Developing Ideas with the idea of abstraction.

Simply covering the face with a veil.

70 mph winds really didn't help me on this shoot at all. I wanted it to be windy but the beach at Formby was far to dangerous to film or use any kind of equipment bar my camera. She almost looks stencilled in because I dressed the model in a black dress to create a natural contrast.

MY previous shoot reminded me a lot of Arnulf Rainer's art where he paints over printer images.

I haven't named this set of four images. Using my lovely boyfriend once again I asked him to stand in the studio behind a wall of perspex and covered his face in white make up. I crushed up a very large amount of chalk and blew it onto the perspex to create abstract sections in the image where you can't see the face. I wanted him to blend into his surroundings to create the illusion of the way he was feeling. Coming up to the end of the year when everyone has an almost crippling amount of work to get done for deadlines you feel as if your head is going to explode. By merging him into the white background and creating these random sections of colour I've illustrated the way his ideas and his mind are everywhere and he can't keep control of his own stress and emotion.

Here are a few simple design ideas I've put together for my final piece before I find out exactly what size and shape my space will be for my final exhibition. All in all I am looking at using three or more television screens to play my short films or clips and then a selection of portraits on the wall presented as still photography rather than the moving image. I want music to be a huge part of my exhibition. Instead of people just going to have a look I want it to be a kind of experience where people are immersed in what is going on around them and I can push my thoughts feelings and ideas upon them without them even realising.

Stop Motion Four.

Here I have played around with the idea of using clothes while using the stop motion technique. Inspired by the Joost Vandebrug video. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! 

Stop Motion - Third Attempt

In this third attempt I used a fish eye lens to distort the image slightly. Instead of continually shooting I asked the model to move into positions then would take seperate shots to make the final video a little more jerky and jumpy. 

Stop Motion - Second Attempt

Here is the second attempt at stop motion. The beauty of stop motion is that you have every effect from the camera you're using, although I haven't really explored it here. I shot in black and white to simply see how it looked and to flatten the image of colour and create a much more greyscale effect so the viewer can focus on the movement.

The use of no props and simple lighting and colour leaves the oppurtunity to see every movement from the model in a series of images put together. I really love the simplicity effect created.

My first attempt at Stop motion.

I decided to move on to stop motion due to the simple mixture of still and moving photography. Stop motion is simple and easy. A series of stills taken constantly one after another to create the illusion of something that is moving. Here I am simply getting used to how short I want the stills to be when put into the movie and how often I need to shoot with the camera to get the timing sufficient. I decided to use a prop just to see how it would look when being moved around in the stills. I changed all the stills at 0.2s in this clip just to keep it moving smoothly.

Wonderland TV directed by Joost Vandebrug.

Fat City Reprise - Long Gone.

I have previously looked at the first video I have posted here by Joost Vandebrug but I wanted to go back and have another look. As time is running out I've found myself not panicking but sitting around not sure how to move on with my project. I want to explore as much as I can in this moving photography project before I move on to studying photography at university. Stop motion photography is an area that I haven't looked at properly yet and I'm not sure why as it's enchanting and creates the effect of jumping from frame to frame naturally without being editted. IT involved everything that I want it to; the magic of still photography but into a movie to create the illusion of a moving image.

I need to decide on how I want to but my own stop motion photography together and actually need to put together a story board or guidelines this time which is something I really didn't want to do as I don't see myself as creating a movie persay, more of a piece of art. In the Vandebrug video he is advertising many different fashion companies and in the second for Fat City Reprise directed by Cesar Kuriyama is a music video where he explores the use of stop motion photography outdoors on location depicting a story. Instead of doing either of these things I want to use ideas from both and create a stop motion film that is reading a poem to us therefore telling a story but with thw written word.

Tyler, the Creator - Yonkers.

Directed By Wolf Haley
Filmed By Luis Panch Perez.

I really love Tyler, the Creator anyway but this video is just so interesting to watch I wanted to include it. The way the camera goes in and out of focus to show and hide things is such a good and original idea which works really well. The silhouettes make the video much more interesting to watch and again this is something I want to try and explore and include in my own work to make it that little bit quirky and mysterious.

Something WIcked This Way Comes featuring Rosie Huntington Whitely by RANKIN.

This video is beautiful. I wanted to include it on by blog due to the way layers are footage are layered together. I want to try this out but need to find the perfect computer programme to use. 

Manipulation.

I've found myself stuck at a point where I'm not sure whether to continue with the moving image or dive back into still fashion based photography so I've decided to try and mix both. Taking inspiration from Mel Bles the photographer and putting my own twist on the images with a lot of layering, cutting and sticking I've added a touch of movement to the images to create an illusion. By layering the original editted image, moving it about slightly and reducing the opacity I've tried to create the illusion of movement within a still image. I've layered the main features from each image to make them the main focal point of the finished image and to make sure I don't lose them in the illusion.

Manipulation and layering - taking inspiration from Mel Bles.

2.

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Mel Bles for Pop Magazine.

I love this image. I love the way different images from different shoots have been layered to create this final outcome. It really is beautiful because of how weird it is to look at. I want to create something like this and I've decided to move back into my comfort zone and play around in the studio to remind me of how powerful a still image can be. I want to find myself in the situation where I have a fabulous collection of still and moving images and I can confidently confront myself on which I want to continue and how I want to approach the situation.

Self Portrait - Eleanor Finch

My third video from the series where I have played around with inspiration from Nick Knight's Rick Owen's portrait. I have never shot any type of film in the studio before and although I work in there constantly feeling in my comfort zone I felt somewhat out of it. I missed having the beauty of the flash to soften the light and create the perfect shadows so it ended up taking me a lot longer than usual to set up the lighting. Unfortunately someone had nailed a very large mirror to the wall which I couldn't remove so I just worked with what I had. Using the mirror to record some of the movement rather than just moving away to shoot somewhere else. I used a lot of the same footage over and over again, speeding it up and slowing it down to create a kind of jump from frame to frame. I can't decide whether it has worked well or not but as I am still developing my style and getting used to working with the moving image I decided to share it anyway.

S4LEM
The band Salem have been labelled 'Ghoststep', a new form of Dubstep music that is eerie, atmospheric and almost creepy which I find amazing and perfect to stand aside my videos. Here are a few of the music videos they have put together for a few of their tracks which again are quite eerie, atmospheric and creepy. I like the darkeness of the videos with the figures in the spotlight. There aren't many typical features in the videos which is what makes them so weird to watch. I love this about them because it gets you questioning what it's all about and you watch it over and over to try and figure out what it is you're looking for.