Project Proposal

Upon first reviewing this brief, I thought it best to base it on my preferred style within photography and the style that brought me in to photography to begin with, abstraction. I am drawn towards visually exploring simple form and shape and observing its application to numerous surroundings; to examine shape in genuine simplicity, to not over-analyse its meaning or interpretation, yet also not for vain aesthetic. My own style follows abstract and minimalist themes, however I wanted to bring in another theme to give my style more application and although the overall result may fall under these categories, the project will not purely be for the sake of them. 

Upon studying multiple photography competitions and the winners chosen from them, the emerging style is documentive. Still beautiful images on their own, but following a particular person, town or theme that allows us a window to this particular goings-on in the world. One example being the 2013 winner of the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize, Bryan Schutmaat; his project Grays the Mountain Sends combines portraits, landscapes and still lifes of a small mountain town and mining community. The photographs are beautiful as individuals and complement each other as a collective.

So therefore I aim to combine my own preferred photographic style yet following a somewhat documentive theme. However many of these successful photographic collections are taken over a number of years and a vast number of miles travelled. Having a much shorter time scale and much smaller budget I have had to base my project on something closer and easier to access. Consequently, I aim to follow my own story and having moved numerous times in my childhood, this gives me plenty of opportunity and places to photograph.

·      I hope to gain permission to photograph inside previous homes I have lived in (five, not including current), photographing the rooms I slept in, the gardens I played in etc.

·      The landscape where I lived.

·      Specific places and items where memories took place.

Having a large scope of things to photograph, from landscapes to rooms to specific objects, this gives me plenty of scope to work around. With all this in mind however, I still am responding to myself and what my “photographers eye” will see to an abstractive style – keeping it all tied in to a certain style.

Based on the type of competition (photographic) and the preferred style of my own work, I narrowed down the choices of competitions that would best suit myself and my work to:

·      Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize

·      IdeasTap Photographic Award

·      Professional Photographer of the Year

Aperture asked for:

-       15 images with title/caption information

-       To follow a theme/topic, carried throughout the images consistently

-       Strong composition, use of colour/tone

-       Technical and presentational choices made by the photographer, being appropriate for the work

-       The body of work taking and innovative and unique approach to the subject matter.

IdeasTap asked for:

-       10 images submitted to one of the following themes (Journey, Human Relationships, Climate, Memory, Conflict)

-       The images must demonstrate your ability to tell a story.

PPOTY asked for:

-       The submission of one image to a category, although submission to multiple categories is allowed. One category (Portfolio of Three) allowed the submission for three images that worked together.

Upon further reviewing and thought about my chosen project, applying to the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize would likely be best to follow – being able to submit a larger number of images compliment the documentive style and their asking of images for strong composition with good use of colour and tones will suit my abstractive style nicely. Although taking into account presentation of this work outside the competition, it would best suit a photobook, with the images complimenting each other’s context together in one bound piece of work. My audience would best suit other photography-enthusiasts and so in order to get my work seen by them it would make sense to exhibit the collection in a gallery, with the photobook being a natural addition to this.

My research shall entail both primary and secondary sources, researching previous artists of both abstractive and documentive style. I shall also continue researching past competition winners in order to scope out what these competitions are looking for. Since my work will follow a documentive style and will aim to be finished for potential exhibit, I shall visit photographic galleries; since many current, emerging photographers follow the theme of showing a specific topic or story in a photo-essay style. Primary research will entail myself visiting my past residences and the surrounding landscape, gaining permission to photograph in the homes I previously lived in and experimenting with continual image taking.

Timescale

13^th January – 19^th January

Research & contact previous homeowners for permission to photograph

20^th January – 26^th January

Research, visit gallery, aim to photograph one landscape/homeland area

27^th January – 2^nd February

Research, arrange to visit previous homes (given permission)

3^rd February – 9^th February

Research, reflect upon work so far.

10^th February – 16^th February

Photograph landscape/home (given permission)

17^th February – 23^rd February

Photograph landscape/home (given permission)

24^th February – 2^nd March

Photograph landscape/home (given permission)

3^rd March – 9^th March

Reflect upon work so far.

10^th March – 16^th March

(Presentation assessment)

17^th March – 23^rd March

(Presentation assessment)

24^th March – 30^th March

Research. Photograph landscape/home (given permission)

31^st March – 6^th April

Photograph landscape/home (given permission)

7^th April – 13^th April

Photograph landscape/home (given permission) / Plan photobook

14^th April – 20^th April

Plan/edit photobook. Order.

21^st April – 27^th April

Continue updating blog/research

28^th April – 4^th May

Prepare for hand-in / Review book

Monday Mayday 5^th – Holiday

Tuesday 6^th May – Hand In by 10:00am

Letter to previous homes

Paul Gaffney

Paul Gaffney

We Make the Path by Walking
http://www.paulgaffneyphotography.com/

In regards to thoughts on exterior shots for my sequence, Paul Gaffney's series on the paths we walk down is one I thought best to look into. It is the result of long-distance walking, a form of meditation and personal transformation, and the result from this is a series of meditative, quiet images, which speak of experience and immersion in nature - capturing the essence of the journey. 

Evaluation (CM)

PHVP 3412 Creative Professional Practice

Hannah Thorpe

P0925888X

06/01/2014

Converging Media Assignment: Evaluation

The aim was to create a multi-media, audio-visual piece. To use the combination of still images in video format, including our own soundtrack. I chose to create a fictional piece through the medium of photo-narrative. The story I aimed to create would follow a young, mistreated mannequin, alone in the streets. My intention was to draw in the audience with a strange tale, whilst leading them to connect and sympathise with the characters and the world they live in. The story ought to give some resolution, but in this unfair world I wanted to keep to some realism – that suffering and loneliness is a forever-continual event. So the story may finish off for some characters, but it continues for others in a circle.

My inspiration drew from an existing photo narrative, Cardboard Box Head, created by Richard Ventielcke. I knew, when choosing to create a fictional piece, that I wanted to go at it from a bizarre angle, so naturally I thought back to this video I have previously seen. Much of his work focuses on the use of shadows, light and night photography –this I incorporated into my own work, focusing on the light setting the mood. In terms of framing and planning shots, much of my work is inspired from current cinematic mechanisms – of which prove especially helpful when immersing with the character. One example being, capturing lower shots at the same height as the mannequin, so the audience is at the same view point, leading to empathy.

What I learnt from creating this piece was that creating multi-media work requires much more planning – planning the story, specific shots, lighting and mood - and in doing such speeds along the creative process. For the most part, I stuck to my shooting schedule, leaving myself plenty of time in the editing process to think over pacing. Of which, is another very important component to narrative video-making. Storyline is the backbone to any plot, and if one leads nowhere, has a weak resolution or follows weak or unrealistic characters – the viewers attention is soon lost. 

I feel very pleased with the outcome, feeling especially successful with character empathy and plot, creating an effective looping storyline towards the end of the piece. In terms of fulfilling the brief, I also feel pleased with the result. The chosen audio, rather than duplicate the imagery, compliments the visuals as well as the very pacing of the video. The soundtrack holds a steady rhythm with 3:4 timing, yet the smooth hypnotic vocals keeps the music mellow and slurred – complimenting this surreal story of re-animated mannequins. However, I did find difficultly in effectively inputting my own recorded audio, without it overpowering the soundtrack. After trying to layer purely just externally recorded sounds without the music, although creating an effective eerie soundtrack it still felt lacking in pace or rhythm that an actual music piece would give. I decided to compromise in keeping the music soundtrack and adding in small sound-bites instead, to keep to the brief of including recorded sound. However, I personally feel the video is better without additional sound-bites, the audio being too ‘messy’ which draws too much attention away from the narrative.

If I were to re-do a project similar to this, I would take focus and challenge myself into recording more original audio pieces. Although I do not specialise in the creation of soundtracks, especially using digital software, I feel it is more so becoming a necessity to diversify our skills as image and video makers, becoming more self-reliant and employable. 

Equipment used (CM)

Camera: Canon 60D
Lenses: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM     Canon EF 17-85mm f4.0-5.6 IS USM
Tripod
Sound recording: Zoom H4N

Editing process & software (CM)

Image editing software: CS6 Photoshop

Video editing software: Final Cut X

A simple video editing software that enables quick drag-and-drop usage. Once images were selected and ordered to suit a pace, they were editing to a timeframe and simple cross-dissolves were used to smooth the cuts between frames (besides selected quick-cut sequences). 

Subtle/small use of Ken-Burns to compliment cross-dissolves and dreary-like/dream-like music. 

Once the soundtracks were dropped into place, audio effects can be dropped over to change audio to suit the video's needs. In my case, I used a simple echo over vocals in one soundtrack.