MEDI 236: Pagan Reasearch

I have found an video by amateurs that is actually fairly informative here

The BBC actually has a very unbiased and factual account of us here

I also found this 10 facts of pagans here

Interestingly enough I have found a pagan police association website that shows they are normal people too here

This is the link to a spot the BBC did on Druids being recognised as a religion in its own right. It features an interview with my friend Cat Treadwell who may feature in my documentary.     

Important things about Pagans:

• Pagans do not believe in, or indeed worship, the ‘Devil’. In fact Pagans do not even believe in such a concept.

• Pagans do not perform sacrifices.

• Wicca is a form of neo-paganism.

• The divine is present everywhere. 

The Pagan Federation Website

MEDI 259: Experiment- Autumn City

This is the series of images I have produced so far for experiment. I am trying to convey the themes of nature in the city and the struggle between them, is nature in the city merely man made? Are they at war? Are they in harmony?

All the Autumn colours serve to show that nature marches on regardless, that even if the trees are in neat rows the leaves will still fall. Nature carries on regardless.

I have used a very simple yet effective method to try and draw people into the picture and question what they are being shown. I want to really challenge the audience yet not skimp on the actual aesthetics of the image. They have to be eye catching and different with both a sense of the surreal and a real feeling of place.

I have chosen to do this and expand upon this idea. I am hoping to work towards 360degres projection to further layer the space and have indoor becoming more outdoor.

MEDI 263: Black and White Hassleblad Work

In our first week as a group shot on medium format black and white film. We split the film half in the studio with studio lighting and half outside with natural lighting. We used lots of different lighting to really experiment and get to grips with the studio and lighting rigs. Also we used a wide range of props in the studio shoots to explore lots of different themes and really play with shadow to create dramatic effect. For one photo we did a wonderland theme with random objects and cards being the focal point.  For this photo we used one soft light.

On the 'Godzilla' themed photo we used soft lights first from one angle and then added a second. They are both good images but I feel they would benefit from maybe a backdrop.

 The 'Teddy's got a gun' photos we first took it with a soft light and then decided that it would have a better effect with a strong light to cast a really harsh shadow. It makes it much more dramatic and suspenseful therefore it is a far more improved image than the first as it better conveys what we wanted to get across in the theme.

The images we took outside using natural light are more lighthearted and less tightly themed.

I most like the one of teddy sitting on the railing high above everything. I feel it evokes a quiet sense of loneliness and contemplation. Unfortunately if you look really closely then you

 can see the camera reflected in the glass. I still however think its a really strong image.

The image of teddy and Emily playing I think has a nostalgic feeling of childhood playing.

We were aiming for a teddy in the wild kind of shot where he is pictured crawling over the rock. This was approached in a kind of wildlife documentary style and I think achieves it.

Emma and teddy on the wall was a kind of cheeky shot mimicking various pictures that were shot in a very similar style.

We did loose some of the images in this shoot due to the fact that when we processed them the film in certain places stuck together so the photo chemicals didn't reach them.  It was very unfortunate but at least we did get some usable negatives.

I think that the shoot went really well and our group got some very nice images.

MEDI 263: Black and White Linhoff Work.

The Linhoff is a wonderful monorail large format camera. Its quality is stunning. We were using photopaper instead of film for our negatives as it gives a very different kind of negative that I personaly think is very cool. If printed in a dry darkroom then results are instant which is very satisfying but I like the depth of the negative whith this process.

In our group we all took photos of eachouther but for some reason chose to develope the photo of ourselfs.
At the time of seeing the negative I realised that wearing dark clothing on a dark background isn't very good for producing quality images as I sort of turned into a floating head. The fact we were using very strong lighting from only one direction may not have helped either...

In the dark room I had to do two test sheets. I am guessing that the first sheet of paper may have been exposed as I did nothing different to the secound test sheet and yet I got actual results secound time around. I am thinking I was just unlucky and selected an exposed sheet of paper as this can somtimes happen, if its your day to have fogged photopaper...

The secound tester however came out fine. And although the image is really quite dark I decided that between around 10 and 15 secounds exposure would be the best thing to do to get an optimum picture, even if it was pretty much just my head...

The final image of me was exposed for 13 secounds and I am fairly happy with it. It needed to be cropped to remove the odd white line but overall I think its very nice.

I also got the tester sheet of Emma's picture as I think I was the one who photographed her.

I really Like the Linhoff cameras as the image quality for black and white is wonderful. I think they are deffinately brilliant for studieo shoots.

MEDI 263: Colour Contact Sheet

This is the contact sheet for the colour work. This was made scanning the orginal negatives in and then sorting them out with the relevent programs. Its a very nice way of working so that you get not only the quality of an analogue camera but also the freedom and scope that computerised photo manipulation lets you have.

MEDI 259: Using Stop Motion

Today I have just been exploring new techniques and have used the images from the earlier photographic narratives work.  I like how it expands upon the original narrative.

I have also posted it on Youtube  :)

MEDI 236: Documentary Project- Original Proposal

My initial ideas were to do a photo journalism piece about winter in London  since I go there for winter break. I was thinking however that a few pictures would lack any real entertainment value and not be very gripping or go anywhere. It was then I thought of 'La jetée' the film that '12 Monkeys' was based on and thought that it would be interesting to make a documentary in this style. The main idea would still be to try and capture winter in the suburbs around London but maybe in a more whimsical light or with a holiday feel. I would like to have some voices and a sound track with the images to flesh it out a little. I may choose to include a very small amount of filmed footage like in 'La jetée' to better blend it but I would like to approach it from a fairly artistic standpoint. The main crux of this is I am hoping for snow and a lot of it. It is something I find breathtaking and would hope it is fairly interesting subject matter. So in essence the film would consist of mainly stills and a sound track.  

MEDI 259: Sound Idea

I was thinking back on the live performance of our tracks that we made using the sounds we found. Of all of them I feel mine was far more unconventional and not conforming to standard ideas of music. This got me thinking, maybe it would be a good idea to take something recorded in the real world and turn it into music. Thus making sound or noise follow a set idea of music.

I have very recently started appreciating electrically generated music more and more including things like EBM, Trance and Dubstep.
This has lead me to find a video tutorial on Dubstep Here that is also a fully formed track. Dubstep itself evolved in London when Dub music (that originally evolved from Reggae)  Fused with Garage. The end result is a very electronic beat heavy style of music.

So the crux of my idea was, using the conventions of the tutorial video and lots of natural sounds could I make a fusion of the ideas of Music Concret and the genre of Dubstep?

I think the mix would make for a very interesting track.

Further Idea: I was thinking I could make it from a fairly limited sound pallet for more interesting results, in essence I would like to see if I could make it from autumn sounds. These would include, wind, crunching leaves, rain, wind, puddles, squelchy leaves etc.

MEDI 259: (The Image M+T) 'Urban Decay'

For this workshop after a lot of planning I decided to go with the theme of 'urban decay'. I had previously done a project on mold so I was interested to develop the images further than what they already were and make them something different. I had lots of different ideas on where to take this but decided to use the three images of mold and different pictures of the city scape and meld them together very simply. This was influenced by the style of Doug Keyes as I particularly like his 'Collective Memory' series.

I am not overly pleased with the last picture however I do really the other two. I think there are things to expand on with urban decay but I may also explore other options.

MEDI 263: Group Work Photos

For our group work we decided to actually make a very loose narrative in order to structure our shots a bit better. We were using colour film on a Hasselblad which is a medium format camera.

We shot all our photographs around the new park near the uni and the pub in order to get a nice contrast in settings and fully utilize the colour film.

The story was about a teddy bear and his lover, played by a stuffed dog. There are several romantic shots as we tried to get very a-typical romance shots such as the two stuffed toys kissing, having a picnic, gazing at the sky and so fort. Then there is a shot of the bear looking sad all alone. Thus begins his decent into a binge drinking session. The shots that follow are of the teddy drinking lots of alcohol, pole dancing, throwing up in an ashtray, having a 'kebab' and so on.  He finally ends up face first in the bushes.

Photos in Narrative Order: 

I think the image quality is stunning and I do think we worked well as a group. Everyone double checked that they were happy with the shots and everyone had a hand in directing the shots. I think we made the narrative flow well although some of the story is left to the imagination such as why the bear was left alone. I think it was fun and playful narrative and I really like the Hasselblads. I am thinking of using one for my final project as the image quality they produce is staggering.