GREGORY CREWDSON

PORTRAITS SERIES

GREGORY CREWDSON

Gregory Crewdson's suburban settings of an elaborately detailed staged setup of American homes, interiors and neighbourhoods invoke haunting, cinematic photos of alienation and eerie isolation. I've always been interested in Crewdson's work in wanting the reconstruct the world in photographs. His ideas creates a sense of longing with his subjects within the photographs. A deep felt unhappiness that divides them from reality and fantasy adding to what he has created with his dream like world in this controlled environment. His work combines the documentary style of William Eggleston and Walker Evans with a dreamlike quality. Yet unlike those photographers, Crewdson is compelled by how the still image freezes time and sets limitations, once saying he is fascinated with how he can capture a cinematic moment and freeze it for all time. His quietly disturbing American settings, with their immaculately staged lighting and sombre, solitary figures, are often seen as working in conjunction to the works of Edward Hopper.

For my series of images, I wanted to present the emotions of the figure. It is left unintentionally unclear what the subject is experiencing. However this adds to the photographs, giving an underlining  mysterious nature to the subjects.

Using Adobe Lightroom and photoshop, I added blue filters subtly into my images whilst retaining most of its colour. The blue gives connotations of a gloomy, lonely and supporting the emotions I  intended to present. For many of them I too darkened the frame, reducing the light in the background. 

MY RESPONSE 
'TERRA FIRMA'

My Series reflects the social deterioration with dealing with mental health and the contemplation of seeking identity as well as the social struggles in a world vastly more interactive and yet ironically where it is increasingly more difficult to find closure. My inspiration comes from the collective works of Carrie Mae Weems, Philip Lorca Dicorcia and Gregory Crewdson, all of which inspired my final series called “Terra Firma.” These photographs were designed cinematically and reflect the works of Dicorcia, stylised like Crewdson’s with the subjects private lives being made exclusive to us like Carrie Mae Weems.

Overall with the outcome I was quite pleased with the results, Although I did not have the same resources as Crewdson did, I feel like it was a worthy achievement for me. The main tool used throughout the project was the manipulation of lighting especially with the last photograph which was particularly one of my favourites. Using the Adobe Light Room I was able to enhance the look of the lighting and tone in all of the images. A few issues I realised was that some of the images had randomised colour marks and that the subjects were looking at the lens in the last image, although I do believe it did not spoil the image itself but merely enhance the reality of it all. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Man in the forest:

http://theredlist.com/media/database/photography/contemporaine/existentialisme/gregory-crewdson/005-gregory-crewdson-theredlist.png

Bedroom contemplation:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/94/e1/2c/94e12c3fc0738625dc441d6e1508210d.jpg

Floating woman:

http://theamericanreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CREWD-2001-ed.-10-Untitled-Ophelia-1024x817.jpg

Dinner for two:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/40/ea/c8/40eac89ecbd6cd51280e3331fb82776e.jpgLiving room: 

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/01/21/blogs/20160121-lens-crewdson-slide-EFN5/20160121-

lens-crewdson-slide-EFN5-superJumbo.jpg

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND PROJECT

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND

DULLE GRIET -

A PAINTING BY 

PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER

Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562.

The saying goes in a book of proverbs, published in 1568. One woman makes a clamour, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five and army, and six the Devil himself has no weapon.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder's work has been inspired by local culture and towns folk beliefs. This painting was created around c. 1568 during the time of the renaissance era. At this time famine and poverty was ripe throughout Europe. Isolation became common amongst townsfolk and such beliefs began to play upon minds of the locals.

Griet which is the name of this piece is a denigrated name given to bad tempered, shrewish woman. It speaks a lot of how Bruegel's depiction of hell was clearly inspired by Boschian like creatures from the painter Hieronymus Bosch. Hence, Bruegel's intentions about this piece became clear. This painting depicts the mockery of ill tempered woman and their outbursts charging through hell, plundering the realm of its possessions and emphasising the fact that bad tempered women can run to hell and back, unscathed and unhindered due to their robust nature. What I found interesting was that the first time I saw this painting I believed to be another depiction of hell and the chaotic damned souls being punished by unnatural creatures. However upon learning more about it I became aware that this is a stampede of women plundering the caverns and sacking hell for all its treasures. This Painting can also relates to the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." This piece creates and alternative meaning to the idea of Hell being the worst place on earth and into, a victim of greed and covertness.

For my Experimental sound project I'm going to try and create and eerie tune with various sounds of strong winds and raging fires down to loud screams and roars of onward plunderers moving deeper into hell, perhaps even creating sounds to accommodate the Boschian creatures, which hopefully will intensify the overall feel to this piece. My recording will begin over this week and I will be recording how I achieved my sounds.

The result was unexpected, yet however I am very pleased with the end result. My idea was to create a soundscape that had an western styled heart beating sound yet my end result came out a lot different and more to the style of dark ambient background. With this in mind here is my final version of my experimental sound project.

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND PROJECT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dulle Griet Painting image :

https://www.sartle.com/sites/default/files/images/artwork/1000008.jpg

TIME - Experimental Media

Time - Short Film

We were given a the theme of Time and allowed creative control to explore the theme in whatever way we wanted. At the end of the project we had to produce a short film. My first idea was to create a time lapse of my own personal photographs from Birth to the present day, this would show the idea of change and growth over time. However I decided to explore something more symbolic and suggestive, similar to the work of Bill Viola.

This new approach did require much more planning, and a larger crew to capture all of the shots that I wanted. It also required strict safety precautions due to the use of fire.

Finished Film

I wanted to show a measure of time, and how it consumes. I feel that I successfully showed this by using the fire and showing how it consumes the rope that it is lit upon. The rope was positioned around to represent a clock, further placing emphasis of time. If I was to create this project again, I would have made the clock much more clear and detailed. 

SOUND WORKSHOP II

SOUND SYNCING WITH MOVING IMAGE







Today's workshop was to teach us about being able to use Adobe audition to synchronise sounds to accompany films and the various sounds and sound effects we could use in order to achieve an effective and accurate result.

Adobe Audition Interface

Sound editing was done in Adobe Audition, which was then exported into Adobe Premiere to synchronise against the animation below. Overall I found this project fun and would definitely like to explore the production, editing and synchronisation of sound in my future films.

Adobe Premiere Interface

Finished Film

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adobe Audition logo:

https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/files/2017/01/audition_cc_logo_no_shadow_1024.png

Adobe premier logo:

http://cdn.videoguys.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/r/premiere-pro-logo_2.jpg

LIGHTING WORKSHOP II

LIGHTING WORKSHOP II

A SHOWREEL OF GELS AND LIGHTING 

Overall I'm pleased with the set ups created in this workshop and so decided to make a short showreel of some of the shots we managed to achieve in this lighting workshop. Working as a team of 6 or more we managed to execute a 3 point lighting technique using a complicated set up involving back lights, fill lights and key lights, filters and other textures to break up unwanted shadows. Doing so we managed to get a desired affect using these useful techniques.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


- Music by:

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/new-dawn

XF305 CAMERA WORKSHOP

Reflective work from our XF305 workshop

XF305 CAMERA IMAGE PROVIDED BY CANON.COM

An overview of the specs:
- 3 Native 1/3" 1920 x 1080 CMOS Sensors
- 50Mbps MPEG-2 Recording
- 4:2:2 Color Sampling
- 60p, 60i, 30p, 24p
- MXF File Format
- Dual CF Card Slots
- 18x HD L-Series Zoom
- Multiple Bit Rates, Resolutions
- Dual XLR Inputs

Since the popularity of the HDSLR, many cinematographers don't bother with using a camcorder built specifically for video. However, there are still many advantages for using one - such as with the XF305. The XF305 comes with autofocus, image stabilization, and a 50mbps codec.

The video above was shot by me and my peers. We assigned one another specifics roles that would be part of a professional production. We used one XF305 fixed to a tripod, one boom stick, and a pair of headphones. I was given the role of boom operator, and managed the sound within the production. No lighting equipment was used, the film was shot using natural lighting - which meant that we had to stick to a tight shooting schedule in order to maintain adequate lighting. We experimented with different camera angles, such as the rule of thirds, over the shoulder and offset group shot. 

The film contains a three way (or group) conversation which required a more technical form of camera positioning in order to include all of the actors in one shot. We used the offset group shot to achieve this. Using this technique, we had all three of the characters sat in a triangle. The two passive characters are sat opposite each other on the left and right, and the character leading the conversation is sat in the centre - putting the focus on this character.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

      

Canon XF305 image-

http://www.canon.co.uk/Images/XF305_Default_tcm14-941753.jpg