Amour

Amour (2012) is French film that focuses on an elderly couple Anne and Georges. Anne suffers from a stroke which paralyses her on the right side of her body. The film explores the daily life and struggles that they must go through and ultimately attempts to answer the question ”How do you manage the suffering of someone you love?”

Our designer was inspired by this film, as the topics that this film explored are very personal and relatable to the designer. And so, our designer Joanne has used a colour palette based off the film.

The film opens with a scene in the present - the discovery of Anne’s corpse, then flashes back to the main story of what happened, the film then circles back round to the present, ending with a now empty apartment.

The movie takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions beginning with confusion, anger and denial, then ends on guilt, being a burden, sadness and hatred. These emotional states can be portrayed in our own fashion film.

We have referenced a scene from this movie within our film as our designer was inspired from watching Amour. We therefore, wanted our audience to see a significant link between the two films. 

We were very excited to find out we would be working with Make-up Artists and Fashion Stylists for this project. Once we were given their details we contacted them straight away to let them know our plans and ideas, introducing ourselves and explaining our roles. 

We very much look forward to working with Jessica and Abi..

Jo Mill's Collection Video

We found this campaign of Jo Mill’s collection that we intend to use. From the video we have been inspired to find a similar model - pale skin and red hair as it compliments the clothing really well. Having seen the rope used as a significant prop within the video, it was decided that we would do the same to connect it back to the garments. Jo also agreed that the rope was the most important part of her collection and she wanted it to stand out and contrast the most against the subtle tones within the colour palette. It was agreed that we could use different coloured ropes in the film as long as they fit within the colour palette.

The video shows shots that successfully display our designer’s collection, however I feel that a wider range of camera angles could have been used to make the viewer feel more connected and drawn to the clothes. Also, there is no fluidity to show the movement in the garments and according to Nick Knight "A fashion designer creates a garment to be seen in a moving way, as opposed to being seen as a static item. The fashion designer knows that the garment will be seen from many different types of angles."

Furthermore, having viewed the video multiple times, we were unable to distinguish and identify a particular narrative within, this affected the viewing as we quickly lot interest. We decided that our film would portray a circular narrative. 

Although there are some successful shots, we think that the lighting was not made a priority.  To us, this is a very crucial element as it controls the mood of the film and effects how the viewer is made to feel when watching the film. Prior to the shoot we plan to carefully construct the style of each scene in our film. Aspects include the mood, camera angles, lighting, colour, props and the item of clothing.

Further tests were carried out to experiment again with lighting. This was done so that on the shoot day we would know exactly what lights to use and the positioning of them. We also experimented with a reflector and a mirror to reflect the lights onto the model. It was decided that for the shoot day we would use both at alternate times. 

Test Shoot 2

A test shoot was carried out on Thursday 17th December 2015. We chose to make use of ARRI lights for continuous lighting on the background. Two more ARRI lights were directed at the model in the centre which would be reflected, it was yet to be decided what we would use to do this. 

Communication & Roles

Over the christmas break we all wanted to ensure we were going to be proactive. Before we broke up for the holiday we set ourselves and each other specific roles within the group. 


Shivy - (Director) - research, learn/practice premiere pro, sourcing models, lighting designer
Ayesha - (Choreographer, shoot co-ordinator) - research, learn/practice premiere pro, illustration tests, create mood board, identify target audience, start on enterprise
Luke - (Main camera op) - research, learn/practice premiere pro, illustration tests, title sequences/ credits, typography
Selina - (assistant camera operator, prop master) - research, learn/practice premiere pro, sourcing props, storyboarding
Melody - (lighting assistant, post-production) - research, learn/practice premiere pro, decides what clothes to be in scenes, lighting designer 

Having created a WhatsApp group we were able to easily discuss our plans and ideas. As well as this we were able to decide which days we would meet up in uni to work on our film together. 

Test Shoot 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Ideas and concepts for our film

-non linear story line

-destroy a structure

-rope is used to save someone from danger

-orange representation, caution - orange colour cones

-her colour pallet is taken from the film amour which represents an elderly couple dealing with a disease

-symbolic meaning of rope is knowledge, rope is a symbol often seen in dreams

-surrealism 

-clips on bag represent keeping it all together

leave the viewer wanting more

make the narrative questionable 

ropes hanging from the ceiling

walking through a maze

the unknown of where she’s going

projection mapping

illustrations

blurred

Our initial concept for the film is to use the key theme of deterioration. we aim to explore this through a circular narrate encompassing the idea behind the ropes which involves being trapped as well as free to clutch onto memories. We aim to communicate this suffering from the conditions through contrasting audio and visuals that depict our subject in different states of the illness'. This will most likely be more abstract than literal.

Target audience

Having spoken to our designer (Jo) we were able to come up with our target audience:

   

 A young working woman, she would need to have a significant income as the clothes and expensive/ luxurious and not designed for the basic, casual market. The clothes are feminine with a sporty edge, this  therefore would be reflected in the target audience's own style and hobbies. 

Images from the designer

Change of desginer

JO MILLS 

Once we were given our new designer we were a bit concerned but also excited! Up till now we were focusing on mens fashion and now this was all going to change. We emailed Jo straight away to introduce ourselves and find out about her collection and potential ideas she had in mind. While waiting for her response we began to research about her and her collection online.

Together as a group we came up with some questions for Jo to answer and planned to email them to her once she responded to our initial message. (The questions can be seen below)

• What are/were your inspirations/concepts?
• Are there any particular styles or ideas that you have in mind for the film?
• Is there anything besides the two links that you have sent us that we should look at in order to understand your work more?
• What message would you like to convey in the piece?
• Are there any specifics in regards to models or the styling of models that you would like us to follow?
• How many pieces would you like to showcase and are there any in particular that you would like highlighted in the film?
• Who is your audience for your collection?
• What clothing size are your designs?
• Do you have any moving image of your work?
• Why did you choose orange specifically for the ropes and would you be open to other colour ropes being present in the film? As well as this where did you source the ropes for your work?

From Jo's Instagram page we were able to identify clothes from the "progressions of a fading memory" collection. We could see that there was a repetitive colour palette and the use of ropes were included a lot. 

 

"My concept begins with the lives of two women. How their minds stored with a lifetime of memories deteriorated into a child like state. Both suffering from conditions that left them confused, frightened and vulnerable. A once bright and colourful personality was lost. 

To echo past memories normal cuts and shapes are mixed with traditional woven fabrics such a wool."

From these images and annotation in Jo's sketch book it is clear where her inspiration came from. The deterioration has been represented by the use of rope and the contrast of personalities can be seen by the choice of colours and shades of blue and orange. 

Below are some of the emails sent between Jo and us to show our communication and development of ideas:

Our original designer Charlotte Illidge was very slow in replying to us from the beginning and then finally when we arranged to meet her she failed to show up. This very much hindered our idea development as we really needed to see her inspiration and sketchbooks as well as have her input to really get rolling with our concepts. 

We decided to change our designer as we saw Charlotte’s actions as quite unprofessional and we were quickly running out of time. 

Grip Workshop

First step - reset camera settings

Shutter angle 180 degrees
Af one shot
ISO brackets
Cp locked on
Gets rid of vignettes for normal lenses 

HD onscreen monitors
Don't judge of monitors, go off the lcd screen
Peaking-assist focusing (shortcut no.9)
Shows what is in focus red/green
Zerba +5
Markers
Aspects ratio (cinema look 2.35) stylised 

Spanner
Transfer menu, save settings to your SD card
Wave form monitor OLED tool set

System frequency 
Frame rates and slow motion
59.94 hz system frequency for slow motion
Special recording slow and faster motion
When you ht record it should say s&f recording

59.94p
P=progressive
I=interlaces
We don't want interlaced

Movie format mp4

Slow motion
59.94


Real time
23.94 frames minimum
25 is slightly smoother
23.98p is real time

Initialise media
Format media card
When you change the frame rate, sometimes the camera wants to format the card. You will need two cards for real time and two cards for slow motion. Therefore, four cards in total, one to shoot and one to backup for each. 

Have all the work in two locations

Frenetic shutter speed
High shutter speeds adds a staccato (jumpy) feel

Be careful of shutter speed, the hertz rate of the lights can show up on the screen 

Longer on a lens plane of focus decreased
Wider on a lens plane of focus increased

Focus
3 triangles for point a and point b and the focus triangle on the point that doesn’t move.
Keep an eye on pace.

Visual Language

visual language

narration:

garments

styling

model

lighting

location

audio/music

themes 

VISUAL COMPONENTARY:

-tone

-line

-shape

-space

-colour

-movement

-rhythm

to understand and execute the control of visual componentry we use

CONTRAST AND AFFINITY

CONTRAST - the state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association 

AFFINITY- how close these elements are together

(images)

A simple rule:

contrast - increases visual intensity

affinity- decreases visual intensity

story structure:

-combination of contrast and affinity

-balancing the highs (intense parts) and lows (least intense)

-to give you some rhythmic pattern

^this can help with your communication and language 

rules can be broken

2.Space

There are 4 basic types of space

1.deep space

2.flat space

3.limited space

4.ambiguous space

Deep space provides illusions of 3d in a 2d medium

predominately done with depth cubes and horizon lines

foreground, mid ground and background are all important elements that are played with in deep space. (foreground elements are larger than the background)

Flat space emphasis on 2d on a 2d medium

there are no horizon lines, no depth queues, everything is compressed 

Limited space, combination of deep and flat space

shooting through one plane to the other 

Ambiguous space

Very powerful tool, use in short bursts

Creates momentary confusion and discomfort for the audience 

(reflections can disorientate your viewer and are often used when creating ambiguous space)

how can we control space

-vanishing points increase depth, more vanishing points create more depth

-lighter objects appear closer, darker objects appear further away

-warmer objects appear closer, cooler further away

3.Line

Linear motif

Think of your image reduced to simple lines and shapes

Lines and intensity

Surface divisions can control story structure and visual intensity

horizontal least intense

vertical more intense

diagonal most intense 

4.Shape

circle least intense

square more intense

triangle most intense 

5.Colour

additive - red/green/blue

subtractive- cyan/magenta/yellow

3 basic components of colour:

hue (what the basic eye can see)

brightness - the addition of white and black to get different colours

saturation- purity of the hue

Consider colour schemes for your film

e.g. the matrix film

split complimentary colour - film traffic e.g

teal and orange - stardust, spy kids, night as the museum, the bourne identity

6.Movement

3 types of movement:

-object

-camera

-point of attention

1.object movement

affinity of movement 

————>

————>

contrast of movement

—————>

<—————

2.camera movement

static shot-locked off=least intense (e.g. hunger steve mcqueen)

dolly/slider/jib/steady camera = more intense (e.g. river island video)

frenetic or handheld = most intense 

3.point of attention

where is the audience looking: (determined by 3 things)

movement 

brightness 

focus

7.Rhythm

fragmented action vs continuous action 

licence free music

Lighting workshop

Lighting design:

• what mood do you want to convey?
• what do you want your audience to feel?
• quality of light
• direction of light
• colour
• testing
• look at show studio behind the scenes video for support 
• lighting design inform the equipment you need

Natural vs. controlled light

3 point lighting set up:

• Key light - shines directly onto the subject, serves as its principal illuminator 
• Fill light - shines onto the subject from a side angle, often placed at a lower position than the key. 
• Rim light - helps to create shape, can be softened with diffuser paper

Colour temperature is a measurement in Degrees Kelvin that indicates the hue of a specific type of light source. 

Colour correction gels:

CTO - colour temp orange

CTB - colour temp blue - used to remove colour

Effects gels:

Used to add colour 

http://www.artsthread.com/profile/charlotteillidge/




ORDER IN DISORDER

order

• uniform
• neat
• rules
• well suited
• routine
• discipline
• conformity

disorder

• messy
• breaking the rules
• chaos
• aggression
• fun

Research

Liquid Swords Video

http://www.anthonysaraceni.com/liquid-swords/hh1scn7l0rrkcobuftmjyawow33wyw

Liquid swords

·      Establishing shot-

·      Rich visuals

·      Narrative is clear from the offset

·      Sound and editing

·      Cutting of shots are to the beat, as well as the sound

·      Movement and narrative are in the garment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbFc-fa-ww






Yves Saint Laurent - Menswear Fashion Film 
https://vimeo.com/83543783


From the opening shot we instantly know the brand/company linked to the video. We know this from association. I have been thinking about how the designer creates a garment with the intention of movement (as mentioned within Nick Knights Show Studio video). This can be seen within this fashion film ....... (GIF). The transitions and sounds are well suited and fit to the beat and cuts. As well as this, the camera angles work successfully to show multiple viewpoints of the clothing.

No model is seen to be looking directly into the camera, creates a sense of mystery.

Something I didn’t like was the quick transitions of the man where it looked like his head was spinning. (show gift)

I thought that it was very unrelated to the rest of the film and was dull, dark lighting. However, straight after this, the model can be see as having exposed light on his face. One can infer that he is being photographed down the catwalk by a photographer, this was much more relevant to the fashion film and was an element I could use within my own work. 

The overall video has a common theme as the video is divided into three frames

the next section of the film becomes slower, therefore the music and editing pace also becomes slow. 

Our designer

http://www.thestylearchive.co.uk

In order to keep up to date with Charlottes latest ideas and trends I searched and followed her on Instagram. 

Having been given the name and contact details of our designer, we contacted her straight away saying that we were excited to be working with her and to also find out her availability so that we could meet up and begin to discuss ideas.

We look forward to hearing back from her...

What do I hope to get out of this collaborative project?

From this collaborative project, I hope to get an understanding of the other visual communication subjects. I intend to learn some things about illustration and graphics whether it be specific practitioners of influence, or a skill. Also, I want to attend all the workshops to further my knowledge and also learns some new skills on the different software that we will be using throughout the project. I hope to have given all that I can to my group, and also be there to offer support and advice if anyone needs it. Furthermore  I will use the photographic knowledge I have and bring it to positive use within my group.

Menswear Fashion Films

https://vimeo.com/83543783

Nick Knight - Show Studio

Show Studio Website


"Showstudio is an award-winning fashion website founded and directed by Nick Knight, that has consistently pushed the boundaries of communicating fashion online."

"It has pioneered fashion film and is now recognised as the leading force behind this new medium, offering a unique platform to nuture and encourage fashion to engage with moving image in the digital age."



Nick Knight- Thoughts on Fashion Film (Video)

My Response

Nick begins by stating that it has been accepted that fashion photography is now the best way to show fashion. A fashion designer creates a garment to be seen in a moving way, as opposed to being seen as a static item. The fashion designer knows that the garment will be seen from many different types of angles. This was an important factor that Nick mentioned as it is clear how much planning needs to be done prior to shooting the film.

The Internet has provided us an exciting new medium, as it is a vehicle assessable to everyone. Back in 1998 the Internet was going to become a really important global communication network. Due to this Nick set up show studio, to show fashion in a moving way, which he claims is a much better way of showing it as it is closer to the designers intention. He also says that by starting show studio he was able to give fashion film a new platform that took time to establish itself.

Additionally, he believes that the key element into creating a great fashion film is great fashion. Something interesting I picked up on through the video was Nick’s argument for the narrative already being inside the item of clothing. He says it is the designer’s intention to create a narrative within the garment; I find this very interesting because it gives a chance for the photographer and designer to put their ideas together and collaborate to create a successful piece of work.

30 years ago, when show studio first started, photography could be defined by a specific set of rules and was easy to understand. Where as now, Nick argues that over time there has been a shift in what photography is, he states that photography stopped when the digital world came along. For most upcoming people, they have no question as to what photography is nowadays but Nick seems to think photography has been killed off.  From this, I understand his point of view but I slightly disagree as I think the beauty within photography is still there and can be seen through the use of film. However, I think photography itself has been altered through the digital world, providing more creativity and a wider perspective for photography to branch out.

Furthermore, he continues to speak about how we are trying to define the new medium of image making as photography, which raises a lot of mistakes. People are able to naturally express themselves through sound and motion. We have the ability to change an image completely. The old medium of photography was a great medium but it isn’t what’s happening now. I agree with this as we now have the ability to alter something completely through the use of technology. A huge example of this can be seen in magazines, as models are photo shopped to change their overall appearance.

Overall, it is clear that fashion photography itself took a while to become what it is, to be a recognizable art form. Therefore, fashion film is still establishing itself and will also take time to develop and become its own medium. Many people are attempting to create a piece of work but not everyone succeeds.