Photography Evaluation

final product

I took Rosie's advice to just have the images with a white background, I think it works a lot better this way

This photography project has been a great experience for me, it has shown and helped me explore the many ways in which you can creatively express your ideas and also how you present them. At the beginning of the project It did take me a while to get in to my stride and decide on a solid idea to work on as I found it quite difficult to decide on a good idea, but as I conducted some more research in to the theme and explored the ways in which existing artist conveyed there ideas it definitely provided me with a lot of inspiration. With my idea I had to spend a lot of time on adobe Photoshop trying to perfect my idea, I believe the outcome of my images turned out well however I really do need to improve my ability on Photoshop, I did struggle for while as I was editing my pictures on there, and I think If giving the opportunity to do this project again I would definitely try to improve the quality of the images to deliver a more professional standard, I really am trying to push myself to improve my standard of work. Overall I am happy with the end result.     

Reflections Film Review

The Idea

When hearing about the project at first I was quite excited, the aspect of experimentation for this project really fascinated me, so for my idea I really wanted to attack it in a non conventional manner and try and make it unique and powerful, after watching many films I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a film that was told through the use of sounds and typography. Using text has always been difficult and is not my strong suite so I wanted this to be the perfect opportunity to help develop that weakness. 

My Role

For this project I was the Director, this in actual fact was my first opportunity being a Director and managing a team of people, so it was quite exiting for me. I think the communication between my and my team could of been a lot better, as the Director I need to ensure that my vision is clearly communicated across to my team. I wanted to ensure that as a team we all stay informed and everyone is in the know and most importantly everyone contributed. It was a quite interesting experience working with friends, I learned that it is very important trying to establish a working and professional environment when filming and keeping that separate from your friendships, because it can be difficult to work with a friend who isn't performing. But it definitely is a great experience that I have learned from, I think I can only go up from here.   

Pre production

With the pre production process I wanted give everyone there own job which they can work on just to make things move a lot more efficiently. Everything done was then uploaded on to a group facebook page which I created so that everyone knows exactly whats going and what is happening next. One thing I can say is that we definitely underestimated how realistic our shooting schedule would be, when filming we done quite a few re shoots due to some technical issues. However apart from that we kept to our pre production schedule quite well, everyone had a job to do and stuck to it.

Conclusion 

This have definitely been marked as a learning experience, this film had a lot of potential to be something great, however due to poor planning and lack of communication during the post production stage of making the film, the outcome does not reflect the initial idea at all, which really is a shame. I have learned that being critical when planning is crucial and can make or break a film, also ensuring that communication is consistently maintained throughout all stages of the film, this was my vision my idea and as my role as the Director I have failed to get that vision across, but like I said before this is a learning experience so I need to take from I experienced here and improve from it.  

key points to learn from

• Improve verbal communications 
• be more critical and pay more attention to detail when planning 
• Be more assertive and also flexible 

Reflections Film making the film / Evaluation

The Idea

When hearing about the project at first I was quite excited, the aspect of experimentation for this project really fascinated me, so for my idea I really wanted to attack it in a non conventional manner and try and make it unique and powerful, after watching many films I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a film that was told through the use of sounds and typography. Using text has always been difficult and is not my strong suite so I wanted this to be the perfect opportunity to help develop that weakness. 

My Role

For this project I was the Director, this in actual fact was my first opportunity being a Director and managing a team of people, so it was quite exiting for me. I think the communication between my and my team could of been a lot better, as the Director I need to ensure that my vision is clearly communicated across to my team. I wanted to ensure that as a team we all stay informed and everyone is in the know and most importantly everyone contributed. It was a quite interesting experience working with friends, I learned that it is very important trying to establish a working and professional environment when filming and keeping that separate from your friendships, because it can be difficult to work with a friend who isn't performing. But it definitely is a great experience that I have learned from, I think I can only go up from here.   

Pre production

With the pre production process I wanted give everyone there own job which they can work on just to make things move a lot more efficiently. Everything done was then uploaded on to a group facebook page which I created so that everyone knows exactly whats going and what is happening next. One thing I can say is that we definitely underestimated how realistic our shooting schedule would be, when filming we done quite a few re shoots due to some technical issues. However apart from that we kept to our pre production schedule quite well, everyone had a job to do and stuck to it.

Conclusion 

This have definitely been marked as a learning experience, this film had a lot of potential to be something great, however due to poor planning and lack of communication during the post production stage of making the film, the outcome does not reflect the initial idea at all, which really is a shame. I have learned that being critical when planning is crucial and can make or break a film, also ensuring that communication is consistently maintained throughout all stages of the film, this was my vision my idea and as my role as the Director I have failed to get that vision across, but like I said before this is a learning experience so I need to take from I experienced here and improve from it.  

key points to learn from

• Improve verbal communications 
• be more critical and pay more attention to detail when planning 
• Be more assertive and also flexible 

Experimental sound Completed

Experimental sound Completed

Evaluation

Here is my final sound recording, I believe I have successfully created and merged the right sounds together that reflect the type of mood and atmosphere you would expect when looking at this image. I have considered time and space and attempted to recreate a quite surreal atmosphere inside and outside. If given the opportunity to do this again I probably would try and create a lot emotion through dialogue during inside the diner, also consider life in 1942 a lot more. Through the tutorials I can honestly say that I have learned a whole lot about sound, its such a remarkable element with boundless opportunities, its something that I definitely need to improve upon and perfect.  

Time Art Finished / Evaluation

Time Art Finished / Evaluation 

For my idea I wanted to keep it simple, I wanted to show the viewer a little more of who I am and what i'm interested in, I believe I have achieved this goal and demonstrated various techniques that I have learned and obtained through tutorials and my own research. If given the opportunity to do this again I probably would try and utilize the empty space a bit more and perhaps make the video a lot more interactive and also experiment with different font styles. In terms of color that is one thing that I have considered and applied to my work as well as typography to make up for the loss of sound which is something I think I successfully achieved. Although at times it was quite difficult at time with trying to fill each screen with content that would perfectly reflect each activity.   

Time Art -Effects used

Time Art Progress - Effects used

With a little help from the tutorials I watched and also the tutorials we learned with Simon in previous lessons I really wanted to try apply the skills that I learned towards the Time Art video .

http://atomlintimeart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/after-effects-introduction.html

 

For example using the image above for the middle screen showing me listening to music I wanted to display musical notes that will appear, just to make the visuals look a lot more genuine and believable. In order to do this I made multiple copies of musical notes and then placed key frames on each layer and adjusted the scale for each music note. So as it appears multiple musical notes will appear in different sizes moving around the screen. 

(Musical notes- key framing)

I made a late change to my idea and how it would end and decided to include a little more humor and comedy to the video. Similar to the tutorial given to us by Simone about manipulating objects using key framing, I wanted to attempt to do the same

  

Tutorial we did 

http://atomlintimeart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/after-effects-introduction.html

Furthermore by right clicking key frames I then selected the easy ease option to make each movement a lot smoother 

Editing in Audition

Editing in Audition

When layering different sounds together I wanted to make sure that they can smoothly transition in and out to to the point where you don't even realize the transition, because at first the way I layered the sounds 

What my final multitrack looked like

Changed my Idea !!!! (experimental sound)

Changed my Idea !!!!

I decided to just keep my idea simple and just re-enact the sounds you would expect when viewing the image, to make it more authentic I wanted to incorporate sounds you may expect to hear in the 1940's. So I stumbled across a man called Arthur Tracy

Arthur Tracy was an American vocalist, billed as The Street Singer. His performances in theatre, films and radio, along with his recordings, brought him international fame in the 1930s. I looked online and found radio broadcast Arthur Tracy did in 1942.

I thought this would be a perfect fit to compliment my sound more and make it sound a lot more realistic. One piece of advice I gained which was extremely helpful was to always refer back to the image, which is something I never did before, which reflected in my first attempt. Below I have a few sounds I recorded, some I used and others I was just experimenting with different things for example sounds I used with my mouth and other objects.

Rosie's response (photography)

Rosie's response (photography)

Rosie's had a lot of positive feedback about my photos she said the images looked quite strong, however she thinks the images would look a lot better with just the white background, and how placing another background on top of it  distracts you from the main image and doesn't make it as strong. Which I agree with, so for my final images I am just going to have them on a white background.

Recording Studio Film/sound project

27/03/2014
Foley Studio *1

We decided to record a few sounds for our experimental sound project and also a few sounds for film. The day was mostly spent experimenting with whatever we can find and seeing what sound we can create. The picture below shows a few examples of things we used to make different sounds for example in the first image we used the screen to recreate a heart beat, in the third image we found the thumping sound the door makes when closed quite interesting so we also recorded that. 

One thing I didn't consider when recording is creating my own sounds, by using my mouth and hands. That's definitely one thing I am going to do when I use the recording studio.

Sound we experimented with by using various different objects 

(experimental sound)

Sounds for our Film 

(The Recovery) 

photography completed images

Completed

In response to the brief mentioning we needed to consider the presentation of our work, I wanted to keep it simple and relatable. So took pictures of the most common methods in which we consume and document information in today's day and age and simply just placed the images on top. 

Reflections Leah's response

Brief notes 

• similar to wangechi mutu and ellen gallagher ( artists I need to look at) 
• embrace the ambivalence
• composites of aspirations  
• problem with text 

 Leah was quite pleased with my photography images, I highlighted my issue with incorporating the use of text in my images, she expressed her understanding with the difficulty of using text. I initially intend on having no text on my images mainly because I don't think it will compliment the image, also I don't want to give too much information away I like to keep a bit of ambiguity. Leah also mentioned how my photos remind her of an artist called  wangechi mutu








We began searching for images from this artist to see if they included text and we couldn't find any, so see also suggesting perhaps including a response to each image. Since I done research and gathered information about each person and there memories,  Leah suggested I include a response from questions I asked in each image, so I tried it out 

Here was the test shot I did using text, I mean it looks ok but I really think my Images look a lot better without text.

Reflections photography *5

Progress

 I developed a new imaged which looked at more better, I cropped out the background of each image and revealed more of there faces so it can be identified a lot more 

I decided to continue with this technique and do four more images partnering found images of the subject when they where younger and another more modern and up to date, both containing images and symbols of memories of there childhood and present day aspirations. As part of the briefs objective I now need to consider presentation of the images and also a textual component. 

reflections photography *4

From the brief ...

'In this unit you will explore the theme of memory. This could be through its relationship to the archive – the images, films, objects, documents and traces through which we recall and revisit individual and shared memories and histories. You could also consider or imagine possible futures and how these may link to the present and the past. For example you could choose to examine life cycles: replenishment or regeneration, the old constantly being replaced by the new, or even the young usurping the old. From seed to harvest, a cake baked and eaten, the repurposing of old things into new, the passing of genes to new generations and so on. The possibilities are endless.'

'Each student should produce a set or series of five still images around the themes of the unit. The images could incorporate found images and other media with your own digital stills. The project should also have a textual component and a considered design for presenting the work.'

My Idea

For my photography idea I have decided to convey the aspect of memory by portraying our childhood ambitions in contrast to our present day aspirations. As a child we all have a memory of what we wanted to become as we were older, I just find it interesting to see how peoples ideas and interested change throughout time. So I spoke to a few people and questioned them about there earliest memory of what they wanted to become when they became older, to my surprise the results from the research I conducted demonstrates that hardly anyone has the ambition as a child compared to what occupation they are currently striving for. 

I browsed through many ideas and techniques I could possibly but decided to the method of double exposure. It's an art form I have admired for some time now, artist's such as 

Andre De Freitas Sarah K Bryne who is a particular favorite and also Christoffer Relander.

Andre De Freitas

Sarah K Bryne

Christoffer Relander

The ability to convey more than one piece of information but still molded into the outline of a subject fascinates me and quite frankly looks incredible, so I began doing a few test shots  of myself to try and recreate this technique of double exposure.  

Test

Just for practice I found an image of myself which I then uploaded to Adobe photoshop. (I intend on using images of other people)

To help complete the objective of the brief I wanted to somehow incorporate the memory of a childhood ambition. Personally for me I remember me wanting to become a footballer, so I gathered some images online of a football and attempted to overlay it on to my found image.

Using the blending tool to double expose the image

The end result came out looking quite interesting but not as I had hoped. I then took the image to my peers for their opinion and the response was quite constructive they could not identify the person in the image and questioned the choice of image in consideration with the background and its relevance.  

1 attempt ( young andre)

2nd attempt ( present day andre)

Back to the drawing board

With consideration to the response I got from others I decided to try again think more about the image itself as well as its back ground and also identifying the subject ....

production meeting #4

For this meeting I decided it would be a lot more convenient If we just used a webcam, so we had a quick production meeting using oovoo. 

We briefly just kept each other up to date with what they are doing. Dowan continued hes work with the visual effects and mentioned he's progress with applying effects. Ulysses brought to my attention a few concerns he had regarding sound for certain scenes, and also showed us how he was getting on also with hes sound editing. Unfortunately Diallo and Chloe where unable to attend but they still are continuing there work with editing and typography designs.

Time Art Test Shots

Test Shots

I recorded a few test shots for my film and decided to chooses 3 activities which I moat enjoy doing, playing FIFA listening to music and studying, now I wouldn't say studying is the most enjoyable but it's an activity that I do quite frequently. I started to consider the background and what you see around me (the subject) and how that may compliment the activity and also reflect myself. I watch a lot of Youtuber video's about gamer's and vlogger's and I wanted to do some research and see how they interact in there videos and also how they are positioned in the frame.  

Here are the videos I uploaded, I wanted to make sure that It looks like they are shot in different times of the day, of course referring to the brief with incorporating the essence and element of  'Time'. So I brought the footage to After Effects  and started to experiment with different ways in which I can help emphasize each activity. 

 I initially started with adding a FIFA football video into the screen so it looks more like I'm actually playing, it mskes it look a lot more realistic I also started playing with keyframes and different ways I can introduce text and images.

(using keyframes)

I swiftly came to the conclusion that It would be quite difficult adding this video file onto the image due to the restricted space when the image is cropped.

The use of Text in our Film (post production work)

The style of the text and its purpose 
post production 


When using text it is vital that it helps and compliments the scene. I want the text we use to be an extension of the characters feelings and emotions. So with the use of text I want to ensure that we consider 

Colour 
Size
Texture 
Appearance  

It is vital that when using text the audience can easily understand and interpret the purpose and intention during each scene. We need to make sure that the text is being use the heighten the scenes and not just being as a crutch. I done a bit research with existing videos which use text and it helped me establish an idea of how we can successfully incorporate typography with certain scenes. Also how they consider colour size texture and its appearance.  

Justin Timberlake - Suit & Tie ( lyric video ) 

• I like how the video uses focus really well with the text, which visually looks really good 
• Also how they have animated the text to follow similar movements and actions 
• In terms of colour they consistently follow the theme of gold white red and black
• They have considered the colour of the text in contrast with the colour in each scene well to ensure the text is clearly identifiable.
•  There are scenes where the typographies appearance changes from bold strong colours to a more faint and see through look  
• The text makes quite subtle appearances 
• As the text appears on the screen it animates with movement 

Katy Perry - Roar (Lyric Video)

With this video they utilise the use of symbols  as text to deliver there message, this is also something we to consider with our film.

Anne's review about the film

Anne's comments 

• Be experimental with sound
• Try and help develop the characters emotions through text 
• Visually it looks good and we have considered space for text 
• We are unable to use the music playing in certain scenes unless we contact the Owners permission and get clearance
• We faced an issue with audio that was recorded on top of dialogue so Anne recommended us to think of a creative way of  to still use the scene but create our own audio or record a new wild track 
• Anne was pleased with the footage and stated it has a lot of potential with further development 

Experimental sound Review

Review 

After presenting my findings and ideas to Simon and Joe, they both agreed that I provided good background research and information about the Nighthawks image. However it was evident that I did not decide on a solid Idea to work on, I proposed a few ideas a few narratives that I considered developing further. 

I have decided that for my sound project that I am interpret the image which was set in 1941 into a modern day sound.   

Tutorials 
To help me better understand Adobe Audition and some of its functions I took a look at some tutorials online that I found quite helpful, one in particular from a man called Mike Russell who does online video tutorials about using Adobe Audition.