Editing Process & Final Image

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


It took a while to filter though all of our images and select out a few for our final edit.

We chose these images because of all round qualities such as characterisation, lighting and outfit choice. From these we chose to base our final decision based on the characterisation as this is the key to our narrative and the main intention of our shoot.

Other images were unsuccessful as when we first began shooting we had trouble with the characterisation of our model and getting the correct pose and expression to match our storyline. We did not select others because of the way the lighting was falling on the model as this caused distorted shadows.
We decided on this image as we were struggling with the “gaze”, but as the model got into it she began trying a wider range of expressions and we thought the sadder, pitiful side to our character was something that could potentially be more powerful and emotive. We liked the utilisation of a prop as well as it links her to the set and provides an explanation for them. The way you see her leg makes the image more typically fashion as well, as itsexualises and glamourises her.

We went about editing this by mapping out the small details that could be changed without changing the whole image completely as this would defeat the object of the whole project.

This is our final edited image. (There are colour and quality issues with this exact one because of the transfer onto here!)

Final Prep for Set

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


It's our set build tomorrow and we have made a good start on the building of things so hopefully it will all go smoothly over the next week!

These are our props:

Official Casting Images

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


These are a few of our casting images of our model, Jess.

And these images were taken of her in costume and infront of our painted flats to get an idea of the whole look.
On this day we also met with the stylist to figure out the best look for our model.

Another Lighting Workshop

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


In this workshop we experimented with additional lighting techniques to try and perfect out final lighting plan. Once the set is built it is likely that we will need to adapt this as it is hard to currently tell how much moon light will filter through the roof and the colour the house will turn once the walls are up. But for now we are fairly happy with our lighting plan.

This one:

Pitch & Proposal Tutorial

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


These are the four mood boards we put together for our tutorial. Two are bsed on styling - clothing, makeup, hair, posture, gaze... The others are about our set and the different materials and textures we will need to form it.

In this powerpoint we included our concept, casting choices and build list.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/87034711/Proposal-Tutorial

There were a few points on which we need to work on as a group which we pointed out by the tutors.

Model:
- find out her exact measurments/dimension
- Take some offical casting pictures that show these off.
- Exact styling of the hair so it is more appropriate for our story.

Lighting:
- Use a larger light source from the front and make sure it is very difussed.
- Use HMI 1.2kw light for the moon light with filters.
- move light closer to camera so the is less harsh shadow.
- try local lighting - behind tree, in corner of the room. 100 watt.
- stretch spun over the light to get a really defused glow.
- Use flags and suspended polyboards so front light does no corrupt background light.

- Start weathering wood so that we get the right dimensions rather then trying to find the right wood.

- Try on an 80mm lens

Set Mock Up & Lighting

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


The past couple of days we have been in the studio setting up different variations of our set ready for our shoot. We experimented with lighting and positioning of camera to get the best shot we can.

These are a few ideas.

Close Up

Mid-shot

Long-shot

Long-shot with front lighting

We will be using a 55mm lense so make the room appear a little larger then it actually is and it will also slim our subject down making her appeal to the audience in the stereotyoical ideal of beauty that we are aiming for.

For the lighting we will use a 1k Ari which will light the whole of the set from behind, angled down. We will place one sheet of nd and one sheet of blue gel over it to imitate the moonlit effect.
Another 300watt Ari will be used from the front right side which will have 2 sheets of nd over it. The main light will be the 1k but there will be a suble nutral fill from the 300. This lighting effect will work well once we have created a roof with loose wooden slats so that the light will shine through the pieces, creating a gobo effect.

This image by Paolo Roversi heavily influenced our set ideas. We will use the drapping and curtain idea within our own set as we think it makes it look m ore like a home rather then a shed. To get the blurry plate filter effect we are thinking of placing a seethrough piece of spun or nd infront of the camera to defuse the image and make it seem even more etherial and magical rather then a sharp image.
These are the differences between the defussing filter and regular outcome.

Filter held at different distances from the camera:

The rest of the set will contain a few props dotted around, including shelving, a table and a chair. These will be hidden partly in darkness or behind a draped curtain so rather then obvious props there will just be a suggestion of them, enhancing the main feature of the image which will be our model. An important part of our image will be the large tree that is also the main focus as it will be supporting the whole house. This tree will be coming in through a side wall and braking through the ceiling letting in lots of moon light. This tree will be partly in chadpw and the branches that go infront of the light will create a nice dappled gobo - reflecting the forest onto the house floor.

Added drapes and ideas about positioning:

The walls will be made of crumbling and deteriorating plaster and brick work. The floor will be a combination of old wood, stone, dust, dirt and moss as the forest takes over the house. The roof will be made from old and moulding wooden slats. All the objects within the house will be dusty, bug infested and being taken over by the forest outside.

Casting & Styling

[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]


After our second tutorial with sam we decided that we needed to finalise who we would use to model. We did have a model lined up but it was a shady area on whether she would be reliable and so we began looking again. We found several people around halls and uni who all had characteristics that fitted our idea:

We then stumbled across a girl who we thought would be perfect and who we were already in contact with. So we asked her and she agreed. Her friend is also a stylist who's work we have seen before and we think would be a good idea to get involved so that our shoot fulfils the fashion image brief well. We have asked both girls to come down soon so that we can do a charactarisation and styling shoot and brief the two on our project.

There are a few others that live closer by who we can also use to fall back on incase of any issues that occur.

We have decided to that we would like to collaborate with other subjects at uni as there are so many resources available. We have found a designer who has created a dress in the style of Rick Owens (a designer we were looking into for inspiration). We will propse this idea to our stylist too and see how she feels we can combine this with other fashion elements to get the look we are aiming for.
We are also planning on finding student who work in jewellry design as this is a very important part of our styling also. We were thinking of a type of head dress/crown that suggests power and status but that also looks home made as if our character is the only one who feels these things about herself. We have met a few people that would be interested but again we will also run these ideas by our stylist so we achieve the best look possible.