Interactive/ Participatory Documentaries

Jonny Madderson

I really love Madderson's style. I like how he gives a face to the voice, but then has just a voiceover while visually showing imagery related to what they're saying. I want to give quite a personal feel to my project, like you're really understanding the topic from the interviewee's point of view; I feel he really captures this. Some of his work borders on being quite poetic because of the way the shots are shown with the music in the background.

'Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow'

'Five Stone of Lead'

Angie Bird

Angie Bird's style is somewhat similar to Madderson's as they are the same genre of documentary. The main difference between them is that Bird is a lot more interview based. She usually keeps the visuals to the faces of the people talking when they're talking, though not always. I think this works for the type of storytelling work she does, though wouldn't fit with what I'm planning.

'You Won't Regret That Tattoo'

Genéa Gaudet

Her short documentary ' Elder' really grabbed my heart, mostly because I'm a sucker for period gay romance. I can't link it here as it's not a youtube link but I'd definitely recommend giving it a watch! It's an interview of a middle aged man remembering his years as a Mormon missionary and his first love- a young Italian boy in the 1970's. It uses both shots of him now, talking about his memories, and original film footage that he took back then. I really love the contrast between the old footage and the new voice, giving his take on it after all these years.

Documentary: Initial Ideas

My initial idea:

A behind the scenes/backstage look at performing arts focusing on makeup. 

I've contacted my old tutor to arrange a times to film there. We decided initially I'll go for half days on Wednesday and Thursday, then we can arrange more dates later if necessary. 

In college, we were looking at different types of documentary. I'd assumed that they had to be in film format so I'd planned on filming mine, but after looking into some photography based documentaries I'm a bit less sure on what I want to do now. 

I have 2 different ideas on how I'll do my documentary; the first is an interactive style one, the second would be in book style with the narrative written as a caption instead of spoken.

I'm going to do a bit more research into both styles and then make a decision, I don't want to incorporate both into one project.

Photomedia: First Deadline

For my shoot, I used black boards either side of the model to cast shadows on the face. I used a black background and had a softbox directly in front of the model, slightly above n tilted down. The set up is pictured in a previous post.

These are my final photos that have been slightly edited.

Evaluation

I am really happy with how both my makeup and the photos came out. I had a lot of support from the technicians at college with the lighting- setting up and using the equipment. I used a canon D7000 with a black backdrop, black boards and a softbox. I think the black background worked especially well on the last shoot because of the contrast between the colourful hair and makeup and the darkness behind. Looking at the images now, I wonder if some of the other shoots would look better with a lighter background, maybe white or grey.  It's a shame I could only get the models so late in the option or I would have liked to try other lighting set ups and backgrounds.

My second model, Lucy, did turn up late. This meant I had no time to take off and redo her makeup myself so I had to just leave her own makeup on. This did not fit in well as I wanted the blue eye shoot to be very natural. Had I not already done Jael's makeup, I would have just switched the brown and blue eye plans around a bit but it was too late to change that, too. 

It's a shame I don't have more photoshop knowledge. I'd have liked to touch up some of the makeup that didn't translate so well in the pictures like the green under my first model's eye. I'm going to try and spend some time over the christmas holidays watching photoshop tutorials and learn a bit to help next time. 

Photomedia: Makeup Designs

Blue Eye Shoot

Skin: little/no coverage depending on model's skin.
Contour: very soft.
Highlight: quite strong- dewey, bright looking skin.
Blush: natural peachy.
Eyebrows: soft and natural looking but with a defined shape.
Eyeshadow: soft brown in the crease only a few shades darker than the model's skin with a lighter lid.
Eyelashes: Natural with black mascara; dark brown eyeshadow/eyeliner to be used close to lash line to make them look thicker if needed.
Lips: pinky nude, not matte.

Brown Eye Shoot

Skin: Heavy coverage; flawless looking.
Contour: Strong.
Highlight: Strong but more matte than dewey.
Blush: Light pinky, not too extreme.
Eyebrows: Strong and dark with well defined shape.
Eyeshadow: Light, shimmery lid with dark cut crease. Well pigmented blue/turquoise on lower lash line.
Eyelashes: Dark, potentially falsies.
Lips: Bold, dark plum.

Green Eye Shoot

Blocks of yellow, orange and pink with visible brush strokes and bold black lines. Water activated makeup. Yellow eyelashes: greasepaint.

Developing Film

There's not really much to say about this, we spent yesterday afternoon developing film from last week.

Contact sheet made by exposing photo paper to light with all film laid in rows on top.

Testing exposure times by covering sections with black card.

Photomedia: Makeup Research

Nikki Wolf- http://nikkimakeup.com/

I absolutely love this crazy, colourful style of makeup. I think I'd me more inclined to go for the warmer colour scheme of the bottom pictures but in the harsh shapes of the top one. I think the coloured eyelashes really make this look seem so much more extreme and it's such a simple technique. The more pop art-y eyebrows also just take this look to the next level and steer it away from conventional makeup.

For the more glamorous looks, I really want strong brows to frame the eye with some contour around the bridge of the nose to give more depth. I like the subtle shadow with dramatic lashes, though I'd like to add a bit more excitement to the look by adding a colourful shadow in or under the lower waterline.

Photomedia: Lighting and High Speed

Black and white fashion shot

This type of lighting set up is used a lot in fashion and makeup photography, so I think I will try and replicate it for my shoots. We used a Nikon to shoot with flashguns. One was used with an umbrella, reflecting towards the background to the side of the shoot. The other used a large rectangular softbox on a high stand, tilted down. In the centre we have 2 black screens (flags)  facing in towards the model. We added a big black screen just for extra effect but that isn't necessary. 

These were the results of our photos. I think for my high fashion makeup look, I would need harsher highlights and shadows but I could always edit these after.



Warm/cool highlights

I'm not as sure I've got all the information right on this as my group didn't set this up but here we go anyway. We used a black board for the background with the model stood at an angle instead of straight on. Diagonally behind her, there was a flashgun with blue gel and translucent plastic to soften the light and make the tone cooler. Diagonally in front, a softbox with orange gel on is used to warm up the light.


High Speed
Unfortunately, I can't upload any photos from this shoot for some reason but the photos were of me blowing and messing around with flour and powder paint.
These were the settings we used:
ISO 100
shutter speed 125
f22