SHOOT PLAN

WHAT / CONCEPT: For this shoot I plan to film myself walking through the sand dunes during sunset then sitting down to watch the church service. The idea behind doing this shoot and others which I will do later on is to show different people doing different activities and being able to watch and ‘attend church’ wherever they are.

WHERE / WHEN: I plan to film this down at the Sand dunes near Le Braye at St Ouen’s Bay around golden hour and into blue hour. This means I will start shooting around an hour before sunset up to about 40 minutes after sunset. This is because the light is at its softest and the graduation between the highlights and shadows is much softer and which makes the shadows look softer also. This means getting pleasing consistent light on the subjects face is a lot easier. I am using St Ouen’s Bay and the sand dunes because this the part of the island where the sunsets

EQUIPEMENT: because I will be filming myself, I will need a tripod so I can set up my camera as I walk through or act in the scene. I plan to use my 24-70 with an ND filter on the front. This lens has a very versatile focal range which means I can get a range from wide to mid-telephoto field of view. Because I will be shooting in 25fps, the shutter speed will need to be 1/50, the lens also goes as wide as f2.8 this means that I will need an ND filter to filter down the light coming into the lens, this filter acts like a pair of sunglasses for the camera. Because I plan on shooting at sunset, I want to capture as much dynamic range as possible, as a result I plan on shooting using S-Log which is a flat colour profile on my Sony A73. By using this setting I can recover more of the highlights and golden sky as well as having more colour grading flexibility when it comes to post-production.

BEST EDITED IMAGES – Stills from the clips

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EDITING

Colour Correction – Log to Rec.709

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Stylistic Colour Grade

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Smith made his photography debut with ‘Artist Rifles’ a series of photos of fake war scenarios created by his own experience in the army. ‘Artist Rifles was to become the first chapter in Paul’s interrogation of the many-headed beast that is masculinity, of what it means to be a man. The most immediate subject of this enquiry was naturally to confront his own reasoning for joining the army.’ The cloning of the protagonist creates a appropriate metaphor for the army’s effect on an individuals identity and creating group identities (Brothers in Arms) This duplication of himself is a very effective method to emphasize the struggles of male identity, fitting in and belonging to a group / community.

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Smith has used this technique multiple times after his Artist Rifles project with himself and others. For example his advertising campaign with Robin Williams or his second self portrait project ‘Make My Night’

‘Make My Night’ follows a group of lads on a night out consisting of good laughs, pranks, fights, drinking and, inevitably, the rough morning after. ‘ As before, he becomes the anonymous everyman but this time is more overtly the narrator as well as the protagonist of a frequently observed ritual.’ Unlike past projects where I have mimicked Smith’s repeated protagonist effect, this time I am going to use his staged ‘night out’ photos as inspiration for my images. I plan to show the stages of the night out, like Smith, from the bright eyed beginning to the sickly end. Smith uses his imagery to influence a positive view upon masculinity. I am interested in this view and what to incorporate a sense of it within my own work. Overall Smith’s work is very positive but it is likely that only the staging of the images will affect my photo book and less so with the meaning.

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Smith, like Alex Webb, also used high colour saturation to emphasize the freedom and vibrance of a night out. This will be another influence for the editing process of my images as well as the production of them.

Smith uses the repeated protagonist in order to show that it does not really matter who the subject is, it is about the meaning of masculinity to respect to anyone. I am going to try and emphasize this meaning through the comparison and contrast between a lads night out and a girls night out. I hope that this contrast will convey a similar message to Smith and that the difference between these two is easily understood.

Technical – Smith’s use of all natural lighting in this shot supports its realism by not using any artificial lighting. He has create a specific colour pallet / tonal range of blue, green and beige.

Visual – Smith has raised the saturation in order to vibrantly bring out the colours within this image. This creates a lighter and more enjoyable photo which suits the ‘lads at the footie’ style. He has used the space well and even had moments where his protagonist overlaps with himself which causes a much more difficult editing process.

conceptual – Like ‘make my night’, Smith’s project with Robbie Williams enforces a strong sense of masculinity upon the viewer and provides certain scenarios that follow more of a false representation of men but a funny / fantasized one.

Alex Webb is best known for his complex and vibrant color photographs of serendipitous or enigmatic moments, often in places with socio-political tensions. Over the past 45 years, Webb has worked in places as varied as the U.S.-Mexico border, Haiti, Istanbul, and, most recently, a number of U.S. cities. “My work is questioning and exploratory,” he says. “I believe in photographs that convey a certain level of ambiguity, that ask questions rather than provide answers.”

I was drawn to Webb’s photography due to his editing style with high saturation images to emphasize certain freedoms and limitations. Although my work holds no political agenda and most of Webb’s does, I have used a similar editing technique of bright, strong colours in order to convey similar meaning.

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Webb worked in Latin America and the Caribbean in his 20’s. This is where he transitions from B&W to colour photos and credits these two cultures for amplifying his love and interest of colour. He has produced 16 books during his career many of which were made with his wife who is also a photographer.

“I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner”

Alex Webb

Technical – Webb’s photos always consist of natural lighting or at least appear that way. He uses bright and saturated natural light to give his photos an upbeat feeling and also develops a large tonal range with his imagery.

Visual – The standout visual techniques in Webb’s work are his colour, framing and tones. He uses high saturation to give a physical representation of freedom through ‘happy’ colours. the mix of an orange/pink sky and large green wall in this photo draws the viewers attention immediately. The framing of the photo and positioning of the five people within the space adds to the ambiguity of the image and asks questions of what they are looking at, why they are stood there and who they are?

Conceptual – “we all are conditioned by our culture, our education, our experiences — what makes us who we are. Nonetheless, I make an effort to be as open as possible to alternative possibilities, possibilities that may contradict what I rationally might expect.” Webb attempts to show other cultures to his own without being biased to educate and inform the public