Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Film Noir workshop

This workshop was to pastiche a film noir lighting set up.

Using the skills from the set build workshop we had the week before we had to set up a corner wall for our background and a poly board as a floating wall.

We were able to use the Hasselblad H1Ds again, this would test us to see if we remembered how to set them up properly.

This is one of the shots from our workshop which has had a little bit of post production because near the end of the day we had a photoshop workshop where we used selection tools to select areas that we wanting to dodge and burn and also do some mild retouching (take out any dust specs etc).

Monday, 27 February 2012

Styling ideas....

Charity shops seem like a good place to start, we found a few potential dresses.




I came across this dress which I think would work really well


I found a better picture of the dress online.


Friday, 24 February 2012

More casting......

We had our tutorial today with Sam, which was very helpful, made us feel better about our concept. It also raised a few questions that we will need to think about and answer pretty soon.


One of the 'Things to do' was more casting, so I have posted a casting call on ModelMayhem, hopefully this will be an easier way to find a model.


I have also been looking on other sites and getting in contact with models to see if they would come along to the casting call.




I have also started looking into getting MUA's and Hairstylists




Me and Salvador have also spent a lot of our time talking to model agencies trying to get a specific looking model who is suitable for our image.



Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Commission research task


Commission research task: Written for me by Joe B
The idea/ concept being behind clothing made from recyclables, fashion style shoot.

Recycling statistics:
Recycling is an excellent way of saving energy and conserving the environment. Did you know that:
  • 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.
  • 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
  • 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
  • 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
Some Interesting Facts
  • Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
  • The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours.
  • The largest lake in the Britain could be filled with rubbish from the UK in 8 months.
  • On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish.
  • As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted.
  • Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
  • 9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were made easier.

The fact that stuck out here was that %16 of the money we spend on products is for the packaging.
Packing general includes a lot of plastics that are not biodegradable.
http://static02.mediaite.com/styleite/uploads/2010/04/0-shopping.jpgIn terms of relating fashion to waste:












Taking an average life span of 63 years for a woman she will spend 25,184hours and 53minutes shopping (roughly 3years of their life). On a yearly basis that clocks between 400-500 hours shopping. At least 170 hours of this is spent specifically of clothes.
Danny Treacy
Looking at the series ‘Them’ by Danny Treacy, he immerses himself in these abstract outfits, created from the clothing of strangers.

His outfits are made from recovered clothes, collected from lonely places – the woods, the wasteland, car-parks. He re-stitches and re-fashions them into these humanoid creatures.
They are haunting pieces, sinister, and raw. They mask his identity and he feels as though he can become ‘them’ or at least get as close to ‘them’ as possible, as though he feels fragments of their lives and desires through those last items of clothing they were wearing. They are lit quite sinister, and haunting, they display raw human desires and emotions, or perversions of desires and emotions.

slideshow imageslideshow image


















The Homeless
Brother Sharp

http://www.mtviggy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pid_24549.jpg
This homeless man, most commonly referred to as brother sharp has become an internet phenomenon in both China and now Japan. They are many fashioned stories as to why he is homeless, many say it is a result of the loss of his family, which seems to be the most consistent reason.
Whenever approached directly he appears to cry out in agony, and despite all of his fame, to this day he remains homeless, he refuses society.
His clothing is that of any homeless man, whatever he finds, men’s clothing, women’s clothing, it does not matter as he must keep warm in whatever he may find. The fact that he has boomed a fashion sensation through discarded clothing is quite an irony, and could even be argued to make a critique on our concept of ‘fashion’ and how thin the concept may be.
It is like taking the concept of Danny Treacy in construction of outfits, but to the complete other extreme, as he becomes ‘catwalk’ through what others discard, as a pose to this dark and ‘feared’ concept behind Treacy’s work.


Monday, 20 February 2012

Overview of the 50's

Life Magazine, images through the 50's. It is interesting to see as an overview what happened in the 50's because our 'housewife' feels that this era is something to hold onto and to her is perfect, which is why this is part of the narrative we are building for her.














We are thinking about having family portraits of the US presidents from this time period with images of our model with them to emphasise her idea of a perfect life (being with a highly thought of man). Though looking at the presidents within this era we may decide to make this idea more contemporary by having the current president in a composite with our model. Hopefully viewers will be able to understand that this is set in the present but the 'housewife' feels that the 1950's were the perfect era to live in, which is why she styles her life in this way.

US Presidents in the 50's

Harry S Truman (1945-1953) 33rd US president





Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) 34th US president


Thursday, 16 February 2012

Good Kate vs Bad Kate task. casting continued.



1950's style pinup model



Looking at 'Bettina's modelling page it is clear to see that she has the style that we are looking for. I took this shot today for the production casting as I have been speaking with Bethan about modelling for us for almost a week now.
At the next group meeting I will take the contact sheets with me and discuss if we think Bethan will be suitable, if not I will continue casting and will also look for a hairstylist and makeup artist.


Casting lead, lighting assistant.

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

The Commission - Developing idea

After watching 'Wasteland' a documentary about the photographer Vik Muniz today I feel as if I have had some enlightenment or epiphany.

In the documentary we see Muniz go to a landfill site in Rio de Janeiro, it is the biggest in the world. He takes portraits of the pickers at the site, he then selected a few photos from this to create a bigger piece of art using recycled materials collected from the landfill. The people within the photographs helped him to create these works of art that he photographed and then sold at auction in order to help these people.

Vik Muniz within the landfill


 one of the pieces of art before it had been photographed. You are able to see the shear scale of it due to the people in the bottom left corner, this suggests an indication to the vastness of the landfill site that these pickers work on. 

So, from my initial research into the fashion photographers and designers who create their own clothes out of recyclable materials, I am now moving on still with the same idea, but I am going to create it in a similar way to how Muniz has created his 'Wasteland' images.

I will be looking into the people below to get an idea of how to create a new image from old images and materials. 

Julie Cockburn









John Stezaker






Melinda Gibson





The images above that I have looked at have given me a few ideas of how I would like to portray my work, here are a couple I have made and scanned in:




Andy Warhol

I felt that Warhol's work had a connection with what I am looking into (fast throwaway fashion) because in the images below Warhol repeats the image over and over, which is what shops like Primark, H&M, Topshop etc do with their clothes, mass produce the same design and sell them reasonably cheap. Which leads people in to thinking that instead of recycling their old clothes and making new ones they just throw them away and buy new ones.



From looking at Warhol, I then decided to put together my own images in this style:






Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Fashion of the 50's

The end of the 40's saw fashion heading for a revival of the 20's style of clothes, the 20's style was very masculine with a suppressed bust, no waist and broad shoulders. The silhouette was so simple that the figure of the woman was lost and the flattened chest was emphasised. Some of these silhouettes remained but due to the vast modernisation they were barely noticeable.
One of the persistent features from the 1920's fashion was the sleeveless look, sleeveless dresses were worn throughout the year because the woman found them easy to wear. They also wore sleeveless blouses and harness tops for the evenings.


 The Polka dot dress, possibly a modernised silhouette from the 1930's depression era. Below is a 30's polka dot dress.


 Velvet was often used, even in tailored suits, with a white and black colour scheme.

Marilyn Monroe


Grace Kelly





50's style patterns.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysweetiepiepie_vintage/3297650947/lightbox/

1950's housewife




 The image above of Caroline Trentini lead me to look into more of Miles Aldridge's work, in the images I have selected he represents the 1950's housewife who seems to be having some sort of breakdown. This ties in to our theme of duality and the American dream gone wrong, they are also interesting to look at for styling and props even though our production is likely to take place in the dining room.