‘Reflection’

Reflecting on my series surrounding light, it is interesting to see what aspects of ‘light’ jumped out at me.
I found the more intricate the lighting situation was, the more it played with my mood.  I found a split in a curtain has more meaning than open open curtains themselves as the twinkling lights that go through the gaps created a very predominant feeling of ‘morning’ or ‘dawn’ compared to light  flooding in.

I found the way I collected my images was by reflecting back to my prompt and focusing on ‘light’ and ‘ambiance’.  I learned that in our surroundings, aspects that we aren’t always aware off make great inspiration and are beautiful mise-en-scenes. It’s always good to choose something to notice that you aren’t always aware off to inspire aspects in your work and to build your creative attitude as a whole.

In regards to thinking about final questions, I would wonder if it’s harder to notice more precise themes compared to broader ones. For example instead of just light, setting a more precise theme- light in dark place or abstract shadows. I think finding similarities in precise themes can be more rewarding as it means you’ve been focusing harder.

‘Noticing’

 Similarities, all photos as stated in my prompt focus on ‘light’ and the way it is manipulated in a space.

Notes: Dark, black and white lighting creates a somber mood, almost ominous- I think this is mostly likely due to the lack of color and (over exposed) natural lighting.

Notes: Chiaroscuro lighting early in the morning presents a ‘dawn’ feeling (a freshness to the day), the flags create different shadow lengths which made me feel entertained and happy. I also liked how the light was soft, the filtering of the light through the top and side of the curtain created a very angelic atmosphere.

Notes: I took this photograph due to the colors that were presented through the frosted window, I like how they blended together and no objects could be seen as a whole and rather everything melded. It felt calming the way the colors blended together.

Notes: The warm hues my salt lamp emits always makes me feel calm, relaxed and happy. The way the light glows seems natural and earthy which creates a very neutral mood. Warm light always makes me feel more comfortable than lighting with bluer hues.

‘Prompt’ 

“To notice can be taken to mean the same as ‘to perceive’, even ‘to sense’ in the most general ‘sense’ of that word.”
Mason, John. Researching your own practice: the discipline of noticing, (p.29-38). Lodon, Routledege Falmer, 2001.

Did you really notice, or was it a reconstructed version your mind created after someone prompted you to remember. What is it really to notice? Attention, detail, memory, recollection, to observe- to notice is to be aware.
For myself; noticing and awareness is a daily activity, I believe in meditation- the flow of awareness (both self and environmental). To accept your surroundings and notice objects, sounds and even energies. “Noticing can be sharpened, can be developed and refined” (Mason, John). Yet in this case I will note that meditation is to be one with the present, in regards to continuously noticing and being able to recall various aspects of observation, one must be consistently intertwined with their environment and self.

To inspire us for this first task we were taken to the NGV Ian Potter Center in Federation Square. We were to examine the exhibition “Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition” and take in an understanding of what caused Pound to compile specific photographs, what were interesting about the photographs as well as other aspects of noticing. As Pound says, ‘to collect is to gather your thoughts through things’.  What I came to terms with at the end of viewing the exhibition was that individuals have similar behaviors through time as well as many photos have interconnecting themes that you may only see if you are spending time and really looking into the photographs. “Objects that are seemingly redundant or overlooked are meticulously collected by the artist and put back into ‘use’ in these museums.”
 After completing the readings on noticing and visiting Patrick pounds exhibition; I wanted to take into account the way we can interpret mood and atmosphere and what evokes a certain ambiance. In pounds exhibition he had a series of photographs that all had one reoccurring theme- light (from lamps, cameras ect).
I want to compile a series of photographs on light that create a certain atmosphere or emotion, especially thinking on the relationship of shadows and chiaroscuro. I think we forget how much lighting plays in the way we feel and it will be interesting to see how lighting in every day settings look when compiled, what stands out and what creates character and why certain ways of lighting create character. To do this I will be taking mainly photographs of different rooms, specifically settings that present a particular mood, potentially how they connect and why they present that particular mood.

Week 12 (Thursday the 25th of May)

The most interesting and worthy part of this semesters Studio ‘More Than Fabrics’ was by far the group collaboration process. It was refreshing to join forces and work in partnership with other students who had like-minded ideas. Taking a step back to the beginning of this semester my ultimate goal was to create an experimental fashion film. Playing around with various film processes to produce something out of the ordinary, abstract and atmospheric. One could say an anti-fashion film was really what I wanted to experiment with. My Media 3 group consisted of Kaisa Kosidlo, Emily Buckland and Lisa Miller; we became a collaborative group due to sharing similar ideas of what we wanted to achieve within the studio. The first big milestone was creating a plan for the piece; as there were quite a few individuals within the group we needed to allocate roles so that the planning process would be easier and less convoluted.

As Emily and I knew the technicalities of filming and editing we decided to step in together as co-directors whilst placing Lisa as producer and Kasia to help her as assistant director or production assistant (lighting, sound, ect). The planning process was enjoyable, with a meld of different ideas and concepts being placed into a google word document so that we would be able to build on chosen themes. Most of the planning was initiated once we had chosen our fashion students whom Lisa was liaising with. We ended up working with two separate students. The two students each had different products which were created out of different materials but they were both shades of pink and also were quite daring, something we wanted in our chosen pieces as it would help out with the experimental aspect. We like both of the garments so much we wrote both into our film, it would also make the film even more captivating with more visuals.

The first assessment for our final fashion film was presenting our pitch. I felt like we had a good grasp on what we wanted to achieve, there was a lot of information to be presented- but as we had more individuals in our group then others it meant we needed more roles and were able to complete more in the set time frame. The pitch centered around our creation of two pieces that would go together. A ‘Behind the Scenes’ view of creating a fashion film and the experimental piece itself. We thought both would complement each other and It would be a nice idea to document the whole process. Capturing trials and tribulations along the way. The pitch was a nice way to get feedback although more feedback would have been good upfront rather than waiting for our results as waiting for feedback meant we wouldn’t be able to incorporate it into our pre-production process.

Post pitch was when elements of the production became harder. Honestly the most challenging part of the process overall would have had to been scheduling, scheduling times for studio locations, editing suits, talent and of course ourselves (the crew). I noticed when booking studios, it was quite hard to book in advance and sometimes even when a studio was booked teachers were able to go overtime on their bookings which made the processes a little frustrating. For our studio shoot I managed to book a studio in Building 94. This was the building I completed my Diploma within and I knew the ins-and outs of the studio. Inside there were redheads which we used for lighting, I would have liked to use a fill lighting kit to have a better back-light on our studio shots but as we were shooting quite late in the evening the AV department was shut and it would have been hard to return the gear post shoot. We captured a lot of footage during this day and the studio shoot went well although I knew whilst shooting that the footage would most likely need colour grading due to the intensity of the hues in the redheads. Our group worked together on the day of our shoot Lisa and I stayed for the whole day starting around 10am and finished around 7pm. Emily and Kasia stayed for most and helped  quite a bit. One of the main benefits with having a larger crew was we didn’t have to have as much weight on our shoulders compared to if we were working individually.

The final stage in our production was editing, which was quite tranquil- time consuming but there wasn’t as much running around and organizing which made the process more relaxing. Our whole group spent a good chunk of time re-watching our footage to pull out the most efficient and technical shots. As Em and I were the co-directors we were the ones who would be doing the actual editing but it was good to have the group input there for when criticism and critic was needed.

Emily did a lot of the clip placements whilst I worked on green screen and effects it was interesting to see how the joint editing would work. One aspect I found a little frustrating was coming into university and spending hours in the small edit suites to edit. I also noticed towards the end of term the schedule for the suites would be booked well in advance which made finding time hard. I would have liked to edit via hard-drive on our own computers as I have quite a good edit space set up in my home environment but again this was one of the aspects working in a group had, we had to compromise what was easiest for everyone else and some people in the group found it easier to work at university.

Overall our editing process was insightful to me. Editing with other group members was something different and a little challenging; as normally I edit alone. The rest of the process was similar to other studios and collaborative projects I’ve done but was still rewarding. It is always enjoyable to collaborate with likeminded students. If I were to give feedback on this studio I would have liked to see a few more excursions to places which had items of fashion- just to get into more depth with fabrics and the actual design phases fashion students go through. I really enjoyed listening to the producers who came into class during our tutorials. I found their career advice helpful and it was interesting to see where most fashion films end up; whether they be commercial or experimental. Also, how creating experimental imagery can help the imagination to flourish. In conclusion to this studio it will be rewarding to see what various students have achieved during the studios screening, I really like to watch creative ideas become reality so I hope watching the screenings will help keep me inspired for the next studio I collaborate within.

Week 11 (Thursday the 18th of May)

Editing in the studios is quite tedious, not the editing itself that’s really easy- but the long hours in an environment that doesn’t allow you to eat, plus sitting down consistently. Honestly I wish I was editing from home and hopefully our group can make a compromise so that we may be able to do this. Booking the studios is another reason why I want to work from home- it’s hard to book them in for long periods of time, especially near the end of term. I don’t want our film to be below standard just because we didn’t have enough time in the editing suites.

I have my own monitor and a second laptop at home, I’m a fast editor with quick turn-arounds and I really enjoy editing late at night, I see it as sort of a hobby even- to wind myself down and relax. I’ve edited a lot at university before, I daily produced a show for RMITV called Offbeat in 2016 which involved a lot of editing and exporting then handing in the content to Channel 31, so I have edited at RMIT and I know the computer systems quite well.

Despite this I still think editing from my own home environment on an external hard-drive makes more sense, as our group can just pass the hard-drive around and everyone can edit at their own pace. This is one of the hardest things about editing in a group; it’s that you all really need to be available at similar times so that you can go over how you’re going to edit the piece. I find this to be a little frustrating.

I know green screening and keying the film so that it looks elegant will take time and I have to say i’m not that excited for it as I’ve been quite unwell and hope I don’t have to spend long hours at university.
Pray that I can edit from home as I’ll be doing the majority of that edit. #pray4tash

Until next time.

Week 10 (Thursday the 11th of May)

Emily and I worked upon the weekly video during the week, it wasn’t hard and was a fun task to do but it did take up a little time in a busy week which is always a slight challenge. Never I had fun messing around with different effects and adding them onto the video to create a fun preview of our week.

All our footage has been filmed and we spent week 10’s editing lesson reviewing what kind of footage we had to work with. I practiced playing around with the green screen and our group came to an agreement that a black backdrop with the green screen looked the most professional. I also looked into how our rough cut would be sequenced as well as color grading shots that were shot in the studio that ended up with too much filler light from the harsh redheads that we were provided. I’ll be coming into the studio early next week in order to start editing the rough cut and making some technical changes as I go. Until then.

Week 8 (Thursday the 27th of April)

We had planned to shoot today but unfortunately there was a change in events that caused us to re-evaluate our shoot date. The fashion student whose garment we were using was involved near a set of house fires that included her residence, this meant that she would be unable to join us at the shoot and wasn’t able to access her garments.
We used this situation to our advantage- we re planned (in detail) what we needed to film, how we were going to film, the locations and times of filming and the models who would be wearing our garments.

Despite the shoot being cancelled, Lisa, Emily and I still turned up to University to have a group discussion- this meant that we were able to film more behind the scenes footage to add to our film, overall this would capture conflict and we would be able to add that into our film to show that creating a visual piece isn’t always as easy as it may appear to be.

Week 7ab (Thursday the 20th of April)

Our pitch was a platform for delivering our unique concept.
You either do something outside the box and fail or do something safe and never grow. I’d rather fail- and so began a good connection with classmates who wanted to experiment with their film work.
We worked hard thinking, collaborating, and building a group relationship as well as a passion towards to our film.

The ideas remain strong with the only aspect we really need to work on is planning- and by this, I mean booking a set/location and scheduling in times for both the actors and ourselves. I think pre-pitch we knew what we wanted to use as a location, we just had some bad luck with booking the studio as it seemed to always clash with another class and was booked out in advance.

Luckily we have overcome ‘this issue which is a really important aspect as it was the main set back. Another setback is that one of the fashion students has had a house fire and was unable to shoot on the 27th of April as we had originally desired. Dispute this Lisa, Emily and I all still arrived at university to discuss and break down step by stop what we were going to do and to make sure everything was well organised as time is always of the essence.

Furthermore, our pitch really gave insight into experimental ways of thinking (in regards to different ways of filming). Camera angles, mise-en-scene (especially props), editing- these so much that you can alter to make something out of the ordinary.

Overall our next shoot date is the 4th of May, we’ve prepared well and hopefully we can see the shoot through with all of our full potential.

Week 6 (Thursday the 6th of April)

Collaboration with Emily, Lisa and Kasia is going well. We’ve been working on our pitch which is almost completed. I’ve been drawing storyboards in order to grasp different concepts we could potentially use. I like to focus on the style of the out fit that the fashion student has provided and incorporate that into the experimental piece in a way that provides a statement for the film.

We want to display emotions and have a piece that provokes a certain atmosphere. One that includes mystery as well as femme or femininity. Lisa has been working on producing whilst Emily and I work upon mise-en-scene and set design as well as cameras, lighting, audio and other gear. Overall we are ready for the page we have a very good understanding of what we want to achieve and I believe idea is quite different it is unique and it won’t necessarily be easy but it will be something that we can look back at and have learned different skills from.

Week 5 (Thursday the 30th of March)

This week Tutor Christina was the one to present, she showcased a small display of the work she completed in third year University.

The class also consisted of various fashion videos and short documentaries on fashion throughout various eras; we got to see an in-depth peak into what fashion was actually like during a retro time period in a first-person perspective (a collection of items Christina had saved from the 40’s-80’s). We saw her works on costume design that she did as a project and got to flip through the pages. It was good seeing a tutor in the work space and they’re reflection on they’re studies. Afterwards we went to the design hub for more fashion influence.

This week is about knowing what ‘we’ as a group want to develop and film. Our group so far have concluded we would like to work with the fashion students but until we get to meet them we can’t accurately take the piece in a certain direction. I am hoping we’re able to work with a student who has work that we’re able to turn into an abstract piece as that is what I’d like to work on in my filming process.