Health and Safety – Music Video

Photography Proposal

I have thought about what images I am eventually going to shoot for this assignment, and have developed on a few initial ideas and inspiration taken from other established photographers images, such as Nan Goldin and Andy Warhol. I am going to concentrate my images on the theme of ‘identity struggles’, but I shall also focus the photograph on a separate emotion stemming from this  to connect with my audience, grasping their attention and putting distinct elements of relevance for the viewers so a vast majority of people can relate to the image some how. A general idea I have to portray emotion alongside identity struggle is to set the picture up as a formality of a fashion shoot, and to have the model, who will have the appearance of stereotypical working class, dressed in the marketed formal attire, and have them located in a contrasting environment perhaps whilst acting out an emotion, conveying a story within the image of which the audience can interpret how they wish. To elaborate on this, and develop my idea more I will play further with the idea of the story of a crisis of identity, struggling to find out who they are as a person, portraying this by having the model dressed in clothing that they wouldn’t stereotypically wear, perhaps an adolescent female dressed in over-sized men’s clothes staring vacantly into a mirror, or even a stereotypical alpha male dressed in drag, similar to those self portraits of Andy Warhol, and also certain shots from Nan Goldin.
Shots below, first image by Nan Goldin, last self-portrait of Andy Warhol.

Regarding the image by Nan Goldin of two males dressed in drag, the message Goldin achieved to portray in this image is really powerful. Equality amongst the races as the people relate to each other by dressing in drag together, perhaps being stereotypical. In my images, I want to play on the stereotypes idea, by taking alpha males and dressing them in drag. Elaborating on this idea more, I plan to get stereotypical ‘girly girls’ and also typical boisterous young males to model for me, and portray in my images them fighting back the stereotypes. I will achieve this particular idea by having the girl dressed in general boys clothes, whilst perhaps playing football, muddy and in an outdoor environment. With the young male, I shall capture him happily in a home environment dressed up in girls clothes, maybe a ballet costume, whilst playing with dolls to really push the idea of being individual and perhaps struggling with one’s identity.

The self-portrait of Andy Warhol dressed in drag is also a very powerful image, in the fact that Andy Warhol was experimenting with self-image, experimenting with self-esteem ideas and so on. This is an idea I want to copy, yet make it my very own image. I’m going to get a stereotypical alpha-male and have him dress in ‘drag’ by applying make up to him, and jewelery  I want to effectively and strongly portray the whole “identity struggle” story, and in my opinion this particular image will be the strongest one conveying this. The picture will be similar to Andy Warhol’s self-portraits, just using a simplistic head and shoulders shot, with no bright colours distracting the audience from the main focus of my image.
For this image I plan to use a pop flash to make the image brighter and to achieve the correct amount of exposure in my image, also placing my DSLR camera on to a tripod and putting the model in front of a plain background to ensure there will be no distracting elements.

For some of my images, I shall be using Photoshop to manipulate them slightly highlighting the males make up by brightening the exposure in the image as a whole. I won’t try to make the model look ‘perfect’ by using tools such as the ‘spot healing brush’, as my I want my image to look real and really convey the story of identity struggles, therefore air brushing my image too much won’t fit in as I feel that a raw image will show up the emotion more.

Photography Mind Maps

Photo Diary – Texture

I have received some feedback on my photo from my peers, they have responded to my photo telling me that my image is composed really well, although one person mentioned how the composition and framing could be improved as I have cut off a fraction of my models nose in the image.
They also commented on what elements of my photo they liked, stating they liked the way I have taken the photograph and the contrast of the photo as a whole.
The viewing audience said that the feeling they got from looking at my picture was a calm feeling, and that the model is conveying an emotion.

Research & Theory – Information Trail

Research-log

Packaging Research

For my print production class, I shall be designing and creating a packaging box for a beauty product, such as perfume. I shall be researching and discussing various aspects of four different perfume bottles and packaging to give me some inspiration for what particular designs I shall be including in my own packaging.

Marc Jacobs – Lola

The first perfume packaging I shall be looking at is Marc Jacobs, ‘Lola’. I have chosen this particular scent package because I like the simplicity of the design, it’s very minimalistic using only three main colours, giving it a sophisticated look, even with the floral design, therefore appealing to the target market of middle to upper class 25-40 year old feminine females.
The embossed metallic gold lettering and bold font makes the brand and the name of the scent really stand out against the black background, defining straight away of whom the designer is and what product the consumer is purchasing.

Vivienne Westwood – Naughty Alice

The second perfume packaging I have decided to look into is Vivienne Westwood’s ‘Naughty Alice’. The reason I chose this package to look at was it’s simple use of colours, very eye catching yet so elegant at the same time. There are only three colours present on the design of the package, a blue for the background, a metallic gold for the bordering elegant design and also the designers name, and a seductive striking red to make an impact of the perfumes name.
Because of the elegant design, I would say that the target market of this particular perfume would be 20-30 year old females, although a younger generation could also find this scents packaging appealing as it is fairly eye catching, so adolescents may be attracted to the perfume also.

Moschino – Pink Bouquet

The third perfume packaging which I’m going to look into is Moschino’s ‘Pink Bouquet’ perfume. The target market for this particular scent, judging by the packaging, would be 13-20 year old females. I think this is the general target market because of the colours used, pink and metallic silver, and the styling of the package with diamantes and bold fonts, also coloured pink.
In my opinion, the use of colouring (pinks, white and silver), the styling of the font itself, and also the glossy finish of the actual package would be really eye catching for a young adolescent as this would stereotypically be what they are into, style wise.

Christina Aguilera – Eau de Parfum

The fourth and final perfume packaging I am going to analyse is a scent by a famous singer, Christina Aguilera. There are two main colours being used, which are light pink and black. The styling of the package gives off a very elegant and sophisticated look, with the font and the embroided lace design across the package.
I think that, considering the designer of this perfume is a celebrity, the target market is aimed at fairly young girls, aged perhaps 13-18. The reason for this being that young girls idolise celebrites such as Aguilera therefore would be likely to buy this product. But the packaging suggests it being aimed at middle-aged women, as it looks sophisticated with the style and the etched design on the front of the package.

Photo Diary – Documentary

 

Survey for Musicals

Click here to view my survey. alternatively type in the URL  – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RNBZGTK

I have created my own survey using the website www.surveymonkey.com. I listed a set of ten different questions, including the general questions of the participants gender, giving them a choice out of two answers being male and female, and also the specific age of the participant. This information is gathered in order to seek out who our target market exactly is, and who our musical production will be most appealing to.
The first insightful question which I asked in my survey was the closed question of what genre of musicals would the participant most enjoy, giving a set of multiple choice answers which included romance, comedy, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller and the option to specify another genre not yet mentioned. This information would be really helpful towards the musical production, as we then have a foundation on which to base the musical on regarding on the various participants opinions.
Below is a question from my survey, illustrating how I have used the multiple choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following this question, I asked the participants whether or not they agree with the statement “Grease is the best musical” and used a likert scale so the participant could answer how strongly they agreed with the statement. I also used another likert scale in my survey, questioning the participant on the likeliness of them actually watching a musical, giving them a set of five different options, such as; ‘very likely, likely, sometimes, unlikely, and never’.

An image below showing my surveys likert scales.

In my survey, I also asked a few open questions which allowed the participants to, if they wanted, to write a detailed response in an essay box, or ‘comment’ box. An example of one of the open questions I asked the participant is “Describe your perfect ending?”, which allowed the person taking the survey to inform me exactly what they would like to see as the ending in a musical, with as much or as little detail as they wanted.
Image below, showing my essay/comment box question.

 

 

 

 

After I had completed creating my survey and included all the necessary questions within it, I posted the link to my survey to various social networking sites in order to find participants to complete my survey.
I firstly posted it to my Facebook as a status, allowing my Facebook ‘friends’ to click on the given link and answer my surveys questions. After that, I then posted it to my Twitter asking my followers to complete my survey. I also decided to post it to my Tumblr, asking my followers and also people who follow the hashtag of ‘Musicals’ ‘Media’ and ‘Theatre’ to participate in my survey.
Here are a few screenshots to illustrate my survey on social network sites.

Storyboards for Music Video Production

Mindmaps for Music Video Production