My choice of video hosting was initially going to be Vimeo, but after I signed up it became I discovered that you can only upload HD videos once a week. It is necessary for my videos to be HD quality so that they have a professional finish, but I simply don't have enough time in my time plan. After some background research I discovered that YouTube was one of the best video uploading sites in terms of maintaining the quality and colours of its videos so I'm going to keep it simple and upload the videos individually toYouTube so that each can be a separate easily accessible illustration to its own chapter.
Above is a screenshot of my channel. I have created a banner to introduce SKIN which keeps with the theme of the cover of the book, ensuring that there is a flow between both of my methods of portrayal, which is important in maintaining fluidity.
I am happy with my choice of video site. YouTube is a really popular and accessible platform, and is used by a huge range of individuals to access many different genres of video. Vimeo is lacking in this - not as many people are familiar with the site and although it is used by many creatives, its not particularly well known outside of this circle. This reinforces my confidence in my decision to use this as the primary viewing platform for my videos.
Here is my final Cracks and Growth video. It was successful in terms of portraying skin textures in a creative way but in all honesty this is my least favourite of all my videos. I think it could have been executed better by having a more colourful spectrum in it, and having the hand move in different ways with multiple camera angles. Its a good starting point but there is room for this to be explored further in video format, and this version doesn't differ much from the draft except that it is cleaner and a bit neater.
SILVER LINES
The hardest thing about making and editing this video was applying the right mood. This came mainly down to music. Most royalty free music either had a very sombre tone or a very jaunty, almost comical tone. I have found that sombre tones tend to make videos seem more professional, but it wasn't right for this video in portraying what I want to portray - I wanted the model to be showing off his skin, to be happy in the emphasised silver lines of his hands and have the video as a sort of appreciation of differences in skin, but the somber tone put a negative spin on the whole thing.
After finding the visual effects that I wanted to use I found a mystical tune that I think fits really well with the tone of the film. Its bright, but not comical while still giving an emotional serge in a positive way.
This is my favourite of all my videos. I love the colour spectrum and I think the whole thing works nicely. It makes for an interesting watch because there are video effects as well as a model moving appropriately. There are some bits that could have been edited in a smoother way, but overall this video makes me proud of my process in video editing and Final Cut Pro, all of which was self taught.
IDENTITY
I've been in two minds about this video ever since I shot it. Im still undecided as to whether this portrays my idea of identity or not. The shoot was Susann's idea and was the reason we started to have creative differences, because I felt that it didn't really relate to my project.
However we found the mannequin and I really liked the idea of incorporating this smooth, perfect porcelain idea of a human being in comparison to the flaws and lines that real skin has. I think the idea is good, but here are a lot of ways that it could have been portrayed better. Down to getting the material so late from Susann, I wasn't sure that this video would even ever happen and decided to work with it given the time that I had left by the time I received the raw clips.
HUMAN CONDITION
This was another video that I thought was successful. It succeeds in creating an emotional response in the audience and I really like the aesthetic of the makeup application to the odes chest sand torso. I made the conscious decision to have the male topless in order to exhibit and emphasise the motion of his breathing, and also to because I thought it would be fresh and clean when exposing the skin in its naked form.
Some shooting and editing could have been carried out in a more professional way but overall, with all the ups and downs that the videos gave me and not knowing if they would even get made, I'm really quite happy with how they turned out. I was able to fit music that fit the one of the piece and inserted breathing sound effects, which I was able to slow down or speed up, depending on the mood that I wanted the model to portray. This breathing effect, which we also completed in shooting with exaggerated movements for camera, ties up the whole video and puts some meaning behind the perspiration.
The video allows the audience to come to their own conclusions about why the male is perspiring and breathing heavily. Is he scared? Has he exercised? Is it sexual? The skins reaction is the same and video is successful in portraying the relationship between emotions states and their physical response. If I were to re-do the video I think I would have liked to really exaggerate the perspiration and go all out with it, perhaps adding a spray to the body to show a gleam on the skin that compliments the larger beads of sweat that were made with gel. That being said, however, I do really like the contrast between the brands of sweat and the models matte skin so it would be hard to pinpoint which would work better aesthetically.
I worked with Lauren again on this shoot and she's always great to collaborate with. She shared creative ideas while letting me play with the concept. Her skills in lighting and photography meant that I didn't have to use any post production on the images, except for adding the odd image to the background. I want the skin to really stand out of these photos so that is another incentive for me to not use photoshop on this shoot.
I used my own hands in the shoot because they are lined and textured and I thought it would be beneficial to showcase natural diverse skin as well as the unnatural. It also makes for an interesting aesthetic. I took inspiration from vitiligo and birthmarks and used makeup to recreate this type of patterning. The cutesy background colours cast a pleasant delicacy on hands that may been seen as not ideal were they in another situation. I was not the best hand model, however, and kept shaking throughout the shoot meaning that a lot of photos were unfocused. Lauren was patient and helped me to keep my hands steady in front of her camera.
The pink background that Lauren and I agreed on reminded me of a relevant trend that I had seen on WGSN and I thought the two would work really well together. The "Graceful" theme has been referenced in a previous post and revolves around a pastel colour scheme, focussing on pinks. Incorporating this into my shoot really gave the images a modern, cutesy edge which is popular with my artsy target audience, giving me more of an edge when maintaining their interest. Soft Pop built spun this theme through collage and popular culture "sticker" like appendages. I want to ply with this to see if its something that can be incorporated into my own work.
Above is one of the final images, to which I have applied the editing techniques as stated above. I did this by duplicating the daisy that is on the ring of the index finger. The daisy print is extremely popular with my demographic at the moment, so it will appeal to my target audience and also ties the shoot together and is aesthetically pleasing. I haven't photoshopped the skin itself to maintain the authenticity of the texture.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
I realised that absolutely love making up and shooting hands. They're all so singular, yet they're all the same. They move differently, the skin fits them differently on different people, some are aged, lined, soft, dry, the diversity is infinite. I wanted to test some more while was was with Lauren so I went back to the Silver Line shoot from the beginning of the project. I have made the conscious devious not to photoshop these images bar for the backgrounds in some cases. This is to show the authenticity of the texture of the skin which I feel really gets to the core of the subject.
The concept of this shoot is to show sweat on the skin as a response to loss of innocence, using a combination of oils and mixing mediums. What I like about this concept is that it can be perceived as either sexual innocence or every-day innocence because the nervous response is the same. The shoot will let the audience decide the trigger for the response.
Shoot examples from "sweat" shoot
VIDEO CONCEPT
Although I have a few images of this shoot, I have decided that this would make for a really strong movie concept. I plan to combine the sweat on the models chest with heavy breathing and leave the trigger up to the audience to decide.
SHOOT
The shoot seemed to be successful, however I won't know for sure until I see the footage. The model was skilled at exaggerating his breathing for camera and the wet beads of sweat contrasted with his matte skin for a lovely, amplified aesthetic effect. The shoot will be short in length to illustrate the book and I'm really looking forward to going over the material that we captured.
UPDATE AND ANALYSIS
It took some time and some youtube tutorials but I have managed to put the clips together to create a short film that I actually think was quite successful! I enjoyed the process a lot more than I thought I would given that this type of editing is not a strong point for me. I managed to find royalty free music to fit the tone of the video and sound effects, and the mood is strong and intense without being too cheesy. I used overlapping breathing noises that build up and fade in and back out to increase the breathing of the model. This, I have discovered while editing, has en emotional effect on the audience - the body naturally tries to keep up with the breathing on the video but can't because its not synchronised properly, causing the audience to feel breathless and panicked. This is a huge plus in that the emotional stimuli is reaching beyond being acknowledged as a concept and is now being felt by the audience itself. I have noticed that some of the shots go in and out of focus, and if I were to reshoot I would make the transitions smoother and add some more movement ion the video. But overall, i am happy with this as a first attempt of a final video outcome. The final video is below.
This unit has really pushed me to improve my skills in digital applications, especially in Photoshop, Indesign and Final Cut pro. This has been mainly self taught, and helped along with regular support sessions with our I.T Technician. I have been able to use digital manipulation to emphasise the emotional tone of my project and reach the concept on a more 3D level, something that I thought that I would have to rely on the photographers for and then thought would not be possible once Susann left the project. So a huge benefit of learning these skills is that i have been able to take control of factors I would ave had to rely on other people for when things don't go to planned and don't have to stray too far from my original plan.
Above are a few examples of what I have taught myself to do using post production and I feel proud of my progression, and confident enough that I would list it as a skill when applying to jobs in industry. This is a hugely beneficial thing to come out of this project, that it has forced me to improve my skills for industry and also think more like a professional.
Today we shot the look and I got to really experiment with the "bound" factor. I ended up incorporating different materials to experiment with other ways to portray this. I used elastic and string in a verity of different positions and felt as though I really acted as creative director rather than just a makeup artist.
ANALYSIS
I feel confident that we got a good number of images to have this be a strong concept through the book and, if the previews are anything to go by I don't think that I will have to reshoot this. The photographer Lauren achieved the lighting and mood that I had envisaged even without post production, meaning that editing will only be minimal and images will look more professional. The shoot has the potential to match the Monumental trend that I was originally inspired by from WGSN.
I work incredibly well with Lauren and together we create a professional yet relaxed shooting atmosphere that allows creative ideas to flow freely. The model was confident and managed to hold poses that may have not been the most comfortable! She was able to portray the sense of emotion that I had needed.
Makeup application went smoothly and I was able to pull off what I had designed on a face chart in real application. It appears sharp on camera and although the metallic bleached out a little, this was expected and is easily fixable in post production.
The "hair cage", although previously practised did not run as smoothly as I would have liked it to. This was down to a corser hair type, which caused strands to be static and hard to control and I also should have practised the night before as to remind myself of the precision that I needed.
I have enough confidence in the quality of Lauren's work that I have agreed to edit the photos myself, which will take some of the worry out of having to wait to see the final photos and also means that I can start creating the post production effects that I want to add (see mood board) To do this I have self taught the techniques that are required by watching photoshop tutorials on Youtube, and this proved really successful. Examples are below.
I am really happy with my growth and progress in digital systems like Photoshop, Indesign and Final Cut Pro over this unit and would now feel confident in listing these thins as a skill when applying to jobs that require this in industry.
I have also used Photoshop to manipulate the tone of the image to better match the mood that I had originally planned in the previous post, which was inspired and tonal to the "Monumental" trend package. To do this I applied basic beauty editing along with cooling filters to the picture apart from the eyes, which is emphasised to give a molten appearance. This was necessary due to the camera bleaching out the metallic gold somewhat, which was planned for in the design. The two photos below show the edited tonal version of one of the images from the shoot, next to the unedited, warmer version.
I got my photographer to record a quick 30 second clip so that I could practise editing movies, because this is something that I'm not experienced in and although my photographer will be editing the videos herself, I feel as though I need to have at least a basic understanding of how to edit so that I know what my limitations are when having creative control of the outcome of the videos. This will also be beneficial incase anything goes wrong and I have to re-edit something. The below clip is the result of my very first experience with iMovie, editing what we shot. Although it's no where near the quality of the final film, I'm really happy that I've made some progress with editing and adding sound.
My next step will be to attend our IT tutorial and get the technician to show me some more effects that I might like to include, like split pictures, mirroring, colour changing and transitions.
The book of stills that I will create will have a QR code on each chapter. Scanning this code with a smart phone will take the user to the video of the corresponding video. I think this will be a really nice way to link everything together and ensure the book and videos are connected. It will also give me another platform to celebrate skin on, creating a wider audience.
Seeing as I am in no way an expert in technology like this I had to do a little research to see A) how I
would go about getting these QR codes and B) to see how feasible it was and if it would be possible to include in the project.
I discovered that websites like QRStuff.com will create QR codes free and ready to download, simply by putting in the URL of the desired location you wish to link to code to. You can then scan it using an app like RedLaser and it will take you directly to that link. This is a really prominent method of promotion through all aspects of the fashion and beauty industry and so it will ensure that my project is relevant and keeps up with modern processes.
TESTING
I tested this out using the URL from my blog to see if it worked both digitally and in print. And it worked! (see below) the only thing I think that I will have to be careful with is to make sure the links are all printed correctly when the book goes to the printers.
This is also really convienient for my costing because its absolutly free. Some other sites require payment for codes and barcodes so it was smart and cost efficient to look around.
