my project is trying to represent/show.

More transparent version.