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LOCKDOWN UPDATE 2

My group and I have worked hard in order to support each other during the lockdown, we have delegated roles to each person in the group as we were not only lacking motivation but we were struggling to understand what steps we can do to progress our project with all these new factors taking into place.

Roles: (within the fashion communication part of the group)

One person is focusing on making the clips from the filming; someone with a bit of filming and editing experience who has software they can use at home and was happy to take on the role as they were doing this before
One person is making the PDF which we all share and will upload to Turnitin, featuring some illustrations
One person is focused on making the lookbook, collating the designers illustrators with their own to make a lookbook on InDesign that features all the designs

I will be making the website for everything to be placed on, out of all the tasks this one is one that I could do at home with the resources I have, and therefore why I thought it would be sensible to take on this role but this will definitely be a struggle as I have limited skills in website making, however, I see this as an opportunity to gain some more skills for this project that will help me thrive when I am either on placements or for personal use. Being able to navigate, design or put together a website is a highly requested skill for not only placements, but will prove useful when making my portfolio for my personal work.

LOCKDOWN

A sudden change in atmosphere and environment has completely altered the state of this project, the way I work at home, the way my group and I communicate and how we communicate with our module leaders and tutors. The outcome of this project will be completely different and having to adapt to different living conditions, working from home and finding an effective, productive and quiet space to work in, figuring out a schedule, being able to source materials or deal with the software and technology that I have at the moment and finding motivation with the added panic of a global pandemic has caused me to lose track of this project and really struggle with not only completing small tasks, but finding the motivation to do so.

Different outcome

For the lookbook, we will have to either take still from the film, use any sort of image that the designer has taken even if it be of a poor quality and either college or illustrate some of the designs to create a more tactile, handmade style lookbook as opposed to a sleek and professional studio style lookbook. Our work and garments are quite playful as well therefore this result could really compliment the designs
Collate all images and films on a website, simple design to show all of our work.
Mock up fashion space digitally

CHANGE IN MODULE

Many difficulties have arisen throughout the past few days, a solid plan was created and we were beginning to go on track with the filming and the success of the green screen added some positivity and motivation to make an exciting outcome that we hadn’t really explored previously. However with the increasing seriousness of the coronavirus, things have changed, lessons have been cancelled and everything has done a 180 so learning to adapt has been difficult. Our module has adapted to fit the current climate: (taken from email)

Creating a digital fashion space proposal and lookbook:

Details of the concepts or theme of your fashion designers
Lookbook showcasing garments – could use collage
Concept or theme for your fashion space derived from research and group discussion
Visual rendering of your fashion space. Detailed visualization of your proposed space, using a variety of media. And choosing what media that you feel most comfortable with.

What is advised through the email:

Fashion film or clip of the film and storyboards and written synopsis,
Installation: photographs or digital mockups, how audience will navigate through space
Physical 3D models, light them and photograph them
4D/3D SketchUp

Virtual presentation of fashion space

Website, instagram, online viewing

Synopsis from each group about how your final fashion space proposal meets your own targets and how it communicates the essence of the garments.

500 word reflection on progress throughout the module and a clear outline of your role within the group.

SPACE

Pressure from the curators team led us to really think about our exhibition space. We kept on changing our final outcome ideas for various reasons and this will therefore influence our exhibition space as they need to be cohesive and relate back to each other in terms of theme and aesthetic. We have 14 days until we need to start physically building our sets which adds some pressure on everyone to really think before we make any rash decisions regarding our space. Although I wasn’t a curator, I was not only interested in the general aspect of being a curator and the types of skills they acquire and the day to day tasks of a curator, I also wanted to support my group curators so they knew that the designs we’re going to put forward will be approved run by the whole group first.

Challenges that we were facing were:

Where were we going to put our piece in relation to everyone else’s?

For this we decided on a corner space, not many people wanted a corner space but we genuinely didn;t mind. I believe if we place a TV in the corner and have a small intimate section for our exhibition space, we still have lots to play around with, and allows the other groups which have a more solid idea who a lot of room to have the space they need.

What external things do we need to note down?

We need a plug and a potential spotlight if there isn’t one on the ceiling already. We plan on decorating the rest of the space ourselves.

How will we decorate and transform the space?

Wallpaper, ceiling to floor like 1940s interior style
Old television or lamp, as suggested by tutors in tutorial for simplicity
Personality traits placed on the wall, or decorated in an abstract way, hanging from something, as suggested by tutors in tutorial to make our space more unique and personal to the details in our project which will hopefully make ours look strong.

Other ideas we had as a group:

Changing room, mirrors- distortion
Testing an old tv, where will we source one?
Find wallpaper
Find table
Making curtains and bedding?- made my someone in the group soon
Photoshopping most of the room in?

We have plans to go to fabric land to source some materials/ scrap fabrics we can use for the house, we have a clear idea of the style which will help us now.

These are a series of mood boards I have created to visualise the actual fashion exhibition space and somehow that correspond to the concepts and the messages that they are portraying within the short clips that we will be filming. I’ve just done these so that I can generate some ideas for the curators and that we can finally get a start in understanding what we want for our fashion space but I feel that we have been falling behind that aspect whereas we have been going forward with the fashion film and green screening. We were suggested that our room should be quite minimal maybe with one TV one lamp in the spotlight which could look really nice with our 1940s decorations and wallpaper but hopefully we will be getting however I feel as if there are so many props and objects that we associate with each of the characters that we have made that it would be wise to include quite a few therefore making the less minimalistic. Following on from this idea who also suggested by different tutor that we could have a more abstract art in space maybe we weren’t thinking that for out the box and we could have words that are hanging down from the ceiling that relate to our characters we could have a little symbolic objects on the floor or on little pedestals for the audience to interact with and maybe to raise questions about our work.

GREEN SCREEN

Finally using the green screen in Moulsecoomb has really pushed us to the next steps of our project which I am really excited about! Being taught new skills from the green screen such as being able to zoom in and out without losing focus, so that the subject can easily be transported into a virtual screen while editing was extremely helpful because if we did close up shots with the subject’s face blurred it would look completely unprofessional, bad quality and not in line with the dollhouse virtual background we use.

Also skills like making sure we press the record button in the actual studio and not the camera, as this will sync up the separate voice files they create so we could place them on top of each other or edit separately later, although we plan on only have music however this would be helpful if any ideas change or if we need the background noise for scene referencing.

Another skill was lighting, learning to make sure that the subject is completely lit, using soft box lights and spot lights to ensure a softly lit up subject, which wouldn’t have any unnecessary shadows which is essential for green screen use so when the subject is placed in the virtual background, there will be no shadows on the subject and it will be lit so it looks like it fits in the background well.

Skills involving the actual full shot of the subject were important in ensuring that any props, which may be on the ground, will be in full view of the camera and therefore could be placed, eventually with editing, into the dollhouse. All of these skills advance the editing process, make our lives easier and make sure the subject looks like it can be placed in any background with ease.

From our green screen test, we were still really enjoying the Sims type of look that we were creating and believe it fits our theme well, and also distinguishes us from other group’s aesthetics and styles.

IMG_0773 IMG_0763

CHARACTER DESIGNS/TRAITS AND NAMES

In order to progress our project further, we are making characters for each of the designers to fit the overall theme of their garment. We spoke to the designers and made a lot of points of what they wanted represented in the room of each character, as well as the character’s personality traits that would work together. This not only brings the clothes more to life, but provides us with a basis of what we could do for the green screen scenes, fashion space and final outcomes. We were still struggling with our fashion exhibition space but using elements such as props will help us reine what we need and what we don’t.

Questions for characters :

Diane – Designer: Emily

Using in a name associated with older women
Books, newspapers,
Silk scarfs
Rollers
Glasses and a Chain
Mug for tea
Old soul in young body
Happy, positive vibes

Chihiro – Designer: Ellie

Name from Spirited Away
Messy room, overconsumption, crisp packets, spoons
Model- friend
Colourful, playful, lighthearted
Comic books/ anime books relating to the Japanese influences
Children’s toys
Spirited Away DVD

Lola – Designer: Romily

Showgirl vibes
Dramatic and over the top, glamourous
Ash tray
Bathroom
Mirrors, makeup smudges and makeup bags/ items placed around
Big fur coat

We were fortunate enough to source a dollhouse through a member of the group. This will allow us to save time by not having to make an entire dollhouse, we can use the props in the house for the characters to interact with plus it will hopefully look well when edited. The interior of the dollhouse suits our concept as the dollhouse has a soft pink and muted colour palette with a 40s style interior.

One of our designers hasn’t finished their garment which does push us into a dilemma of having to book another green screen session, booking a green screen was quite difficult as they had very limited available spaces so we need to make sure things are completed by next week to shoot the final garment. However, we have spoken to the designer and they stated that it would be highly unlikely for it to be finished next week. Due to marking and general time restraints. Because of this we may have to adapt our idea, we might have to shoot anything that the designer has as accessories or a small section of a garment while we build the rest of the styling ourselves if we can’t have the whole garment.

STORYBOARDING FOR GREEN SCREEN

Reflecting on our tutorials and current week we’ve had, it was clear that we had to make something really soon. Our green screen session was soon and we have planned to create some storyboards and general planning moodboards to envision our concepts to life. We agreed that changing our film to a series of short clips featuring the characters we have created will not only be more time effective, but also works more effectively with our idea due to the fact that we are focusing more on the themes of characters, personas and identities. I feel far more strongly about possible outcomes and the future of this project than I did before, as I feel like it’s kore realistic but effective in putting our message across.

Props and objects were discussed to transform the character completely, and to add something more interesting when they are interacting with their space. Such as Ellie’s character, Diane (acted by me in the green screen soon) interacted with a cup of tea, a book and some glasses; these should really emphasize the idea of the character being a young person with an old soul and therefore makes sense for someone like me to model the clothing. We didn’t want to overly complicate these things at this stage. Storyboarding has helped add some dimension to the characters too as they have objects associated with them now.

TUTORIAL

For this tutorial we explained how much we were struggling and for any advice to push us a bit further in the right direction as we were worried about the two concerns from last time, our work looking far too similar to someone else’s. The teachers reassured us that no one’s looks too similar and we can make whatever we want as the themes are too diverse and it won’t look the same. This took a massive weight off of our shoulders as we were rethinking our whole style because of this, the encouraged making a film however due to timing we might just have to do our new revised plan which was to create three small character scenes, not a film.

Our green screen footage was praised and we were encouraged to push that further and use the studios in moulsecoomb, which we later booked as we also felt that this was strong. We need to justify the reasoning for the questionnaire within our blogs and sketchbooks really clearly as we couldn’t explain it too well.

But the biggest pressure was what we were going to do with the space; as we weren’t planning on doing a film anymore, we’re going to have to adapt the exhibition space, we might not need a tv to show three clips but instead use an ipad which is generally more associated with taking a questionnaire and fits better with the space.

Next Steps:

Storyboard for green screen
Understand what I’m doing as a model to represent the character of Diane in the green screen film.
Organise Romily’s character

UNDERSTANDING DESIGNERS WORK – ROMILY

Taken from what Romily has answered in her questionnaire, I have this moodboard to bring the answers to life and see more of a visual aspect of her inspirations which I love the outcome of. She has such strong aesthetics with the 1940s glam, burlesque vibe. Doing this mood board, I feel like I understand her project far more than I did before as I hadn’t seen much from her before this.

UNDERSTANDING DESIGNERS WORK – SOPHIE

This is the mood board I made for Sophie’s, once again taking everything from the questionnaire answers to really get a more visual sense of the origins of her project, in order for us to progress the collaboration further, I felt I had to do this. I am really fond of the playful, happy atmosphere of these images paired with the sophisticated references to the 1940s era, somehow giving a nostalgic feel to her work which does work effectively as she is looking at ageing and time differences.