LBM Project 4 (Collaboration)- 'White T-Shirt' Week 1

Day 1-

Today we had an intro to the white t-shirt project. We got in to groups with people from graphics, fashion and LBM- this would mean that we could use each other’s specialisms to contribute to the project.

We visited Dover Street Market later in the day- it was a multi-level shop/gallery in which they presented clothing, shoes and accessories. It was a really amazing place, the design of the shop was phenomenal- each level took you on an adventure through various fashion styles. I noticed that the environment was perhaps more important than the clothes themselves. I reckon they could sell anything as long as they put the same effort into the display- most of the clothes weren’t particularly fancy but were priced very high.

We discussed ideas we got from the market over lunch afterwards- the main thing we all took from the gallery was that the look of the same simple garment can be transformed depending on the environment it is placed in. We agreed to have a simple graphic on the t shirt similar to Comme des Garcons to give a solid brand identity and consistency between the images while retaining the whole simple white t-shirt feel.

Day 2-

Today we had a lighting workshop

As I have used studio lighting quite a bit before I spent the session helping the others out and working out complications with flash triggers.

We had a more in depth discussion about how we were going to shoot the photos and what graphics we would be using. We went through many ideas- having graphics on the t-shirt, no graphics, how will it be worn, location or studio etc etc

We played around in illustrator and on paper to test out different shapes/colours for the logo
We settled on a simple design in black.

Looking at editorials in Vogue
Decided to do images as if they were in a magazine- mixture of single and double page spreads.

I found it challenging as everyone had very different opinions and it was sometimes quite hard to come to a decision.

After the uni day I went to scout out various possible locations for our shoot: Canary Wharf, Green Park and ‘Winter Wonderland’ at Hyde Park. I took a lot of test shots so when it came to the actual shoot I would know what I particularly wanted.

Day 3-

Liverpool st + brick lane

Went to ‘Protein’ and had discussions with two photographers (friends of Othello’s)- it was really interesting as they did similar stuff to what I like. They talked a lot about what it was like to work in a group situation in the real world and about the importance of teamwork. I got a few of my questions answered.

I found brick lane really interesting- perhaps not the location I would choose to shoot in for a personal project but it was still very interesting.

Grace modelled for me so we could get to know the area and have some shots to go by on our final shoot.

Deciding on how to print t-shirts. We discovered that Ravensbourne does not do t-shirt printing and we would have to order special transfer paper to achieve the closest effect. Paint seemed like the right option, it would be easier to apply in small amounts and would give a nice textural quality to the graphics- similar to comme de garcons.

LBM Project 3- 'Transcription' Week 2

Day 1-

Today we had talks on colour and composition.

I find colour really interesting and a powerful media to use to convey emotion- or just grab people's attention! I often spend ages in photoshop tweaking colours in my image so that they are just right.

I learnt some new rules from the composition talk that will come in very handy- previously I was relying mainly on rule of thirds.

Day 2-

Character talks- developing ideas

Photoshoot-

I encountered various problems while doing the photoshoot this week…

The first problem was the fact that the person I had arranged to model for me was ill on Wednesday, the day I had planned the photoshoot on, this meant that I had to find someone else to model for me. I was able to find Mae who was available from 2:30pm on Thursday.

The location I finally settled on was an amazing find- the trees canopying the area were a lovely rich shade of yellow-orange and the ground was covered with a carpet of leaves. There was a small path winding through the trees which was perfect to frame a centralised subject.

I’m sure I will be visiting this location again for another shoot.

Halfway through the photoshoot the sun all of a sudden disappeared and we were plunged in to darkness within a matter of minutes. This was really not helpful at all as I wanted all the shots to remain consistent with each other. I had to slightly modify the shots to deal with this problem- when Mae picked up the prism the surroundings were plunged in to darkness.

When I got the tripod and camera set up properly I had a peek through at the scene and Mae was walking on a log at the edge of the frame- I thought it was quite a cool shot, so I took it.

Day 3-

Today we had our final crits

The main points that I took from the crit this week was
-Think about giving my series of photos a name

-The importance of printing, it has a big impact on how professional you look. A screen doesn't do the images justice

LBM Project 3- 'Transcription' Week 1

Week 1

Day 1-

Today was a one day project to present a ‘Radical Idea’ at the end of the day.

It was quite hectic having only a day to come up with a concept and produce an outcome- it forced us to come up with ideas in a short space of time.

We spent some time in the library browsing through books to come up with our concept and then used a combination of drawings and crude photographs to explain it to the class.

As we were also just mixed with the media production course it also challenged us by making us work with people we only just met- a good experience to prepare for real life situations where that would happen.

Day 2-

Today we had a jam-packed day of gallery visits- some were really great and others were not so.

I loved the photographers’ gallery- the ‘Bibi’ exhibition by Jacques Lartigue had some very well composed photos- I took lots of notes on my favourite images for inspiration later. The gallery about motherhood upstairs was also interesting- the images really work as a cohesive set- each image would contribute to the whole idea.

I also enjoyed the Philip Lorca DiCorcia gallery- these were very well crafted images which paid attention to all the minute detail and delicacy of lighting.

After visiting the galleries we went to see the film ‘The Selfish Giant’. I thought was a very well made film although it was a tad too depressing for my liking! I found the ending of the film very interesting- even though it was very sad I felt that the main character had really developed as a person and discovered something new/learnt a valuable lesson.

Day 3-

Today we had our initial crits. We were with Chris- when it came to my turn I showed him some photos that I was interested in, both from the galleries and from artists I admire personally. He noticed a unning theme through the photos I liked- ‘Fairytale’. I thought this was a great idea with many possible ways of approaching. I then spent the rest of the day researching fairytales and noting down artists I was interested in who approached the same theme.

LBM Project 2- 'Who am I?' Week 2

Day 1-

Today we learnt about file management and some basic editing techniques for film, we also tested out the Final Cut/Premiere workflow.

I noted a few key points from the talk on file management: the first was the importance of backing up all your work every couple weeks; the second point was to use an external hard drive as it is easier to use the same files with different computers and also will make space available on your on-board hard drive for program files; the third point was to make sure when editing video to set your scratch disk location to a folder in your external hard drive so that all the files stay in the same place; we should also test our workflow before any major projects come around; we should add files to capture scratch before importing or use Compressor/Adobe Media Encoder instead of import.

As we were testing out our video editing workflow I clearly had to have some video files to work with so over our break time I decided to be creepy and film everyone doing random things. In the end I used some clips of Matt eating a sausage roll and created this ‘epic’ film in which the camera would gradually crop into his face so you could see him tearing the sausage roll violently from his mouth- I may have gotten slightly carried away with the slow-mo bit at the end!

Day 2-

Today was about experimentation, research, planning and talking to the tutors about our ideas.

I talked to Chris about my ideas so far and he suggested a few photographers to look at- all of which meticulously plan each of their images and stage seemingly real events. He encouraged me to get going and experiment with techniques relating to this so I experimented with compositing multiple images of me walking around the space we were in using a tripod and a remote trigger. It seemed to work well so I decided this was the way I was going to shoot my questions response photo.

I spent the rest of the day looking at the artists and sketching mock-up scenes of what I wanted to shoot.

Photoshoots-

Only had 2 hours booked in to church- in that time I had to set up all the sound equipment, take all the photos and then pack it away- it was very hectic! I started off at the back with a wide shot- then realised a more compressed, longer focal length was needed to obtain the look I wanted. I had to rearrange the sound desk and the speakers to fit correctly in shot.

The second photoshoot was simpler; I used a single light directly behind me and a reflector low down in front of me. It took a while to get the light to catch on the cufflink, I had to move the reflector many times, but I finally made it.

Day 3-

Group reviews of final pieces – each got given feedback. I received a positive response with some good constructive criticism on my images- particularly relating to the out of focus head at the bottom of my composite image at the church and whether it was needed or not.

Research in the library

Later in the day we had an After Effects introduction session – I created an ‘epic’ animation to go with my previous ‘epic’ film. I hadn’t actually used After Effects before; it was very useful to know more about this powerful tool that was available for me to use.

LBM Project 2- 'Who am I?' Week 1

Day 1-

Today was a very odd day- the dreaded ‘UK Storm’ had hit and practically all the trains at my station had been cancelled. I managed to finally get myself into uni at 1:45pm after waiting at the station for an hour and a half!

I’m going to be quite honest with today- I already am very confident with using the exposure triangle, aperture, shutter speed and ISO so I didn’t really learn anything from the talk at the beginning. It felt slightly strange trying to take notes on things that I find obvious.

We were then split up into groups to mess around with lighting for portraiture. We were encouraged to play with different settings on the camera to achieve different looks to the image.

I actually spent most of the time in front of the camera as the others weren’t too keen to model – it’s a rare position for me to be in!

Day 2-

We started off with a photography talk where there were many good examples

Induction to camera/sound equipment and clr

We spent the rest of the day thinking about ideas for the questions and object we were going to use for the ‘Who am I?’ project. I found this quite difficult

Day 3-

In the morning we were shown some examples of animations by various artists- I found it quite interesting despite it not being the area I am interested in. The animations we were shown differed quite a bit from the tv standard digital animation, they showed how much you can achieve within animation if you think outside of the box.

We then had our initial crits for the ‘Who am I?’ project in which I got some useful feedback. The importance of going out and getting things done as soon as possible was stressed for the projects. I perhaps could have done a bit more in this first week of the project but I will certainly take this advice for the next projects.