finalmajprojectphotography

[finalmajprojectphotography]

final major project.

[finalmajprojectphotography]

Evaluation

When the brief was set for this project I knew roughly what I wanted to create. From the very first day of this course I have wanted to explore moving image and film-making. So for the Final Major I wanted to really create something that showed off my aesthetic and attempt to learn the technical skills that go into using Premiere Pro. Since I could only access Premier Pro and not After Effects on my laptop this limited me slightly but I lack a serious knowledge in After Effects and so would not have made much difference really. I spent some time watching Premier Pro tutorials while I was at work (as we all know this is where 90 percent of my time is spent) to try and tutor myself. I didn’t want to ask for help as I felt ‘I’m in my final year now I should know how to do these things’ and would rather have private worries and stresses than let on that I have know idea what I’m doing! The absolute main struggles I had with this project were Premier Pro. It’s my favourite programme to use and in all honesty wish I had spent more time finding my way around it. 

When it came to shooting I had a bit of a difficult time planning when I could do it. This is because of many factors; work (50 hours a week), being unable to drive to the location and the time of day/night I could go. I had to figure out a way of finding somebody to drive me to my location which I had planned to be Portland into what has been dubbed as the ‘ghost tunnels’ and also when I could go. Having one to two days off during the week ended up clashing with my friends who can drive. I also finish work on average at 1 am and so finding somebody willing to take me at that time was a trouble in itself. Thankfully a hero by the name of Katrina Carlin came to my rescue. She would be free on a Monday night, a day where I finish a little earlier at 12.00-12.30 and she would drive me and assist me with my shoot. When Kat picked me up I decided half way there that perhaps going right the way into the middle of no where on Portland at 1 am isn’t just scary but it’s actually stupid. It would be incredibly dangerous for us and I didn’t want to jeopardise safety. I would’ve liked to have gone there at dusk instead. So I decided that Sandsfoot Castle would be a good location, I wanted the location shots more than anything as I could shoot extra clips and prop clips at another point. We were armed with a Canon 5d mark iii and our phone flashlights (I had originally intended to book out the lighting kit at college but thought since it would be pitch black out in the open I didn’t want to accidentally damage the kit or just not be able to see very well to use it, especially when I had never used it before. I set up my props and handed Kat the torches and began shooting. I had a shooting plan in my head and was channelling as much ‘American Horror Story’ opening credits as I could. A lot of motion in the torches over the props, in and out of darkness, I panned along the castle textures and brickwork and really tried to shoot each nook and cranny of it. I was starting to get a little sketchy and so we decided to pack up and head to the car after about 45 minutes of shooting. On our way to the car we stopped by a little lake and did some shooting over the lily pads and capturing the water movement. Then headed for a well earned McDonalds (on me as a thank-you!)

When it came to post-production I first had to choose an audio to decide how to arrange my footage and what kind of theme I wanted to project. As I have talked about previously, I initially wanted to go for a H.P Lovecraft narration, or a voice reading of a biblical passage. I at first used a track of a slowed down, hollow sounding version of a nursery rhyme. I edited my footage in order to this audio and thought that was the track that I was going to go down. However, in a twist of fate, I had decided to sell my 11′’ MacBook Air and invest in a laptop that actually possessed the utilities I needed (an SD card slot, a disk drive etc) and invested in a HP laptop with Windows 10. When it came to loading my video into my newly downloaded version of Premiere Pro, I hadn’t saved the video in the correct format as the version I had on my Mac was CC and was not the version I had downloaded for my new laptop. So I lost all the editing I had done and had to start again. I luckily had all my footage still but I may have had an ever so slight mental breakdown the night before deadline and a few tears. Nether the less, a happy accident this became. As ever so recently I had discovered a singer called ‘Lana Del Rey’ and had been listening to her albums. Her music is harrowing and beautiful and it hit me that night that I wanted to give my video a different vibe. I went and downloaded a version of her song ‘Blue Jeans’ without the lyrics and used just the music instead. The beats and the feeling went really really well with my footage and I liked the new vibe my video had. 

The overall end video I created I am happy with. For me I will always half self-doubt and also be my worst critic. I look at it and because I know I have a lack of knowledge with the software I feel it looks a little “year 2 project”. I know I could’ve done better with more time and focus. I also am kicking myself that I only discovered Lana Del Rey two days before the deadline as watching her music videos she honestly is my aesthetic written all over, the EXACT kind of videos I’ve always wanted to create and would’ve been perfect inspiration for me for this project. Something I would’ve done better and improved upon is much more research into artists, film-makers, authors and how to use Premiere Pro confidently. 

As my final project to ever submit I am pleased with what I’ve done and to hopefully project this at the exhibition.  

[finalmajprojectphotography]

screenshots from my post production process

[finalmajprojectphotography]

H.P Lovecraft

For my moving image I wanted to have a voice over monologue as my audio. I felt this would connect successfully with the theme of the video. H.P Lovecraft was the popular and most obvious choice it seemed. A horror fiction author, his works appeared to read well with what I initially wanted. I felt him to be relate able...oddly. His childhood was marked with tragedies and I felt sympathy and wondered if similar minds work that way, going through child-hood tragedy shapes you for adult-hood. Reading through some PDF short stories sent to me from Andy, I enjoyed them all. I did start to realise however, that perhaps this was pigeon holing me to the horror genre.A majority of his work carried a supernatural look and that isn’t something I wanted to show in my project. I suddenly realised that wasn’t the route I was going down completely. 

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first shoot

for the first shoot i decided i would feel more comfortable not shooting on portland in the location i originally wanted. this was because the only time i could have help driving and an assistant was on particular days kat was free, this happened to be on days i had work and wasn’t finished until 1am. we set off to sandsfoot castle instead. this actually proved to almost be better than my original thought. everything was black, we could barely see in front of us. i bought with me a bag of props, which included a china doll of mine, a wooden artist figurine and some clear glass jars and printed off pictures of faces that i laminated and placed in the jars, filled with water and gave them the effect of a real head in a jar. 

instead of taking the lighting kit with me we used our torches on our phones, i liked the natural look and how it seemed more authentic to be using personal torches as our only light source than setting up a professional lighting system. i began by placing the props where i wanted them and having kat shine the torch light over and off each prop. we did this over the castle itself, the grass and the pond, i wanted to include location shots of course. 

i didn’t gather absolutely everything i wanted because of the time of night and it was starting to get quite worrying. i still plan to shoot extra, this may include going to the ‘ghost tunnels’ at an earlier time of day. 

i took the cottage home and started editing on premier pro some rough footage. i chose to go with a harrowing version of a nursery rhyme at the moment for my audio. i may (and probably will) change this though.

[finalmajprojectphotography]

still test

some still test shots on the first shoot

[finalmajprojectphotography]

jo spence

i came across jo spence through an article in the guardian newspaper. i found her work utterly inspirational and a really interesting approach. i focused specifically on researching her final series which was taken in the lead up to the last two years of her life before sadly passing away from leukaemia. 

i think once you know her story the way you look at her final projects change. you can connect and understand on a greater level once you hear of the story she is telling through her work. it was quite an overwhelming thing for me.

because of the genre and theme of my final project i felt that jo’s work ties in really well as a good artist to research. the way she lights her photos and the overall composition really appeals to me, i have been trying to find a photographer who’s work reflects my personal favourite style of photography and i feel like i have found that in jo spence. 

i will include some photos from her final series that i feel link best with what i want to create. 

[finalmajprojectphotography]

project outline:

-to shoot a moving image short.

based around an american horror story opening title sequence, i want to shoot a 01:00-02:00 minute horror themed short. with a dark passage from either the bible, a stephen king book or something by h.p lovecroft as my audio. 

the location i have in mind is based on portland, in an area dubbed as ‘the ghost tunnels’ and shoot at night. i wanted to capture the railings in the tunnels and the feeling you get there, the natural sounds etc. i have shot there before so it is an area i am aware of, however to shoot at that time of night is something i am wary off. 

i will be using a canon 5d III and a lighting kit from uni, and premier pro to edit and complete.