Experiment Evaluation

I found this project to be quite odd. I like projects with a clear end goal, with research and planning building up to that point. This unit, on the other hand, was just about experimenting. When I have an end goal I find it easier to time different tasks and I feel more motivated towards a deadline. The trouble with having lots of little workshops with just an evaluation at the end is that they're already planned, so if it's not your thing then you're not going to be interested; like my situation. It also doesn't link any of the project together so I, at least, find it difficult to go into any depth when talking about it.

I took part in a series of workshops over the 5 weeks, as well as travelling to New York with the college. The New York trip was most definitely the most helpful experience. It didn't help me with photography much but just made me think about other aspects of my life and gave me a new wave of motivation which I think I really needed at that time. One of the best parts of this trip was making friends. Before this trip, I didn't really have any friends, so I spent breaks and lunch alone, in the classroom. I didn't mind this a lot, but now I have people to talk to it breaks the day up a bit and makes it more manageable. 

I also enjoyed processing film with Caffenol (a mix of coffee, soda crystals and vitamin C powder). I would like to use analogue cameras as part of my work in the next project, so I appreciate spending time experimenting in the dark rooms. I didn't think any of the actual filming helped me in any way. 

In all honesty, I didn't find the rest of the workshops interesting or useful. I suppose this is because what I want to get out of this course is quite specific, as opposed to some people who are here to study photography for their interest in the subject itself. 

Experiment: Film in a Day

We were challenged to create a 'film in a day' using Super 8 film. My group decided to film a day-in-the-life style video of a college student. We took shots of walking through the electronic gates, writing, typing, eating, paying for food, putting on lipstick and walking up/down the stairs. To pull the shots together to keep a theme, we decided to concentrate on the hands.

I haven't done much filming on analogue or digital cameras before. I did most of the 'acting' in the film so I didn't get to film, though I did help out with processing the film.

Making Caffenol is a pretty simple process; mix 24g washing soda crystals, 20g vitamin C powder and 45g instant coffee with 1000ml water. The mixture should be warm (no less than 20 degrees celsius) when using. I quite enjoyed the whole experience.

Our film was too overexposed and didn't show up at the cinema when they were all shown. This was a bit disappointing, it meant we couldn't edit the film digitally either. It's a shame, I would've like to see how it turned out.

16mm Film Direct Animation

Yesterday we took a trip to The Cube, a cinema in Bristol, for a workshop day. In it, we developed our Super 8 film-in-a-day films, as well some direct animation.

We started off by watching three animations: Begone Dull Care (Norman Mclaren), Free Radicals (Len Lye) and Virtuoso Virtuell (Maja Oschmann & Thomas Stellmach). The first two were animations that worked directly onto film, with music added to. The latter was digitally animated to look like ink blots. 

I think both methods would be equally hard. With the film versions, the initial animating may have been easier but coordinating it with the music in the planning process must've been very difficult and time consuming. The digital one may be harder to animate, but I think it would be easier to keep track of where the music is lining up with the animation.

Later, we experimented by animating 16mm films ourselves; scratching into, drawing on, painting on etc. I think what made it so difficult was how big our tools (brushes scratchers) were in relation to the film. It made every mark I made feel clumsy, so I wasn't too happy with the outcome of mine. This was later then all added together and we watched it at the end. Although we weren't up to Mclaren or Lye's standards, it was still pretty cool to watch.

I can definitely still see these techniques around today. A lot of music videos have elements of them in, some adverts, even in a couple of films. The first video reminded me a lot of the scene in 'Dumbo' with the pink elephants. 

New York!!

Reviewing what I've taken, it doesn't look like I took many pictures. I think this was because a lot og the time we were in a big group and always on the move. If I saw something that caught my eye and wanted a picture of it, I'd have to hope my camera was on and ready with all the perfect settings for that shot because we didn't have time to stop in fear of losing the rest of the group. Unfortunately, most of the time it wasn't. 

This photo was taken in Grand Central Station. I was sat on the floor, waiting for our group to meet back up, and people watching.

I found I did a lot of people watching in New York; there were so many faces I’d never see again and I found it interesting watching them go about their daily lives. For some, I’d try and put a story to their faces. With others I’d simply watch what they were doing; eating, waiting, rushing, etc.

In my opinion, the warmth of the photo itself gives the illusion of a much more friendly appearance than it is. If the picture had less warm tones it would give off a much different vibe. In reality, cities and busy places like Grand Central are generally quite unfriendly places.

I quite like this photo because you can’t see anyone’s face even remotely clearly. I think this gives a contrast between the hustle and bustle of the city and the anonymity of everyone as they just rush about their lives not really taking notice of much other than themselves. For me, this picture highlights that there are so many people with so much going on in their lives, but in a way that cuts out their identity and makes me wonder if any of us really matter in the grand scheme of things; we’re just another person to watch.

I love this photo. I took it on the first day (I think). It was a totally last second snap; I hadn’t checked the settings or focus or any of that so obviously I wasn’t expecting much. I just wanted to catch a picture of a yellow school bus - I’m pretty cliché, I know. When I saw the photo after I was pleasantly surprised. I love the position of the bus, the contrast of the yellow on more dull colours, and it’s in focus! I think New York is the place for taking cliché pictures just because everything has been in a movie of music video and it’s all so iconic and recognisable.

I think actually being there was so odd because everything felt like a video but it was all so normal to everyone else. The fact it’s such an iconic thing on its own kind of takes away from the fact there’s actually a story behind it; kids going to school, they have their own lives and stories.

I think the great thing about the snapshots of busy streets is that there’s a kind of still serenity that is totally different to the actual feeling of the place at that time. This was taken at around 7am and it already felt like a busy midday in Weston.

Experiment: Polaroids

Polaroids

So we did a mini project on polaroids. We started off by formatting a camera; simple enough, just go to settings and it’s usually one of the first things that come up. Then, we were set the task of capturing 12 images that correspond to 12 words. The catch? We were only allowed one shot at capturing the 12 images.

The words were:

• Contrast
• Far
• Food
• Glass
• Line
• Sass
• Satan
• Shapes
• Soul
• Sound
• Time
• Tired

Now what really threw me off here was my lack of camera experience. I’m getting the hang of camera settings, but it usually takes me a couple of test shots before I get things just right (which is why if I’m in a rush I just use my iPhone camera- it’s good on auto). I’m also not very Photoshop savvy, so when my tutor said “don’t worry, you can edit them later”, it wasn’t exactly reassuring.

Strangely, just like my New York bus photo, I found that the one I liked best was a very spontaneous meant-to-be-mugshot of a friend as she was passing in the corridor.

I didn’t really edit my photos too much. A couple of them I converted to black and white, but mostly I just tweaked the brightness. As for putting my photos into the template, we were talked through the whole process so I didn’t find it too difficult. I find it easy to understand layers and order of layers in photoshop so it was mostly just logic to cropping them and ordering them so they were behind the polaroid template.

I think overall it would’ve been useful to have a go at using polaroids because they really are one time photos, though there’s no scope for editing and I wouldn’t have learned things in photoshop without the template.

That was my contribution to the project. I think you can definitely tell they’re digital imaged placed on a template which kind of makes it look a little silly just on its own. On the wall with the whole class’ efforts put together, I think it is much more effective and doesn’t look so oddly fake. It’s nice to compare how everyone visually represents things.