Nikon Advert 'I am Nikon'

After my tutorial with Ellen Nolan, I was left feeling really confident about my project and it gave me a bigger kick up the bum to fulfill  the pretend Nikon advert idea using different typography, different music, but with a multiple rang of video, time-lapse (still images into video form) and still images on their own. I need to practice more with Adobe Premiere so at least my  final video for my mid review this Friday coming will grab peoples attention and hopefully impress (might be getting a bit overly excited). After the review I'm assuming we can carry on our digital project as I am really enjoying it and slowly finding my feet and getting to grips with it, just means juggling both digital and printed at the same time but I'm sure I can manage (Y) FINGERS CROSSED GUYS!!

Hollie xD

Adobe Premiere Pro work shop!

After my Brighton trip I had a lot to experiment with in Adobe Premiere in today's work shop. Still got a long way to go with learning all the ins and outs but it was such a successful work shop and I really got a lot out of it and actually learnt something. I've made a small experimental piece that I am really proud of and think it has a lot of potential to grow in to a really successful and interesting project that other people hopefully will be interested in.

Trip to Brighton!!

Yesterday I decided to go on a random trip to Brighton with my friend Sammi. Shes also doing the narrative project and we are both doing journeys. I thought it would be good to just go out and capture what ever I felt like and tried not to think about the so called 'final' idea.. I tend to to that a lot and end up panicking. Obviously the train journey was going to be a main focus but I didn't want to try and get typical images. I wanted them to come across natural that the camera wasn't really there. I didn't take a tripod when I was doing my multiple time lapses because to be honest I didn't know what I was going to capture and it was also raining all day.. Didn't really want to carry around a tripod. I ended up getting a few random time lapses, on the train, in Mcdonalds, two in different parts of the shopping center. I hadn't been to Brighton in a while, if  it wasn't raining I would of done a time lapse of the sea and maybe taken more images outside. Me and Sammi both did some video recordings of us walking up and down two escalators capturing each other going up and down. The timing was a bit off but it was a fun experiment and something I think I want to add in to my project properly. I'm thinking of maybe creating a camera advert advertising Nikon... I think I have to ask first.. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use the brand name? But what I want from my narrative is to show friendship and fun being captured by my Nikon with a variety of different time lapses. Fingers crossed!!!

Hollie xD

Journeys - Idea

I've still been struggling over the last month to get to a point where I know what I am doing with my research and sticking to a theme that I can progress on to. It's been a little worrying because normally by now I would of had an idea and just needed to of figured out how I was going to create the idea. Its been the other way round in this project but I think I've finally come to a solid idea that I am happy with. I've chosen to not go so personal in the emotional sense but thought about what things I like that I can use in a simple and effective way. For my professional futures project I am looking in to advertising photography and have seen some incredible images, so I thought lets bring advertising a product I already own in to my Narrative. Before I thought about the advertising idea I was thinking about recording myself walking and just capturing my feet doing a journey that I normally do. I then thought about advertising my converse as I wear them all the time and there are a very popular type of shoe. The idea just came to me out of no where with no solid influence apart from looking at different advertising images. After looking in to iMotion on my iPhone I thought I would record myself using stop motion getting on and off the bus to my town, the video was really blurry and I couldn't see a lot of detail of my shoes or the surroundings. I realized it might be the same if I used my DSLR so I decided to video record my feet moving instead and breaking the video footage down either by taking screen grabs or using Adobe Premiere Pro.  I haven't yet learnt myself how to use Premiere but I have been shown how to create the video footage in to more of a stop motion video. It looks really complicated but I'm sure I will learn. I also wanted to extend my video from me walking to two more people who own different coloured converse also walking. I want to create three different scenes matching to the coloured converse and perhaps the personality of the person who is wearing the converse. I wanted more of a sunny scene for my white converse on a path way, black converse for a skate park area and I haven't decided on my last coloured pair yet (need to find people who are willing to help me out). I want to push to 'advert' more from just displaying converse and having just one feature. I haven't given myself a lot of time as its taken me a while to decide what I want to do but... I do want to want to incorporate more time-lapse and stop motion video footage to my experimental advert. I want to keep in the theme of Journeys because I feel I can add a lot to my project with that theme. I'm going to take time-lapses of different types of journeys such as, car, train, tube, bus, crowds of people, sunsets, light trails and my friends. If I can combined the correct time-lapses together at the end of the video I want to either advertise my Nikon D5100 or iPhone 5s as they have created all the journeys and I will have to come up with an slogan to represent what it is I'm advertising.

Briony Campbell - The Dad Project

This was actually shown in one of my critical approaches lectures by Anthony Luvera, Photography and Death - (Essay question 'Photography is an agent of death - discuss')
This is similar to Ellen Nolan's work where their parent isn't very well and they are using their cameras to cope or understand the process of what them their selves are going through to see their parents going through dramatic changes and obviously for their parents to cope with, helping their children to come to terms with life's changes. I found her work very moving and emotional, her dad wanted to help her, even though he was the one who was terminally ill. He was afraid of leaving them behind, to not be there to support and guide them anymore. Throughout the video you grasp a strong idea of what type of person her father is, he's a strong man, who wants to take care of his family. I like how she has a video of mixed media of still images, audio recordings and video. Its a really beautiful piece of work. For this project we have to develop a digital and printed formats of our chosen narratives. Researching her video gives me a good insight to how to combined all the medias in a particular way. Even though my work won't have an in depth meaning as Briony's or Ellen's it shows me how I can present my work in a professional manner.  



The overview 

Being a good daughter to my dying dad was tricky. I struggled to find the balance between dedication to his needs and distraction from my grief. 

At first the idea of introducing a camera into this equation seemed unwise, but eventually I think it became the solution.

This is the story of an ending without an ending.

And I hope it always will be.

This is my attempt to say goodbye to my Dad with the help of my camera.

http://www.brionycampbell.com/projects/the-dad-project/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2010/apr/13/briony-campbell-father-cancer

Ellen Nolan - Previous Personality

When I was in a lecture with Ellen Nolan I found her work really fascinating. It was very personal to her and whilst she was telling us about why and how she created her body of work I was really drawn in to her story, the tone of her voice had meaning and a purpose to it making me really respect her work and sharing it with us. I am more of a personal person, it sounded like she was tell us a story from a book. Each word she would have a deep attachment and meaning to it. In other lectures it’s usually about other people’s work so there's obviously not the same attachment and something that is personal that you've achieved yourself.

‘Previous Personality’ explores my relationship to my mother as she recedes into dementia. I started photographing my mother and myself when she stopped recognizing me as her daughter. The documentation lasted for three years, exploring a journey of reversal and erosion. The title ‘Previous Personality’ is derived from a section in the form I had to fill out for my mother, upon admission to her institution.

There is a strangeness of being inherent in this condition, an altered state where the family member shifts into another being, whilst retaining the physical appearance of their former selves.

Photographically, I tried to reflect this state by creating images that are simultaneously uncomfortable and aesthetically pleasing. This mirrored the interior and exterior conflict of the illness.

My clothes were used as a visual reminder that whilst I had the freedom of personal expression, members of staff now chose my mother’s wardrobe, brought from a generic clothing company that visited the home on a monthly basis. I never got used to seeing my mother in these clothes, and together with her growing sense of alienation within her ‘home’, they came to visually represent her loss of self.

What remains when almost everything is stripped away? A silent negotiation took place through emotional and physical intimacy. Few words were exchanged, except repeated uttering’s of love and the remembering who I am and who she was.

Photography as a medium seemed to serve the situation well. It was a record to capture my dying mother, a means to examine our state, and perhaps to create an alternative family album.

Photography also seemed to fit the muteness of illness and ageing.

I felt that by joining the frame, I would challenge my position and safety as a photographer to explore my role as a daughter and my relationship with my mother at this time.

http://www.ellennolan.com/Art/Previous-Personality/previous-personality.html

The difference between time lapse and stop motion

Whilst I've been researching I've thought what are the differences between stop motion and time lapse photography. They are very similar as its 100's of photos combined to then be converted in to a video.



What is Time Lapse?
A video or animation consisting of frames separated by a fixed time interval. For example: A video of the sky in which a frame is taken every x amount of seconds.

The time lapse video was made by some one I briefly know through a friend. This piece of work is incredible and I've asked if I can go along one day to see how he makes the time lapse.. There is a very expensive piece of equipment to create the double movement and you see it when he's filming the time lapse.




What is Stop Motion?
A video or animation in which every frame is taken without consideration for the time interval between frames. For example: You can take a picture of a man in one position, and the following frame could be taken 15 minutes later, or 30 minutes later, and the following could be the following day.

http://www.lemiffe.com/learning-about-time-lapse-stop-motion/
http://studioksi.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/stop-motion-time-lapse-photography-animation/