things that inspire me essay - eoin godfrey · web viewpage 2: introduction pages 3-5: research and...

Unit 104: Lens Based

Recording

Things That Inspire Me

By Eoin Godfrey

1 Eoin Godfrey 14/12/17

Table of Contents

Page 1: Title Page

: Introduction

Pages 3-5: Research and Inspiration

Pages 6-13: Theme 1-Action Figure Photography

Pages 13-14: Theme 2-Stop Motion Film

Pages 15-18: Portfolio of Evidence


LO1 Understand the purpose of lens-based recording techniques

1.1 Evaluate the potential for creating images

(Recording: light; colour; texture; contrast; scale; shape; objects

Through learning these techniques; my skills in doing photography have improved greatly since I started the portfolio assignments; at the beginning, my photographs were blurry and out of focus. But as I progressed with the assignment; my skills began to improve and this helped me with my stop motion project as well as my action figure photography. I learned how to capture the right lighting and objects as well as getting the correct contrast between all of the elements.

Aims: convey meaning; moods; express ideas; highlight creative intentions;

build visual library; create records e.g. objects, environments, events,

change over time, performance, installation, ephemera, land-art)

1.2 Clarify purposes for creating images

(Purpose: researching e.g. visual sources, material, subjects, environments;

Documenting e.g. work in progress, final outcomes, portfolio, stages,

Developmental cycle; building library e.g. visuals imagery, starting points;

Providing evidence e.g. for self, assessors, client, agent).

Introduction and Research

What is the aim of this assignment?

In this assignment, my tutor has asked me to create a group of different projects that are based on things that inspire me; my inspirations for this assignment range from a variety of different resources such as history, classic literature, comics and animation. As a result, I had resorted to writing a list of all things that have inspired me so I could keep track of what I needed to do. In this assignment; I will talk about each of my inspirations and the process of creating each piece of work for this project; in the conclusion, I will give my opinion of the overall work that I have completed and what I could do better if I had to do the projects again.

Research and Inspiration

As mentioned above; I was inspired by a number of different elements for when I created my projects, including classic literature such as Dracula and Sherlock Holmes to comics created by various famous companies such as Marvel and DC. All of these different


inspirations come from all the reading that I had done when I was younger as I liked to read a lot of books on various different subjects in my spare time; however, I also like to watch a lot of films as well; which is also where I got some of my inspiration for this project. I can use the previous experience that I have working in film as I have made a short film named “Jorka from Jupiter” in the past mainly using stop motion.

Before I started work on this assignment; I looked at examples made by others as inspiration for my own work, I also looked through the materials that I had previously made but not used for any of my assignments and exported them to my memory pen so I could show them to my tutor in class. I also wrote out a list on paper in order to single out the main elements of inspiration before I attempted to start work on these projects. Many of the things that inspired me come from the science fiction and fantasy genre such as the works of J.R.R Tolkien and Star Wars; some of my inspiration also comes from comics such as Marvel and DC, who are famous for their superhero comics such as Spiderman, Batman and Superman. I also have a big

interest in history; which I know lot about since I have many history books at home and like to read them in my spare time so I can learn something new about a certain time period, I also like to read other types of books such as Sherlock Holmes and Dracula; which are both considered classic literature. One of my biggest influences for this project was stop motion animation; particularly the works of Ray Harryhausen, who was an important stop motion animator from 1949 to 1981; he was responsible for the special effects on many great films such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titians, having been inspired by the original King Kong film from 1933. I was also influenced by Aardman Animations; who are a British company that are famous for their stop motion work such as Morph and Wallace and Gromit, these two Stop Motion giants are the reason that I have an interest in this type of animation. The work in this project covers three different forms of lens-based media which are photography, stop motion and drawings; some of which I have experience in as I had previously done a course in Media Production last year.


Figure 1: A still from my stop motion showing the set and model that I used for the filming; the set was made from wood while the model was made of plasticine

As prevoiulsy mentioned above, I created a stop motion film in Secondary School called “Jorka from Jupiter” about a friendly alien who wants to try and get some sleep in his bed; only to be constantly woken up by all the noises outside his window, this film was mainly inspired by the Wallace and Gromit films by Aardman Animations as they possess the same style of stop motion and has

some humorous situations that would befall the characters in both my film and in Wallace and Gromit. The process of making a stop motion film involves moving the subject, then taking a photo and repeating that pattern in order to simulate movement.

The model of Jorka used in the short film was made out of plasticine and the set was made out of wood and designed to look like a bedroom with a bed, window and wardrobe; I shot this film over a few days using a film camera mounted on a tripod and then edited it using iMovie, where I put all of the frames together along with the music and any sound effects that I wanted to use. In order to create the lighting for this short film; I used two lamps and positioned them on top of the walls of the set so that they were shining directly onto the inside of the set. When simulating the falling picture; I held the picture by the top while the camera was in a close-up shot so that my hands were out of sight and when showing the wardrobe falling over; I pushed it from outside the window under the curtain so that hands could not be seen. I feel that I learned the fundamental basics of stop motion and got a lot of experience from making this film; I also consider this is one of my personal favorite projects that I made, this is the reason why Stop Motion is one of my chosen forms of Lens Based Media.

Theme 1:

Action Figure Photography


Figure 2: A scene from Wallace and Gromit; one the main inspirations for this film; these films would use plasticine models and large wooden sets

Figure 3: In this still; you can see all the scratches and gaps in the model due to all of the fixing that I had to do to the model

For my main theme of my project; I chose to use some of my action figure photography, this type of photography involves setting up action figures in various different scenarios and then capturing them in that environment, I was inspired to do this after reading a book on the subject called “Ten Frames Per Second: An Articulated Adventure” by a professional toy photographer named Jonny Wu. When reading this book and doing my research, I took note of how the figures were posed and what locations that I would need in order to take my own photographs. I began to look at what things I already owned and found that some of my own action figures had more joint movement than others; so, I began to experiment with various different poses and locations.


Figure 5- Still 1: One of my early photographs, featuring the protagonists of the videogame franchise "Contra" by Konami

Figure 4: The book that originally inspired me to take up Action Figure Photography as a hobby

When I took those first photographs using my new Canon camera; the main location was my bedroom and noticed that the location was very generic, as my intention was to give the photographs a spirit of adventure so that they would appeal more to the audience. So, I decided to change location and shoot my photographs outside in

my back garden; making it look like the characters were in a jungle or

some other outdoor environment, I believed that these later photographs are much better as they feel like the characters are on an adventure in a world that looks different, but feels familiar at the same time. The main figures that I would use in my photographs are based on the protagonists from the videogame series “Contra” by Konami while the second type of figure that I would use is based off the alien from the “Predator” series of films; I chose to use them specifically as they have a lot of joint movement and can be put into various different poses. I decided to use the articulation of these figures to my advantage as the different poses make my photographs look more exciting and action packed; however, I also decided to use some of my smaller figures as well so that I could create a whole range of different photographs featuring different characters being used so that the audience could have variety when viewing them. However; some of the photographs that I took did not look how I wanted them to as they were either too dark or did not have the correct background in them when I exported them to the computer, so I decided to use Adobe Photoshop so I could fix them. During this; I got more experience by using the different tools that were available, mainly the Magic Eraser tool which I used to take out the background so I could put in a new one and other times I would use the clone stamp tool in order to get rid of some minor elements such as stands holding some of the props so they look like they are floating in midair like they did in the original source material. As you can see from the example on the right; which features the characters from the animated series


Figure 6- Still 2: One of my more recent photographs; I used a different background for this photo as well as some of the props that came with the figure

Figure 7: Photoshop is the main software that I use for editing my photos, as you can see from this example; which is a promotional image for a stop motion movie based on the series

“Dragon Ball Z”, I set the figures up on a table and then took a few shots of the same photograph before bringing it into Photoshop. I then used the magic eraser tool to remove the background and replace it with a different one; in this case, an outer space theme; then I also added some effects to make the photo look more like a scene from the animated series and to make it exciting.

Still 1: Bill and Lance vs the Predator

For this piece; I actually create a few different scenes with the same characters and made it look like they flowed in a singular narrative showing the confrontation between the heroes and villain; I chose to use the scene where they are standing victorious over their adversary because it showed how articulated the figures are when being used for photography work. I made two versions of this scene; one on the carpet of my bedroom and one on my desk; however, the first photo (figure 8, which can be seen below) that I took was very blurry and there was a lot of distracting elements in the background. I tried to use Photoshop in order to edit out the background; but it didn’t work as well as I hoped as it didn’t look realistic and did not delete all of the distracting elements at the one time.

As you can see in Figure 9; I had decided to change location and managed to get the figures in a better light than they were in originally and unlike the first photo, the figures can be seen more clearly because of this, I feel that Figure 9 is a better photograph visually. After I took the photo, I used Photoshop to edit it by putting in speech bubbles so it looked like the characters were speaking to each other; this finished photo was an experiment to see if my Action Figure photographs could be used for telling a story. Another good thing about using these figures in these photos is that all three of them were the same size so that I would not need to worry about them being too small or big; this photo shows that I could use this style of photography in order to tell various different stories.


Figure 8 Figure 9

Still 2: Contra level recreation

For my second still, I decided to try and recreate one of the levels of “Contra” videogame; I did this by placing the figures and props outside to make it look like a jungle area similar to the videogame. I took two photos using the figure and the different effect parts available with the figure such as the spread shot attack and power up; I exported both photos into Adobe Photoshop and then used the clone stamp tool

in order to remove the stands and merge both photos into one so it looked like both effect pieces were in the same photo at the one time (Figure 10). The creation of this photograph shows that I am capable of using the Photoshop software in order to fix any problems that I may have with the photographs such as the brightness of the image or the background, this photograph also shows that I am also capable of using different backgrounds in order to give them a bit more variety.

Still 3: Heroes of the Earth

In this still; I decided to place my figures in front of the videogame inspired backdrop that came in the box along with them and the props that I used in some of my other photos. But when I took the still on the camera; I noticed that there were big gaps in the backdrop as they were flaps in the paper, I took them into Photoshop and used the clone stamp tool in order to cover the gaps that were present in the original; I also brightened up the photo as it was originally too dark to see anything on screen. However; I wasn’t able to remove the stand holding the power up from the photo as I would also be removing the leg from one of the characters that was placed behind the stand; so, I decided not erase that stand in case I accidently removed something important by mistake. When I took this photo; I was experimenting with using dioramas for my figures, which is something I will revisit in the future; the lighting and angle of the photo makes the figures look more

heroic and empowering as if they had finally defeated their enemies after a long battle.

Still 4: Hanging from the Zip line


Figure 10

Figure 11

I took this photograph while experimenting with different locations and poses for my figures; I decided to hang one of my Contra figures from a washing line to make it look like he was on a zip line and shooting down at people below him with his weapon, my intention was to have both figures hanging at once with one figure holding onto the other one’s hand as if his friend was stopping him from falling; but his hand wouldn’t stay on the other figure’s hand and he would just keep falling off. So, I decided to use just one of them instead of both as it held on much better; I tried to remove the background in this photo using

Photoshop but it didn’t work out as I had planned, so I decided to leave it in as the

background looked like a different environment in comparison to some of my older photographs. I also used the clone stamp tool in order to remove some clothes peg that was right next to the figure as well as using the paint tool to color the clothes line in black to make it look like an actual zip line that the figure was hanging from; but looking back on the photograph now, I feel that the usage of the Photoshop paint tool made the line look a bit unrealistic compared to what it was originally.

Still 5: Contra Title Screen

For this fifth photograph; I decided to use my figures in order to create my own version of the start screen from the original Contra game, which depicts the main characters standing back to back with each other, as seen in Figure 13. I decided to pose the figures as if they were standing back to back while trying to defend

themselves from unseen enemies; after I took the picture, I used Photoshop’s magic eraser tool to copy the most important elements from the original title screen into the photo in order to make it feel more like a video game title screen, as seen below in Figure 14.

However; I feel that the background that I used does not suit the photo as the title screen’s background was originally completely black opposed to the background that I was using, which was my bedroom.

Still 6: Hide and Seek


Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 14

In this photograph; I decided to use some of my smaller figures in order to create this scenario, so I set up two of my Star Wars figures at my bedroom door frame and posed them to make it look like one of them is looking for the other one. In Photoshop; I only had to do some minor edits to this photograph as I had managed to get the background, pose and lighting all correct, unlike some of my other early photographs; the only thing that I needed to do to this still was edit out a tiny piece of the figure’s lightsaber so it looked like it was behind the door frame as I had originally used it in order to balance one of the figures so it was standing upright while in a walking pose, which I managed to do successfully as it looks like the piece of the lightsaber is not showing in the photograph. I posed the figures this way in order to give the finished photograph a spirit of adventure and also to make it

look more exciting to the audience.

Still 7: Against all odds

In this still; I had placed my figures back to back similar to the way they were standing in my recreation of the Contra Title screen, however I took the photo from a different angle as I wanted it to look a certain way after I had finished editing it in Photoshop. After exporting it into Photoshop; I used the paintbrush tool in order to create a mist that was surrounding the figures that I was using, I also added a smoke effect to the front of the figure’s guns as if they had just finished shooting them and they were cooling off. I also used the mist in order to cover up the background so that isn’t as visible in the picture as it was in the original; I did this by using the Photoshop paint tool on a low opacity so that the figures could also be seen as well and the mist wasn’t cutting off their legs. I edited the photograph this way in order to add a sense of foreboding and mystery to the scene as the viewer doesn’t see what the two characters are facing off against and this enemy could attack them at any time, this one of the only photos that I have taken so far where I experimented with a different tone than the others in order to make the viewer guess about what might happen to the characters next; I will revisit this style of photograph in the future with various other scenarios.

Still 8: Final Boss

In this still; I had my figures posed on my desk as if they were about to have a confrontation with each other, during the time I had setting this photograph


Figure 15

Figure 16

up; I decided to pose one of my figures as if he was kneeling down to attack from below in order to show posable these figures were when used for photography. I had posed my Predator figure as if he was patiently waiting for the heroes to arrive for the final showdown; when I transferred this picture onto a computer, I decided to make it feel like the final level from the Contra video game by putting some of the elements from the game such as the high score and life bars in the photograph through the use of the magic eraser tool in Photoshop. However; since this was one of the earlier photographs that I took, I was using the same type of background that is present in all of them. Another problem that I found with this photograph that you can’t really see the video game elements in the final picture as they are a green color and don’t stand out really well on the background of the photo. However; despite all of the distracting elements in this photograph, the soft focus on the third figure causes the viewer’s attention to be drawn to the protagonists of the story, as some of the photos that I have taken are meant to flow in a singular narrative.

Still 9: Danger from another world

This still was photographed in the same location as Figure 17; which can be seen above, however; it was taken from another angle which focuses more on the Predator figure that I was using more than the Contra figures, which can be seen in the background of this photograph. One of the other differences with this figure is that it uses speech bubbles instead of the elements from the video game like the other photograph did. When I had taken the photograph originally; I noticed that it was too dark to see what was going on, so I used Photoshop in order to brighten up the image and put in the speech bubbles so that the image feels like part of a continuing narrative. I used the normal speaking bubble for one of the figures as if he is talking normally while I used a thought bubble for the other as if he is doubting his own skills before the battle begins; this shows that the two characters have varying opinions on what they should do next. The pose of the antagonist makes him look very mysterious and threatening; this is backed by the fact that the audience has no idea about what he’s thinking, this makes the audience guess what he might do next as the lack of speech bubble makes the character completely unpredictable. All of the photographs for this assignment are inspired by the style of Johnny Wu; who uses his photography skills to make the characters in his work feel like they are alive, this is an element I believe that I have managed to emulate with my own photographs.

Theme 2:


Figure 18

Stop Motion film

For my second theme for this project; I chose to make a stop motion film based on the animated series “Dragon Ball Z”; my friend and I decided to work on this film together since we were both fans of the original show, so I took note of what we would need when shooting this film while also looking at stop motion films for inspiration by looking at other stop motions before we began

shooting. I was able to use my previous experience and knowledge of making stop motions to my advantage during the creation of this film; we got shot frames for the film over the course of a few weeks. I also made a promotional photo (Figure 19) for the stop motion where I set up the figures on a table and then used Photoshop in order to remove the original background so I could replace it with a space like background; I added a few effects to make it look more action packed, this promotional photo was also an experiment in order to get more experience with some of the tools such as the Magic Eraser tool, which can be used in order to remove elements from the images. However; one of the most important elements that we were missing originally was the correct backgrounds since we were shooting in my bedroom and conservatory; which didn’t match the theme of the stop motion that we were making. But I had recently received a green screen that I could use in future projects; so, we decided to use that in order as a change of location instead of having to reshoot the whole film over again while using the green screen as the backdrop.

Another problem we had during the filming of this animation were the figures that were using; as some of them were missing parts such as an arm or leg. So, we had to work around this problem by either making sure the missing limbs weren’t seen on camera during shooting or they had to be worked into the final animation as part of the story. Many of the earlier frames that we had taken with my camera were too dark when viewed on a larger computer screen; so, I had to be import them to the Photoshop software in order to make them brighter so that they would match with the rest of the frames. Adobe Photoshop was one of the main pieces


Figure 19

Figure 20: One of the backgrounds that we considered for the animation

of software that I used during the making of this film as it allowed me to make any alternations to my photos if needed, another piece of software that I used when making this short film was Final Cut Pro; which is an editing software on the Apple Mac computer that I have used previously in order to edit my work. After I imported the photos on the computer; I made any alterations that I needed to make before I put the frames together into Final Cut Pro for the final film. By using the green screen as a background; I was able to take out the keyed tool so I could add in something else in order to replace the green screen, I decided to use backgrounds that resembled the ones seen in the original series as they would match the theme of the animation and also fit with the story that we made for film; which can be above in Figure 20.

Below; you can also other find the other work that I have done:


LO2 Be able to use lens-based

2.1 Identify materials for lens-based image making

(Cameras and accessories: 35 mm SLR; digital SLR, compact; automatic

phone camera; digital video; webcam).

There is a vary of different ways to create lens-based media; including the use of various different cameras such as a traditional 35mm camera or a more modern digital camera; lens-based media can even be made by using a mobile phone or a compact camera.

2.2 Use lens-based equipment for required purposes equipment

(Equipment: tripods; camera stands; lighting; capture devices; video

playback; editing equipment; software; hardware

Materials: film; speeds; photographic paper; tapes; electronic data storage

E.g. USB, DVD, CD ROM; networked image storage; external hard drive).

During this assignment, I used a wide vary of different equipment in order to create my pieces for this project, including:


Canon 500 camera (digital SLR) Green screen A camera tripod (Original used for a video camera) Final Cut Pro software 10.3 (For editing) Adobe Photoshop CC (For editing single photos/frames) SD Card (16 GB) Memory card (Data storage)

LO3 Be able to apply visual language in lens-based work

3.1 Explore formal elements through the use of photographic techniques

(Considerations: composition; aesthetics; proximity; viewpoint; factual; clarity

(Use of formal elements: form; line; perspective; textures; movement; volume; scale; colour; shape; contrast; pattern; rhythm; repeat; angle).

Considerations:

Composition: I used a variety of different angles in my stop motion film in order to capture the look and feel of story that has been created for the film.

Aesthetics: For this project: I tried to make the story and style of my stop motion film very close to the original source material by emulating the action scenes and storytelling.

Proximity: I used proximity in order to make sure that everything was in the one shot at the same time during the film of my stop motion as all of the items on screen where important.

Viewpoint: I moved the camera around the set and took photos from various different angles in order to capture the action from various different viewpoints.

Factual: As I was making this stop motion film, I watched other stop motion films that inspired me so I could see how they flowed when edited together; I also went and watched the original source material in order to see how the story and action would affect the stop motion.

3.2 Apply creative considerations when selecting photographic techniques

Light sources: natural e.g. available; artificial e.g. controlled, portable, interior;

studio set-up

Techniques and effects: exposure e.g. controlled, multiple, bracketed;

lighting e.g. studio, natural; viewpoint e.g. anticipated, unexpected;


mode e.g. factual recording, intention, capturing moment).

Light Sources

When I was making my stop motion film, I mainly used controlled lighting such as the ones in my bedroom and conservatory; which was the two main filming locations of this film. I used controlled lighting for this film so that it would not change. For the action figure photography that I did for this assignment, I took some shots outside in natural lighting so that my photos had a bit of variety in them.

LO4 Be able to produce lens-based

4.1 Investigate the potential of different image production techniques work

(Silver-based dev eloping and printing: processing e.g. black and white film,

colour film, prints; laboratory work e.g. transparencies; paper quality;

image quality e.g. contrast, colour values).

Photo Paper Quality

If I were to choose the paper quality for this assignment, I would choose a paper type of high quality that makes my work look professional. I researched the various types of paper and discovered that I would use paper that contained Micro and Nano Pores Receiving Layers as it seems that many professionals use this type of paper instead of the much cheaper paper that only contains Cast Coated Receiving Layer. For this assignment, I would use the more high-quality paper, as the image quality on the cheaper everyday paper looks duller in comparison.

4.2 Produce lens-based outcomes defined by creative intention.

(Digital image manipulation: cropping; enlarging; reducing; adjusting e.g. levels, hue, saturation, channels, balance; distorting e.g. manipulating, fading,

Outcomes: prints e.g. contacts, end prints, enlargements, experimental, documentary).

Digital image manipulation

During the editing stages of my stop motion project, I had to manipulate some of the photos such as brightening some of the photos, as they were too dark to see anything on them. I also cropped some of the photos during the editing stage of my stop motion in order to take out some of the more distracting elements in the background of the image. I used the


Adobe Photoshop in order to alter some of the photos, such as one of my action figure photographs where all I needed to do to the image was edit out a tiny bit of the figure’s lightsaber that was resting on the door frame to make him stand upright. To do this; I used the clone stamp tool in order to cover the part of the lightsaber with the doorframe, cleverly disguising it and making it look like the lightsaber was behind the door frame.


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