Shooting additional footage wasn’t looking promising as I struggled to coordinate a girlfriend’s/my availability with equipment hire. I had pretty much pulled the plug and settled with only shooting the spinning washing machine until my husband suggested he act assuming I was OK with the role changing to a man. Initially I resisted this idea but so stoked we went for it as without this footage, I don’t believe I would have truly satisfied my objective.

I had grand intentions to organise a full production i.e. ‘hire’ a Laundromat after hours, full lighting set ups, etc. but due to the perfect combination of procrastination and spontaneity my shoot was low-key (Also still tried to embrace the ‘don’t need to plan everything’ tip from earlier in the semester). After the pleasing results of the slow motion I jumped in the deep end and shot everything at 50fps.

Since there wouldn’t be any lighting set ups save for a reflector, I referenced my Case Studies for a potential location. Although it wasn’t part of the original vision, the pink neon light from ‘Carrie’ offered depth and interest. From there it was guerrilla style… that was, until the owner decided to come and clean (but she didn’t mind).

Upon reflection, I wish there were a key light pointed into the washing machine to highlight the white and red colours of the load. However, this may have created another set of problems as the curved glass plate caught over 180˚ of reflections. Maybe I could have thrown in a waterproof LED into the machine with the load of laundry?

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the outcome of shooting on the fly. On the one hand more control over the light and cinematic images would have been more professional but the guerrilla situation made me think resourcefully about the existing light sources while utilising a public space.