Whilst shooting our film we took the opportunity to take stills of various scenes, allowing for more photographs that tell our story of the crossover between the Religious and LGTQ+ communities, as well as our studio images. These photographs include scenes such as the couple in the church practicing Christianity whilst also feeling as if they have to repress part of their identity. Aa well as this, there are also still images of the dream sequence in our film that showcase the couple running through the field in a idealistic world for them, in which they are free from restraints. Here I have gone through the images in Lightroom and sorted through which images I thought were best in the sense that they best conveyed our message and were clear and in focus. After this I went on to rate each of these best selection of images, rating them out of five stars. Once I had done this, I then proceeded to edit the still images that I had rated 4 or 5 stars.
Editing and Developing
This still image shows one of the girls practicing her religion, reading through the bible, presenting another important part of her identity. This establishes a personal relationship with Christian religion for the character. In order to edit this image, I started off by slightly decreasing the exposure and increasing the contrast, causing a more dramatic setting which will later show a juxtaposition to the lighting of the dream sequence. After this, I then went on to adjust the shadows, highlights, whites and blacks within the image, by increasing the highlights and whites and decreasing the shadows and the blacks, further creating a larger contrast. Finally, I increased the dehaze and vibrance in the photograph, allowing for the earthy tones in this image to be enhanced.
This still image displays the scene in which the couple are separated due to fear, still however sharing glances at each other. This conveys how in some instances people belonging to these two communities have to conceal part of their identity in order to be accepted. We are aiming to disprove this notion that such communities should exist only separately. Here I have edited this image in a similar way to the previous scene, in order to maintain consistency in tones during the scenes within the church.
This photograph is a still image of one of our establishing scenes for the dream sequence. This is as the wide shot foregrounds the dream like and scenic setting, due to the castle in the background and vibrant green grass. Here this colour grading contributes to the film by matching the mood to the vibrancy in contrast to the dark slightly duller tones in the church. For the dream sequence I edited the still images by decreasing the exposure due to the large amounts of sunlight already in the photograph. In addition, I also increased the contrast and adjusted the highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and saturation within the image.
This sill image taken from a dream sequence scene displays the two characters holding hands, demonstrating their freedom to be true to themselves in this idyllic world, something they fear to do in a religious setting. I edited this image in a similar manner to the previous dream sequence still, to maintain consistency in the tone and warmth throughout the dream world setting also, in order to provide a thorough contrast to the church scenes.
Here this still image also from the dream sequence showcases another scene in which the couple posses freedom of expression in their sexuality, as they are seen holding hands once again in the doorway of castle ruins. By having a scene in this castle structure with the sunset to the left in the background, it reinforces the idea that this is a fantasy and unfortunately not their reality. I also edited this image with the same process of the other stills from the dream sequence, however this time only very slightly decreasing the exposure and increasing the whites in the photograph. This is due to the small amount of light entering the frame as it was taken at sunset.
This final scene of the dream sequence displays the couple holding hands again, feeling at peace with both sides of their identity, walking through the vibrant, green setting into the sunset. This again reinforces the idea of an idyllic world that the characters are imagining for themselves. In order to edit this image I followed the same process as the other dream sequence photographs, although this time decreasing the highlights and the vibrancy as a result of the large amount of light within the frame, making sure it is not over exposed.
Edited Still Images
These are the final edited versions of the stills taken throughout the shoot for our film, each showing a different stage in the storyline, mostly corresponding to our original storyboard, excluding the scenes of protests and riots which we will take from real documented events to add authenticity to our film. These images also allow for a deconstruction of the cinematography, costumes and props in the shot. For example, the scenes in the setting of the church, we made sure the characters were wearing white clothing to symbolise purity through the eyes of Christianity. In addition, for the dream sequence, the characters were clothed in more comfortable and flowy outfits, to foreground their freedom in self expression further.