LARGE FORMAT CAMERA INDUCTION

On Wednesday Peter Renn held an all day workshop on large format cameras, under the Fields and Frames unit. Beforehand I was really excited as I had never used large format before and I wanted to know how it looked and worked. Peter gave a presentation in the morning of famous photographers that use large format and why. We were shown some beautiful examples of large format work and it was incredible. The quality and definition you can get in the photo is incredible, and this allows you to be able to enlarge the images easier.

After the presentation, Peter got out some large format cameras and showed us how to set them up and make sure they aren't damaged and in good working order. He also told us what to book out if we ever need one, as when you book out a large format camera and a tripod, it doesn't come with the film paper slots, so you have to book them out separate. The setting up of the camera itself was fascinating, the care and time you take over the camera is important as it is delicate. We were also shown how to load the film, and how to set the camera up to take a picture. This was a lot of information to take it, but luckily I wrote notes. We were then reminded on the light meters and how they will come in handy whilst shooting. After this, Peter gave us some film paper and sent us off to take pictures of whatever we wanted and experiment. We got into groups and my group was me, Nina and George. we decided to go around uni and try and take a self portrait in the reflection of a window. but we accidently exposed the paper so it went completely white instead of capturing the photo. Sadly George had to leave so it was up to me and Nina to see if we could figure out how to take a photo and it work. After multiple attempts of it being over and under exposed we finally got there, and started to shoot some really pretty photos. I think it was easily one of the best and most fun workshops I have been to, I enjoyed the laid back manor and Peter allowed us to play and experiment and capture whatever we wanted. Pictured below are some of the camera and process.

Photo Paper

Failed Self Portrait

The Camera

The Viewfinder 

Darkroom

Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes II

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

AVID SESSION II

For our second session of Avid I was grateful I had stopped editing at a good point in the process as it meant I could pick up where I left off. I decided today that I would start working on the credits etc. I did this because I knew it would be something quite time consuming and I thought this was a good chance to complete it with lots of time to spare so I am happy with it. I started out writing down on a piece of paper the order the credits had to come in and what people's roles were in studio shoot. Then I set about making the credits. I am someone who is very selective about fonts, so I did spend quite a while selecting the font I wanted. I knew that I wanted a very clean and minimalist font as whilst the credits come up, I have some B roll footage playing in the background.

Once I had selected my font, typed everyone's names and roles out and selected how long I wanted them to appear on the screen for I felt content with the credits. With this all nicely finished, I went back to editing the bulk of the film. I continued where I left off from the first session and kept building on top of that edit. I felt like I was making good progress. Although lots of the rushes were too shaky or unusable I felt I did well in making an edit with what I had and it still making sense. I had to adjust some clips to be longer or shorter as I was cutting in between them but paying close attention to your edit means that you get smoother transitions and it looks sleek and well put together. This took up the rest of the day as I wanted to get the sequence looking perfect and that I was happy with the order of the clips and things. I felt that this was a good place to stop in the edit. All the sequence complete, now just ready for colour correction and adjusting some audio.

Title Sequence

Title Layering 

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

AVID SESSION I

After studio shoot had wrapped up, it was time to edit. We had some complications on set with the Ninja blade not capturing our footage in the Avid codec. So very very kindly Victoria trans-coded it for us, so it would be all ready for editing on Monday. On Monday morning, we all went into the avid room, logged onto the Nexis with our group log in. Then all of our rushes were mounted and we just need to go into Avid to start. Victoria helped us with setting up ready to edit. As these were shared rushes between the two groups we had to first select all of the rushes then duplicate them, so if we trimmed and effected a clip it wouldn't actually damage the original clip. Once this was all done which didn't take long, I decided to go through the rushes and colour label them if they were worth using or not. As I was going through the rushes colour labelling them, I also renamed them so I could quickly and easily what scene and take it was, or if it was B roll. This took a good few hours as there was so much footage to get through. After I had completed that task, I decided to look at the shooting script and storyboards to familiarise myself with the order again. Although you were allowed to make an edit however you wanted, I wanted to try and do one in order of the story. I started to select my clips for the beginning that I wanted, trimming them down and making sure the audio was okay. I then went about cutting the same scene with different lighting together to make it a little more interesting, I had only done about 45 seconds before the end of the day approached, I felt this was a good place to stop as the more I stare at my work the more I criticise it.

Edit Coming Along

Colour Coded Takes, Scenes and Bad Footage

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

DANCE FILM RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION

With the beginning of a new term, there comes lots of exciting new projects for us to create. This term we are learning about dance film and then through research, produce one. Rosie set us a task after showing us some of the oldest forms of dance film, to go and find some of our own that were inspiring to us. So I did some research into dance films, as I have some dance background I had a small understanding on what a dance film is like and how the camera was part of the choreography too.

One film that came into my head was a dance called SHIFT choreographed by Ela Orlarte. This is a favourite of mine, as last year when it was released my old dance teacher sent me a link to it thinking that the movement was right up my street. I instantly fell in love with it. It is a piece with three women, who through movement document the struggles of friendship and how to support each other. One of the dancers is called Kameron Jonson, who is a beautiful dancer, who is seemingly separate from the other two (Tiffany Krause and Ellen Vierse) , moves in a way to try to connect with the other dancers. As the piece continues the other two dancers interact more with Jonson and show their bond with her. You see them handle her, and in a sense guide her as she slowly becomes a part of them too. As the piece comes to an end you see the two dancers freeze in position, signifying the end of the dance, yet Johnson carries on creating subtle movements with her body, perhaps displaying that she is still slightly separate from the two. This is one of my favourite pieces as I adore the movement and grace the dancers hold.

My next piece that I was inspired by, was a music video that George showed me in class, as I am interested in one take films. The music video is called Demons by Joji and shows a person dressed in a monster costume dancing in an empty swimming pool. Not once does the camera cut and I am interested in that style and how you can capture a whole dance without a cut. At the beginning he is chained to a pole in the middle of the pool by his ankle, and shows very little movement. Sometimes slightly raising his arm or leg, or getting out of his chair. But as the film progresses you see the dancer's movement open up more and and he starts to move more, with a heavy body, around the space. He moves in a very heavy manor and all his movements are very functional to being a person. However I really enjoy the camera work throughout the whole piece.

joji - demons

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.

MAPS AND NETWORKS INSTALLATION

After completing the videos for maps and networks, we then had to set up our installation after Christmas. On the first day of coming back to uni, as a class we walked up and down the corridor with Rosie deciding where everyone's work would go. Danielle and I were unable to get The Box in the quad as it was currently occupied with other work. So we got to work thinking where we would want our twin screen. We decided the alcove near the beginning of the corridor would be excellent for us.

The next day we came into uni and learned how to drill the brackets into the walls, The technician Tom was very kind and helped us all day with the brackets, making sure they were secure and straight. I measured out the wall and the screens, and worked out exactly where I wanted them to go so they would be central. Once the brackets were up, we could mount our two TV screens. This was a bit fiddly but we did it in the end. We were fortunate in our work being near a power supply, so we just plugged them into the mains. To make sure the cables weren't tidy, we had to attach this stuff called trunking that was essentially a plastic tube you could feed wires through and it would look tidy and nice. So we set about finding some trunking and got that all attached

On Wednesday Danielle went to go and source materials to dress the alcove we had chosen. We had talked previously about what we wanted it to look like, we decided dressing it like a bedroom felt appropriate and that would make it link in with the film, and of course have lots of red.

Thursday came around quickly and Danielle had sourced some pretty red netting to hang around our display to look like a bedroom. We decided to bring in spare bed sheets, cushions, and things you would typically find in a girls bedroom, like underwear, fake nails, makeup etc. We stapled the red netting around the ends of the alcove with a staple gun, then set to work on securing all the sheets and things spread across the bed. We printed off pictures about feminism and girl bands to make the room feel it had someone living there. This took nearly all day as we wanted it perfect.

As the week drew to a close, on Friday we were all finished with our installation so we just took lots of photos of it because we are so proud. I am super happy the way it turned out and looked. We had mixed feedback on our work from students passing by and watching it, but if art doesn't create conversation and differing opinions than is it good art? I am happy at how it looks and how well we managed to set the scene alongside our screens.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you

MAPS AND NETWORKS EVALUATION

In this blogpost I will evaluate the whole process from start to finish of Danielle and I's film.

PRE PRODUCTION

Danielle and myself decided to pair up again, as we had worked so well in the first year on our experimental film together. The process of that film was easy and seamless so it seemed silly not to do the process again together. We started talking about ideas and what inspired us, which lead on to feminism and women's rights. So we decided to research into feminist women, artists, and articles talking about female empowerment and repression. This got us into thinking how we feel women are represented in the media, through male gaze and such conformist ways. We discussed where we would want to film as our idea started to fill out and got our pre production done easily and quickly, eager for sign off from Rosie.

SHOOTING

We arranged a day in the reading week to film, we found a willing actress very quickly and used all of our own equipment for the shoot. As we were filming in my house I spent the morning cleaning and ensuring all areas were tidy as I knew there would be a lot of equipment around and bags and things. I re printed out the shooting script and schedule so we could remind ourselves if we ever went off track. We took into consideration our actress and her being cold in minimal clothing and made sure she was covered warmly when shooting wasn't on and took regular breaks as we had LED lights on. As me and Danielle were well organised for the shoot day there was no delays in anything and we worked very well and closely together.
The hardest task of the day was getting the footage we wanted in the bath tub, we were dead set on filming in the bath, we just had to try and figure out how this was achievable. We put on the rain cover the 305 had in case of any splashing, then I had to get in the bath with the actress to ensure we got the over the head shots we wanted. This was a major risk in case I slipped, we tired the actress out, it got too cold for her, or water damage but we ensured that our risk assessment was thorough so that we could respond quickly if any of those situations came up. We found a secure camera strap that went around my neck so the camera was secure as well as in my hands. We looked back at our schedule to ensure we could make this bath scene as quick and smooth as possible so our actress wasn't cold.
We were happy with all the footage from the day, and as we had started filming early this meant we had hours of footage to play with for each screen. With all our filming out the way it meant we could focus on studio shoot and then edit this piece after.

EDITING

To edit we used Premier Pro and made titles to fit in between some of our clips, we colour corrected and recorded a voice over to fit the length of the piece. This went smoothly, despite some audio issues we exported in the correct formats as single screens ready for After Effects to make it a twin screen. We had again some issues with After Effects, but only minor as they were very easy to adjust and we could continue with exporting. Overall I feel this process went really well, with great communication skills, scheduling was well planned as we started exporting each screen at midday so we left ourselves with a lot of time for any things we needed to fix.

PRESENTATION

With the piece all done and dusted we have thought long and hard about what sort of space was suitable for our twin screen. We felt this piece could become an installation in the right environment, so we requested the box in the quad that often has interactive pieces in. We feel this would be an incredible space to hang our two screens in the back, paint the box an erotic red, with plush fluffy throws on the floor, to make it feel intimate, sexual and womb like to bring our piece together and create the environment that suits our film. Having the box would be an added bonus as our film displays nudity, and if our piece was in the corridor it would have to be covered on open days, so if it was in the box in the quad it could just be locked up and tucked out the way. Even though I think nudity shouldn't be sexualised but instead celebrated.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you

STUDIO SHOOT DAY 1

With it being our first day shooting we had to come in early to set up all the equipment, get the actors into hair, makeup and costume and ensure all the set was in place and the lights worked. We had a brief meeting in the morning where we went over the call sheet and the plan for the day to ensure everyone was up to date. We started at 8:30 am and had an approximate time of finishing at 6:00 pm. We were given an hour until 9:30 am to set up all the lights and cameras so we were ready to shoot. The first hour or two went very successfully and we got all the footage we wanted and needed, and ensured we had a few takes of everything so we had a lot to chose from. We then broke for an hour so I could change the lighting and the camera team could set up a rig or slider if they needed to. We rejoined after an hours break and kept shooting with the adjusted lighting and it all went very well and we were on track on the schedule. I felt calm for most of the day even though there were some tough and tense moments, where the camera wasn't picking up enough light from the darkly lit scenes but we made it work with a few adjustments. As it was coming towards the end of the day, we started to wrap up for the day as the actors were tired and we had been working for a long time. Our next shoot day is tomorrow where we continue where we left off today.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you.