First we’re going to start of with a wide shot and then zoom into a person wearing a 70’s inspired outfit (flares and a crop top), after that there is going to be an outfit change with a clip shot through a door or a mirror. Next, there is going to be an outfit change into a 80’s inspired outfit (mom jeans and a bomber jacket), then there will be a change into a 90’s inspired outfit (black dress?). The clips will be shot with the model facing the camera and the clips will cut between outfits as the model walks forward towards the camera. The model will then change into a 2000’s inspired outfit (tracksuit) followed by an outfit inspired by current fashion (baggy jeans and a top).
Textile artist Debbie Smyth is best known for her stitched illustrations. By plotting pins with acute accuracy and then stretching thread between them, she creates work that is beautiful and somewhat disconcerting; the boundaries of textile art, fine art sketches, embroidery, and illustration are well and truly blurred.
My Embroidery
For this experiment we had to use materials that related to Jersey and the history and community of Jersey. I decided to use this image as it is a well known building and business that is still there. I decided to keep it simple and just stitch on words that I cut out from the text that was originally below the image. I chose to only use the identifying words in the text, such as the business name and the year the image was taken so that it didn’t take away from the actual photo.
A storyboard is a visual outline for the video you are planning to make, they are usually hand drawn, however in recent times storyboards have been created digitally in computer software. The format of a storyboard is usually chronological, helping the creators visualise the video before filming begins. Storyboards also include notes about what is meant to happen in the video, like little captions describing the process from beginning to end. A completed storyboard may look similar to a comic strip, it is like a visual script for the production team to fully plan how they want the video to look. Click here for more on storyboards.
Storyboard Examples;
Our Storyboard;
Our group created the storyboard below to help us plan how we wanted our video shoot to go, describing the different shots and how we imagined them playing out on screen. Firstly, we started with the simple title of ‘Women’ for our NFT film – however, later in the process we changed out idea to the title ‘WomanKind’; a sort of play on words to mankind while also hinting at the stereotypes of women needing to be sweet and innocent, in other words ‘kind’. Our opening shot is planned to be of a wooden door, large and imposing, taking up the entire frame. We plan on having someone open the door from the other side to lead the camera into the first room, we also aim to edit this first sequence with a black and white filter to represent the timeline it portrays. We plan for our second scene to show a woman, dressed in typical early 1900’s attire with an apron, whisking something in a bowl walking through her kitchen. We will set the camera on a tri-pod in the centre of the room and follow the woman as she moves, before seeing her stop to put on a ‘Votes for Women’ protest sash. We want the satire of the ‘innocent housewife’ to juxtapose with her later fierce and strong mood as she walks off through a different door on the other side of the room. Our third and forth scenes will follow the same filming format, however in the second our model will pick up a ‘Women’s Rights’ sign before leaving, wearing a 60’s/70’s inspired dress and edited with a dull saturation (colour appearing as time moves on, and more rights for women are put in place). Our last shot is planned to show our model in a idealistic world of freedom, walking into frame and looking at herself in a mirror, feeling confident within her femininity and loving herself without it needing to be sexualised for the male gaze. We plan for our model to look straight at the camera lens and smile before leaving through a final door into a world where she can feel confident and comfortable.
Video Shoot Planning
Who – The model we are using for this video shoot is the same woman we had in our initial photoshoot images. Caitlin has a timeless look about her, she is also an actress who is comfortable in front of the camera and has confidence in portraying the different emotions we want to convey; eg, sadness, anxiety, excitement, happiness.
Where – We plan on using one of our group member’s grandmother’s home for our video shoot due to its vast space, rooms, doorways and availability for use. The house we aim to film in is also decorated with similar regal furniture and wallpaper as the work of Lissa Rivera, who is our main source of inspiration for the project.
When – We aim to conduct this video shoot on Thursday October 14th as the weather is meant to be bright and sunny, resulting in perfect natural lighting for the shots we want to film in the kitchen (a room with very big windows). Additionally, on this day we all have a free period last lesson which provides the perfect time to film before it gets too dark.
How – We are planning to film using my Canon camera and tri-pod so all the footage is in one place and it is easy to find for editing. We will attempt to create transitions between doorway to room – however if this is not possible in the space we are in, we have a plan B on how to film our video, using a simpler format.
Why – We want to create this video to shed light on the decades of struggle that women have gone through to get equal rights, we know that we are lucky enough to live on an island where equality is noticed and seen, for the most part, however we also realize there are many countries and areas where women do not have the same rights as men and still need to fight everyday for the privileges that should be theirs for free. We want to create a video showing a timeline of women’s rights activists during the different waves of feminism, connoting ideas of freedom and passion for what they believe in.
As a group, knowing we wanted to explore feminism, we decided to use this opportunity to create a video showing empowerment in the world of women. Our initial idea was to use one girl throughout the video and have her walking through doors that lead to different stages of feminism. She would start in in kitchen and would represent the fist wave of feminism (women’s suffrage) as well as the women of the time, hence why she would be in the kitchen, the stereotype and mostly reality at the time. She would then walk through a door, walk through time, to the seventies introducing the second wave of feminism. This stage would have more colour and saturation implying the good changes that had come, however not fully. And through the last door would come not another stage of fighting for equality but a hypothetical world where women feel free, safe and happy.
Storyboard
Each stage lasting ten seconds would add up to 30 seconds, our aim being to represent how women have fought over the century but showing it in a gentle way. As for audio our initial idea was to change the music for each stage, however, we decided that instead, having three snippets of speeches of women at he time as well as empowering music would be much more emotional and powerful.
