Final Edits

Aries

'Upbeat and magnetic personality'

'Always look out for their friends with caring and generosity'

'Natural optimism'

Capricorn

'Deep, mysterious and full of intrigue'

'They live by self discipline and responsibility'

'Concerned by public standing'

Libra

'They have mastered the art of relationships'

'Lazy when getting their hands dirty and doing work themselves'

'Likely to be underachievers' 

Taurus

'Not a total social butterfly, and can be shy to strangers'

'They have a stubborn streak that can result in laziness'

'Avoids talking about their emotions'

Virgo

'They need to learn to calm down and not over analyse a situation'

'People might find them cold or detached'

'Can tire themselves out without even moving'

Photoshop

After importing my images into photoshop I was quickly able to see that I had to do quite a lot of colour editing as I had done my photoshoot over the course of an afternoon and was using the light from a window, so the sun changed over the hours I was there, which created different tones and colour hues on my subjects skin. To compensate for this I use the adjustments tab in photoshop and used the 'exposure', 'brightness', 'contrast' and 'saturation' tools to play around with the colours and make them match each image. 

I also cropped the images down to help with the framing.

I had a slight issue with the composition, as when I took the photos I was too focused on the subject and when they showed expressions to notice the framing at some points, which meant that I ended up with some odd areas in the background. 

An example of this would be in one of the photos I had cut a photo frame in half, which distracts the attention of the viewers from the main subject of the photo. 

To overcome this I used the clone tool to edit out the photo frame from the edge of the image, so it's just plain wall. I also cropped the images down to help with this.

 

I wanted to try out something that was inspired by Amy Friend, and I was thinking of trying to incorporate star signs into my work but when I did it ended up looking tacky and so I decided that it would look better without.

Final Photoshoot

Practice Photoshoot

Our astrological signs aim to speak to the individual, although they are generalisations they supposedly reflect who we are or at least parts of us. This concept of personal reflection is what helped decide the setting for this series. I wanted my subjects to be in a natural scenario rather than a controlled one; I chose a window seat at a local coffee shop, as opposed to a studio. I believe this gave these people the space to be comfortably expressive, or natural.

During the practice shoot I spent some time figuring out the most aesthetically appropriate camera settings for daylight photos. Before heading out to the location I used the opportunity of a similar set up in my room – capturing a person in the natural light from a nearby window. At first the photos were far too dark, I took a few without a particular point of focus just to work out a suitable aperture to shutter speed ratio.

Digital Stills Project Ideas and Research

For my digital skills project the theme is 'Reflection'.

I have began to look into star signs, as people often look at their horoscopes as a reflection of themselves and try to pull some kind of meaning from it.

Andrew Lundwall

Research – Andrew Lundwall/Amy Friend

These fragmented portraits of people represent the human need to connect the dots of their own personhood, a self-defining process according to their assigned star constellations. As these images show constellations overlaying the fragmented faces. This connected with my theme of astrology and urged me focus on what horoscopes mean to the individual.

Amy Friend

Experimental Film Pitch

Our theme for our experimental films is 'Memory' and 'Reflection'

'Anonymous'

Synopsis

For my film I am going to use all the different documents people gather through their life, such as birth certificates, letters from school, drivers license, passport, deed to house, university application, CV etc. I am going to photocopy them, so that I can edit them and cut parts out as well as editing out any vital personal information such as full name, address and phone numbers. They will be montaged together on screen, and there may be specific words taken from the documents that seem interesting that flash across the whole screen.

I am intending to use different people as subjects, so that I get a broad variety of documents to use, and also planning on filming each person’s silhouette to overlay over the top of the segment their documents are in to promote the idea of anonymity, and how we are often seen as just paperwork by the government and they don’t see the people behind the documents.

Treatment

The film is going to tell the story's of a couple of different people, as I felt that just one person may not necessarily have a big range of documents personally, and this way I could have a broader choice to show.

I want the film to have a slightly psychedelic undertone to it, with interesting lights and patterns across the documents when they're filmed, to give a hint of the messy undertones of a persons life and how these papers that are supposed to represent our lives are a poor indicator to the reality of those peoples lives.

I also want to show a link to the people to whom the documents belong, so I'm going to film each of the participants with dramatic lighting behind then to create a silhouette, which I will then layer over the top of the section of the film with their documents in it. I will do this using 'redheads' from the lighting workshop I took part in, and positioning one behind the subject and that will be the only light on in the room, which will create a silhouette.

I intend to show my audience that people are more than the documents that represent them in files, and that every piece of identification and documentation has a past, and as systems get more updated and outdated we still remain just numbers and statistics and pieces of paper to the people who deal with organising everything.

The effect that I'm going to be attempt is that of some sort of montage, with the documents flashing up on the screen relatively quickly, and at the same time as some of the other documents if I get enough. If I don't I can always repeat some which would add some bulk to the piece.

The participants would ideally be relatively diverse in age and background etc. to make for a more interesting piece, so I will talk to family members and family friends about taking part, and also people at university. 

It would most likely be all filmed in a studio where I can control the lighting and and environment, but I will consider going outside for it if the weather is working in my favour and the light is suitable.

Migration Experimental Film

Migration