Emily Mobbs Posts

Through the development process of of my Final Major Project I have been looking at expanding my content creation to looking at moving image and visuals to bring my printed magazine/photo book to life. I plan to do through the use of QR codes and apps such as Adobe Aero and Artivive. My idea is to connect my documentary photography with videos produced by the creatives I photograph; some vides already created that I would like to include are:

• Van Wilkins Keep Hush live set
• Vague Skate Mag’s O.W.L – Maritime/O.W.L – Pavilion
• Plxyhousx Instagram reel

Last week as a group we all created a collection of images that represented the direction of our Final Major Projects; and posted them on Padlet. The process involved:

• Creating a Name
• Imagery
• Small description
•  Pre-existing work used as an inspiration
• Identifying other ideas
• Encourage collaboration

After further discussion within my Tutorial with Dani this week, to develop my research process I need to look at:

• Colour Palettes
• Visual content
• Alignment
• Font
• Flat Plan
• Building an aesthetic
• Making the imagery cohesive
• Target Market

After a recommendation from Dani, Lauren and myself discovered a strong correlation between our themes and thought it would be beneficial to record an informal conversation, discussing our views and opinions on the topic of ‘The performance of rituals’. After a brief conversation beforehand we agreed to speak under three categories: Preparation, Interaction and Reflection. It allowed us to discuss how people and each other prepare for the day, what rituals we each do and the idea that a human daily ritual is a performance within itself. The conversation was recorded on a iPhone and flowed extremely naturally as if we were recording a podcast. By collaborating it allowed Lauren and myself to elaborate on our themes and gain an external perspective.

Moving forward, graphically I would like to create a visual that I can use to enhance the audio of our conversation to be uploaded to my blog. This is because at present I have no intentions of creating a digital presence for my magazine although through my development this may change and evolve into a social media account that will enable me to post and access a wider audience.

After a couple tutorials with Dani, I managed to create a strong foundation for my FMP as they helped stimulate my thought process.We spoke about aspects I would need to think about in order to move forward and what actions I would need to take in order to complete the tasks I set myself. The aspects included:

• Casting
• Location
• Styling
• Hair and Make up
• Prop
• Post production

My thought process works very clinically and I like to create a structure to my work, so it was easiest for me to work in quantities, thinking about:

• How many editorials
• How many are going to Landscape
• How many are going to be Portrait
• How many Beauty shots
• Which practitioners do I need to contact

Creating these lists help me to organise my time and create a base to begin my work process. I concluded that naturally I’m attracted to Methodical styling, as its thoroughly thought out and symbolic. The logic behind something being done in a certain way helps be understand the creative thought process of a practitioners work, and this is what I would like to reflect in my own work. Techniques to consider are:

• Photography Bracketing
• Flatplanning
• Documantation

The briefing, presented by Mark; outlined the next steps to continuing with the process of the completion of our Final Major Project. He highlighted to us the structure we should be following in order to maintain a good level of time management for our project, which is something I struggle with during production.

As I will be undertaking the roles of Photography and Styling, my potential outcome is more likely to be editorial based and will take the form of either a Magazine or Photography book, which will hopefully meet the criteria of a published outcome. The exhibition of our final work needs to be supported by a body of development indicative of experimentation, which will be my continued sketchbook that will highlight the key aspects I have taken from my research during Task 1. The idea is that by documentaing all images taken, we have have a catalogue of images to use for our portfolio.

The L6 Photography and Lighting refresher workshop was extremely helpful and reminded me how to use the studio and equipment safely and efficiently. The photography team showed us some really useful tips that could speed up the studio and editing process. I tried to take photos of any props or settings I thought would help me with my project in the future and enhance my editorial work. One prop I had never use before but will make sure to in the future, was the colour card; a board of colours used to speed up the editing process. By holding the board in front of the camera and taking a photo of the model or set you wish to use, you can then place the Eyedropper tool in Adobe Lightroom over a colour on the Colour Card panel and use the preset it suggests to adjust the photographs taken during the shoot. I think the colour card will contribute to creating consistency in my shoots and elevate my editorial work.

With the Photography and Lighting workshop just consisting of Lara and myself, we were able to ask a lot more questions and experiment with the props spoken about such as a soft box, snoot, beauty dish, colour gels, reflectors and the umbrella. Moving forward I want show the use of the studios facilities throughout my experimentation to make sure my shoots look as professional as possible. By establishing what props should be used and when I gained a better understanding of the effects I can create on the model and set for my future editorial work.

By experimenting with the lighting and props it was a lot easier to understand, hopefully speeding up the process when doing my own shoots. We experimented with aperture, lighting and colour gels.

The images displayed show Lara and I changing the sides of the spotlight by using a snoot and softening the light by using an umbrella. We were able to experiment with the strength of the fill light and aperture by altering both and balancing it out through the use of a light meter. For future shoots I know a definitely want to experiment with the gels more to create a colourful environment and use fill lights to add dramatic effect during much darker shoot.

In the afternoon tutorial I was conflicted, after visiting the magazine shop in the morning I wanted to pick a magazine I felt imitated the style of work I want to produce. My indecisiveness can often lead me to get distracted and result in research that doesn’t relate to my theme. In order to keep my directed study efficient, I asked my tutor which out of the magazines I was looking at would be the most relevant to my concept. There are several magazines that include editorials that I feel inspired by such as Dazed and ID, however although viewed as high fashion editorials, can still be considered a ‘Newsagent’ magazine; and I wanted to research into ones that were more independent.

Following the advice of my tutor I purchased copy of Puss Puss magazine, a platform for fashion, culture and music, containing editorials by different photographers and stylists that replicate work that I hope to produce. Moving forward I hope to look at photographers work included in magazines such as Puss Puss, SSAW and 032c in order to form research pages that I can include in my sketchbook.

After this mornings tutorial I really solidified my concept, the collaboration of performance and runway. The tutorial has given me a clearer insight into where and how to follow through with my self directed study; my aim is to consolidate my own relationship with shows and fashion, to pay more attention to the editorials I’m attracted to and why. The exploration of how the boundaries between presentation and shows are aligned should enable me to evaluate the editorials and designers I research from a consumer perspective, allowing me to pay more attention to my attraction to the work and whether it is enhanced by the production.