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bethanyjphoto-blog · 8 years ago

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Final evaluation

My contextual research was extensive, I looked at many different forms of information, books, videos, websites, and I created my own survey. In a book I read by Susan Bordo, she discussed the history of body image, and eating disorders, how it came to be and modernised body image issues and how they effect the modern woman. I feel like this piece alone contextually informed me of my project and body image issues. However, I felt that the best way to explore this project was to continuously look at information surrounding this. I also looked at statistic from websites, everyone know that body image effects people, however I wanted to know the amount of people, if it was a just cause that affected people or if I was exploring one in a million. I found that my project was actually about a lot of the population and I felt this made it even more important due to the masses that this affects. One thing that I looked at was The new laws in France and how they have taken a stand against anorexia in models to make body standards healthy. I feel that this shows that projects like mine even have an impact and change the world for the better, as if many countries with high influence in fashion like France adopt policies like this in a generation the amount of people of eating disorders could diminish due to people having healthier standards of beauty.

I feel like I already had basic knowledge of my project; if I didn’t I wouldn't have done this project. However, I felt I became more educated. Especially when it comes to statistics, and history. Such as body issues first became serious in 1980’s however the first recorded issue was in 1945 as Ellen West was the first person with an eating disorder. I felt like my project has really helped me understand the depth of this issue, not only did this help me with my project, but also I feel will help me in later life as many people face body image issues as my research helped me learn.

In my project I did three types of research; contextual, practical, and aesthetic. Each type inspired my work differently. My contextual research made me understand my project, why I was doing it, why this project is important: although it is hard for me to say whether or not my final images were influenced greatly by contextual research I feel it improved my understanding of the project, and I feel it helps educate me and people looking at my work on these issues. My practical research was me looking at Photoshop tutorials online, out of all my project I found this hugely impacted my photo’s, as without this I wouldn’t have known how to create my images, I feel this work was not ongoing due to me not needed to relearn how to Photoshop. Finally, my aesthetic research was looking at images and artists. I felt that this helped me form poses in my images, and made my images look more editorial, which was the look I was going for and ultimately made differences between my shoots. In my aesthetic research I looked at both photographers that I found inspiring and ones I did not. An artist That I did not like was Donato Di Camillo, A street photographer. All though his work and mine is of people, I found That they hugely differ, I also dislike his work and choose to have my work in a neater setting. Therefor seeing his work influenced me more to do editorial work as I dislike street work but also I feel it would not get my point across as strongly. On the other hand, I really like Heidi Tappis’ work I found her images aesthetically pleasing and wanted my images to somewhat look like hers, especially at the start of the project.

During my project I talked to many people about body image and their bodies, I also conducted a survey where I asked people about the ideal body etc. I found contextual information about my project, as many people were confirming statistic I had previously researched about body image and research. Also during the project, I saw many posters and advertisements with people (mainly women) on them, that had been Photoshoped and edited. Not only does this tell me about women’s body standards. But I found it also helped me take my photo’s; initially I wanted my images to look like an advert, and so seeing these advertisements got me to see what I wanted to create and inspired me.

I feel that all my research impacted on my work. The contextual research made me more passionate about the project, and therefore influenced my writing my bias and my research. I feel that when I am more passionate about my project my writing is more opinionated and although I tried to keep my work subjective, my research and writing developed and was more opinionated as my contextual research developed. Howbeit, I feel that my aesthetic and practical research impacted more on my images than my research and writing. My aesthetic work influenced my pre-production work; how I would pose my models what lighting I would use, the use of the model's body. Though my practical skills mainly influenced post-production, although I did use it slightly with light setup, my practical research mainly showed me how I needed to Photoshop my images and create my final outcome.

I think my research was in-depth. Not only did I cover a lot of sources, through using books videos or website, this gave me a variety of information, although most of the information was very similar it was interesting to see how different people interoperated the information while I informed myself with it. I also used primary and secondary sources for my work, my research was mainly secondary as this was easier to get a hold of I didn’t have to conduct any survey for this, however, I made sure that the sources I used were reliable and also conducted my own research which correlated nicely with my secondary this proved that it was reliable. My research was continuous throughout my project, and helped influence my project all the way through, this is shown through my work changing and developing.

Throughout this project my base idea was the same I wanted to create a set of images around body issues and influences of this, which I feel I have done successfully. However, initially I did not know how I wanted to present these issues, and which aspect of body issues to focus on. I wanted to satirically show my message. Initially I wanted to create a magazine cover however this changed to an editorial piece by asking which was prefered. I felt that throughout the project my main focus of the issue changed as lots was discussed. I talked about eating disorders, media impact, peer impact, and the history behind it. Eventually I settled on the individual impact it has on people, and what they wish to change; this is shown through both my final images and my movie.

I felt that in my work my images communicated my idea well. I felt that not every aspect I explored was expressed in my images, for example the effects of media impact like eating disorders. However even though this wasn’t clearly shown it was hinted at towards people wanting to change their weight.

In my project I faced several challenges. In my first shoot , in my first shoot I found that my lighting was too harsh, and my iso was too high and so my images became noisey. This made the images a poor quality and all though i still used them to show progression in my work in my next shoot I made sure I had a low iso to make the images have a better quality. From this I learned that when doing a shot I need to always check my camera settings.

Another thing I found very hard was model co-operation. In my project one of my issues where I took images of people and sent it to them on what they wanted to change, some of my models didn’t email back to me; I found this very aggravating but I had enough models to use so I calculated that this wasn't a big loss and just didn’t use the models in my project. Another thing was I include diversity in my project at the start I found a male to model after creating a location and time to meet them they failed twice to show up.After realising that this wasn’t going to work I found to other males that would model for me, to have some gender diversity in my work. I learnt that not everyone is reliable to work with.

Initially I had another shoot which I did at the very start of the project, However I could not use this one as I shot all my images in jpeg and they were not a good enough quality to be used/. Due to me not being able to use these images I just had to be resilient and do another shoot.

At the very start of the assignment I made a time plan to follow. However, due to this project being so long and not knowing the end result that early in the beginning it was unrealistic and I wouldn’t have achieved what I have if I had followed it.

Alternatively, I adapted my time planning to make weekly updates, they included what I had done that week; if the tasks I previously created were met, and what was planning on doing the next week. Due to this plan being closer to what I was doing at the time, and being able to see my goals and made them more reasonable I found that this was my best method of time planning.

I feel that Due to my time plan I was very well organised throughout this project. I new what my reasonable goals were and was prepared to meet them. Due to this prepared aspect of my work, and knowing what I had to do It was easy to become organised, as I already had figured out what I had to do an only needed to execute it. I found that my deadlines were met very well due to this plan.

In this project I learned industry standard photoshop through photoshop tutorials. I learned how to edit the body to make it look more appealing to society. Some traits of photoshop I learned to use where the puppet warp tool; which I used to drastically change shapes and dimensions of the body. I also learned how to properly use the liquify tool, when creating small changes in people's bodies. In a workshop I did I acquired the skill of proper lighting this was between my first and second shoot. It evidently helped with my images, but will help me in the future lighting models.

Personally I have used tumblr for all my previous blog format. I found it very easy and useful. In it I could tag my work to be specific so I could easily find it. I could also easily go back to my work and edit it. The only thing with tumblr that I disliked in this work is that I am very proud of my project and my final images, but I could only publish them to a low quality jpeg, which doesn't show the quality of my images.

I felt that in this project I made myself discover things in photoshop, I would have never known. I also pushed myself to learn different social skills in the field with models and how to direct them in a shot. When doing this initially I was very nervous however, after a couple of models I found it easier to direct people to be in positions both they and I were happy with.

Every week I would evaluate what I had done wit my work that week in general, I would make it so I was happy with the productivity that week and so I could set out my goals for the next week. However every time I posted something on tumblr I would evaluate it; whether it was my own work or another photographers. I would also evaluate my contextual research to see how it helped me with my project. This continual evaluation of what I was doing helped me keep on rack with my work and made me stay in a direction I was happy with.

I think I evaluated most of the work I did and had came across. Honestly, my evaluation was more thorough on work that was related to my project, I found when talking about side projects I was not as interested and did not evaluate it to the best of my ability. Another thing that I evaluated but didn’t evidence was the sources that I used as this was continuous whilst finding sources. Although the sources of information I used were evidenced I did not say how reliable they were. I did this because everything I used was reliable and felt continuously saying that would be a waste of time.

I felt that through this project my evaluation skills were excellent, they met good standard, explaining what I had done and why I had done it in my own work. When researching other photographer not only did I well evaluate their work I compared it to my own, which I think is good when it comes to my project.

I feel like my blog is well put together. It’s in chronological order of how I completed my tasks and has post that separates the week. At the start of my final major project I showed how I would tag my post to make them easier to find, and throughout the project I have tagged all my work with this so it is easy to find. Personally there is little improvement I would make in my blog presentation style. The only thing I could possibly suggest for myself is that next time Is that I would make sure all my work was drafted so if I needed to I could put my work into an order that was in order of how my work should of been rather than how it was.

feel like my three final images show as a set and are very nice. I feel like they present my message well of body image, body issues and the root cause which i the media. I have done this by showing edited pictures of people and writing on it what I have changed; I feel like this exhibits how pictures we see are not real and that there is a fallacy of beauty standards. Not only that but also proves that everyone has issues with there body. I also feel like the text on it with my name and the quote makes it seem more like a magazine, which hints towards the main issue of perpetuating destructive beauty standards. Ideally if I had more time I would have had more photos and created a complete set.

The summer show is being present online through a website. I’m very happy with this I feel like this is the most efficient way to do it. I feel like a tangible presentation would be a waste when it could have been easier presented online.

Throughout my work I have shown a continuous English skills through evaluating my work and researching other people's. I feel that my maths skills were shown through my survey, and also in m evaluation of statistic on eating disorders. My english skills were continuous throughout this project, and in my blog the week I made time plans all though that is simple mathematics it also shows continuous maths.

This project had a balance of independent and teamwork. I am someone that finds working on there own easier, however in this project I worked well with the other people I worked with. When working with other people I was respectful of what they did and did not want to be photographed whilst being able to communicate what I wanted and coming to a middle ground. When working with myself I was motivated and continuous with my project. I understand that I work best with breaks so I allowed myself that and then continued working to the best of my ability.

Personally I am someone that doesn’t get stressed very easily, and so throughout this project I was very calm. I also had a continuous plan throughout which made work a lot easier as having easy goals which I achieved made me feel like I had completed apart of my project keeping me motivated a lessening stress.

Due to me being constantly being motivated to complete my tasks I felt as though I did very well at meeting deadlines; including the ones that I personally set and the ones set to me by my tutors. I went to all of the lessons I was able to attend and was on time for everyone, this made it so I had the most time I could in the best working environment for me and made it so I could work to my best.

I feel I put in my maximum effort during this project. This was hard for me as I am someone that loses motivation very quickly and does something else, however I found that my best way to work is to do things in sections and then have a small break. This keeps me completely motivated to do my work; and makes it so when I am working I put 100percent of my effort in.

I always take pride into my work and presentation, I feel if I put something into the world I want to be proud of it. This means that every piece of work I created and how I presented it was purposely made to be a way I was happy with.

I feel that in my first half of the project I wasn’t doing aswell I actually did one shoot that isn’t in my blog because I shot it all on jpeg and they where bad quality. However this lead me to have to redo the soot a second time and then a third as the iso was bad. I feel that through all my mishaps with my camera and the resilience with taking other shots it shows I persevered in this project.

Our assignment brief was a day in the life I felt I met this as many people suffer with body issues and I felt that this project explored that; in everyday life humans suffer with this and it’s normal and is a part of a life. My personal brief was to “Focus on body image and beauty standards, I want to compare how it is portrayed in the media and personal preference. I want to do an editorial type shoots for people and photoshop it to see their ideal and someone else’s, to see the comparisons. I want to explore different people’s beauty standards and what they changed in the images to see the similarities and differences and see if beauty is a societal thing, or if people are harsher on themselves. To get these views I will interview my models on their own bodies, their like and dislikes, and what they see as beautiful as well as the other person’s body that I will ask them to change. My models will be all different kinds of bodies to see how people’s natural appearance affects their self esteem, how close they are to the media’s ideal, and also if other people see them as such.” I felt that I somewhat met my proposal initially I had the idea to photoshop people to another person's standards; however I did not end up doing this as I realised that these issues are a private thing with people and their body should not be decided by other people. Especially as peer pressure has a huge impact on body standards. I however did do an editorial shoot of my models and explored there body issues with them, and photoshopped them into their ideals.

I feel I enjoyed the project as a whole I enjoyed the photography, editing, and discussing the topic. The only thing in the project I didn’t enjoy was the actual facts, and seeing the effects it had on people. Obviously I knew that this project is personal to people and affects them. However when I talked to certain people and they talked so badly about themselves it made me feel horrible, I could empathise for them but still listening to them be so harsh about themselves and in some cases crying about it was something I wasn't prepared for and was the worst part of my project.

I found this project effortless to engage with. I chose this project because it was something I connected with it, and this meant the engagement was easy. If I’m not interested in a project I wouldn’t engage with it, but due to me being able to chose a project I was passionate about made it easy to do it.

I am proud of my work in general I feel I did very well in this project. I worked very hard and I am very happy with my outcome. If I could I would have used more diverse models, I feel the lack of diversity in this is something I am ashamed of; but due to the lack of people willing to participate I feel that I did okay in this project.

I feel that when photographing people I want to find a bigger range of models I really feel that would make my photography better and would also be better for y future projects.

In my first crit session my peers agreed with me that the lighting was too harsh. I agree with this because the lighting was very harsh, and needed to change in my second soot, which it did and it made my images much better. When talking to my tutors near the end of the project, I got very positive feedback, and got told there wasn’t much I could do to improve. I agree with this as I was very proud of my work and had done my best so therefore with the timescale I had didn’t know if I could improve.

#unit 8 #final evaluation

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byrowanbailey-blog · 8 years ago

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RE-IMAGINING NARRATIVE

Brief; Create an animation narrative that references myths and legends, or future visions, challenging and presenting your outcome in a new and innovative way through only using images and no text.

Stories both of a fiction and non fiction context have, for thousand of years, been a medium to provoke a reaction and express varied signs, meanings and messages of expression from humans. From ancient legends, to fairy tales, to contemporary urban myths, the bizarre and shocking and the beautiful and extraordinary have woven there way into narratives that have been shared and communicated within our society. Modern creatives are given unique opportunities to express stories of all natures through multiple mediums in turn subverting a new and fresh outcome of exciting content.

Research

Beginning by researching into a brief history of story telling, I gained a better understanding of how language and importantly image within a narrative are used to inform, entertain, manipulate and document. Additionally through investigating the timeline of storytelling, from early cavemen paintings, the invention of the printing press and the mass spread of the Bible, Shakespeare’s famous theatre productions, through to the birth of Hollywood and modern cinema and the digital age with the modern narrative taking its form under the hand held digital device; I was able to interpret that stories are intrinsic of our society and culture in turn defining values of desires, dreams, prejudices and hatred. Through my research development I began to gain more of an interest in the mythologies of Ancient Greece and Roman, as well as future based narratives and classic fairy tales. Notable examples are The Odyssey, Metropolis, and Beauty and the Beast, all illustrating narratives that express through the visual form. Initial research allowed myself to gain introductory ideas and questions to take forward; my forefront intention was to explore a narrative that expressed a meaning to provoke and engage with an audience on a personal level in turn influencing a certain emotion in reference to an impactful story.

Initial Ideas

From delving into past, present, and future inspired mythical narratives, I gained initial thoughts to base a story for my outcome. Ancient Greek mythology was the outstanding subject researched and in turn I wanted to take forward and explore further. With this in mind I further analysed famous Greek myths and narratives, that alluded to a poignant cultural message or issue to be challenged and questioned. I listed three potential stories to base my animation upon, Hercules, Medusa, and The Odyssey, I chose The Odyssey for that on reflection of the epic storyline I had a sudden recollection that the famous greek myth held similarities to the refugee crisis. Told by the famous Greek literature Homer, The Odyssey follows the story of soldier Odysseus as he attempts to return home from ten years away at war; however his journey home is riddled with epic challenges and obstacles from a flesh eating Cyclops to a seductive beautiful singing voices luring innocents to their death, yet despite these challenges Odysseus with the aid from Greek gods returned home safely to rejoice with his family. The mythical struggles that Odysseus encounters bare similarities to the factual challenges of a refugee escaping Syria, for instants Odysseus travelled by boat same as the refugees and the monsters experienced within the narrative could correlate to the horrifying imagery of soldiers and war that a refugee bares witness to. In addition the epic scale of the Odyssey and its journey influenced from war affiliates with the journey taken on by a refugee to get to safety both physically and mentally.

Development Notes

vimeo

Magna Carta: REFUGE, Human stories from the refugee crisis

Narrative Structure

After delving into extensive research about the Syrian refugee crisis I began to draft an adapted fictional story based on factual events of the emergency and inspired both by the parallels of The Odyssey to form the context of the animation. Through story workshops and explorations I generated a character named Ammar Dwek aged 13, who is escaping war torn Syria on is own as all close family members have been killed in the conflict. Making his way across the Aegean sea Ameer encounters various troubles and challenges, but with the guidance from his mother and an angel Ammer makes it safely to the shores of Greece to begin his new life safe in refugee. I converted my notes for the story visually into a rough storyboard, that I later finalised with adaptations, the storyboard supplied a helpful and crucial visual aid for a preliminary look at the animation.

Rough Story Board

Sound

From building the storyboard up I began to gain a sense of time to the narrative, this sequentially led to introducing sound and music to the sequence. I decided to feature a song instead of just sound effects or no sound at all, on account of I felt it would supply more attraction and attention for the viewers. After exploring many genres, artists and songs I settled with Strange Fruit by Nina Simone, that I mixed with Kanye West’s sample that he adapted into Blood On The Leaves. The lyrics to Strange Fruit I felt held similar connections with the signs, meanings and messages of a refugee, adding the boldness and brutal sounds of Blood On The Leaves provided an aural entertainment that reinforces allure to the audience and ultimately supports the narrative meaning to the animation.

Imagery

With an established storyline created and an initial plan for sound, I turned my attention to the styling and imagery for the animation. At first I explored existing examples of interesting animation, David Foldvari, Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain all supplied inspiration. Foldvari’s use of bold, tonal and contrasting illustrations ignited meaning and provoked a reaction that engrossed my eye, alternatively the works of Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain offered engaging examples of how to use sound and imagery to influence an effective and intriguing narrative and animation.

youtube

David Foldvari: Gerges, a refugee from Egypt

vimeo

Ruff Mercy: J DILLA ‘THE SICKNESS’ Feat. NAS prod by MADLIB

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Blink My Brain: Green Day - BangBang

I decided to create my animation using black and white elements only because I felt the addition of colour would take away the dramatic ambience that I wanted to forge to the sequence. Using my storyboard as a guide, I had a minimal selection of sourced images, I mainly used my imagination to create the imagery; I chose this approach to create looser and more expressive visuals that in turn would bolster the fanciful, mysterious and dreamlike symbolism of the animation sequence. Following sketching out initial ideas, I finalised all the pictorial elements and scanned them into the computer to edited and adapt ready to composite into the production of the animation.

Final Animation Drawing 1

Final Animation Drawing 2

Final Animation Drawing 3

Final Animation Drawing 4

Final Animation Drawing 5

Final Animation Drawing 6

Final Animation Drawing 7

Final Animation Drawing 8

Final Animation Drawing 9

Process

With all the assets completed I compiled them all together to begin making the final animation. To start I used Ae to compose, animate and apply effects to my illustrations, creating individual compositions for each illustration I used Ae puppet tool to transform the still images into subtle moving animations. Following I would apply a combination of effects placing keyframes in certain locations along the timeline for each asset, to get the visual response I wanted and reinforce movement to the stills. With all the pictorial components completed I focused on sourcing footage to complement the animation, collecting a mixture of miscellaneous footage I again used Ae to convert them in order to fit with the styling of the animation. Saving all the composite’s I then took them into Pr to assemble them all into a final sequence, and incorporate the song mixed I created with Garage Band. Syncing the footage with the sound and then tidying up the overall sequence I created a final render and titled it, The Odyssey.

Final

vimeo

The Odyssey: Final Animation

Overall the final animation supplies the meaningful and impactful ambience I set out to achieve. Through reaching the history of narratives and storytelling, I have gained a fresh understanding of the importance to narrative and supplying meaning through language and visual imagery, which I want to take forward expand and have a the base for future works. Delving into the mythical world of Greek Mythology ignited my imagination, and finding a connection to the Syrian Refugee Crisis brought about the significance caused when experimenting with the old and new to create a new outlook that provokes an emotional response. I believe my final outcome accomplishes this, the dark, contrasting and tonal pictorial elements describe tension and an emotive atmosphere, that in turn portrays challenging and questionable ideologies thus attracting the audience. The addition of mixing Simone and West together creates a compelling soundtrack to the piece, supporting the visuals and guiding the viewers attention through mixed emotions. On reflection I might adjust the timings of some of the animation elements, and slightly change the movements of the visuals to be more smoother and flowing. Going forward I want to build upon the skills I have learnt with Ae and Pr to aid my intentions to explore meaning within narrative., similar to my final outcome which supplies the signs, meanings and message I wanted to create initially by adapting existing material into something thats fresh, original but ultimately thought provoking.

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