Evaluation:
Here is the evaluation of my work for this project.
Research:
For my research on this project I looked at the different hair products that fudge has brought out. I also went on their website to find out more, when doing so I found that they have different products to create various styles, and also if you want to dramatically change the colour of your hair with the use of dyes. I was really impressed when I saw that on a page of a particular product they have expert tip's to help you get the most of the product you are using, I thought this was really interesting because I haven't seen that before. On the Colour, category I saw that they put more information on about that the dye lasts up to 3 - 30 washes, this is an important piece of information for anyone who wants to dye their hair as it is a vital piece of information.
I also looked through a book by TIGI: Unity collection. I liked this book as it was broad and had a range of hair styles in the book, also it provided still images of really striking hair styles too, this was part of my research because it opened me up to the variety of hair styles and how people can capture the image in a really interesting and quirky way.
My last piece of information / research was a table on formats, platforms and a compression glossary.
I also looked through a book by TIGI: Unity collection. I liked this book as it was broad and had a range of hair styles in the book, also it provided still images of really striking hair styles too, this was part of my research because it opened me up to the variety of hair styles and how people can capture the image in a really interesting and quirky way.
My last piece of information / research was a table on formats, platforms and a compression glossary.
Technical Skills:
There are three main elements to my technical skills page, the first is time remapping. Time remapping is where you can expand, compress, play backward, or freeze a portion of the duration of a layer.
For example, if you are using footage of a person walking, you can the play footage of the person moving forward, and then play a few frames backward to make the person retreat, and then play forward again to have the person resume walking. Time-remapping is good for combinations of slow motion, fast motion, and reverse motion. This was really interesting as it came in handy when editing footage,
I used a sample from the catwalk footage, and trialed it. It was really tricky at first, however it did become easier the more you attempt it. I quite liked the way that it is a lot easier to make something go faster or to slow something down in a more efficient way. The time-remapping technique is really simple and quick now, and it will be a technique that I will bring forward if needed.
The second technique was trialing product photography. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the art of product photography, it was something which really enticed me. How certain products got the lovely crisp, and elegant feel and it was down to the way someone shot the photograph. I really liked the way we got to shoot some ourselves. The use of a light tent was really interesting too, as I'd only seen one on TV and it looked very elegant the way that certain photographs were produced. When I tried to get some interesting images with things I found laying around they did work really well and I was happy with them, I thought that they were good for what I was trying to achieve.
Then I went on to research product photography a lot deeper and was really intrigued with what I found, I came across 'Packshot Factory' a specialized company for product photography, and many more other kinds. I was in awe of some of the photos in which they had taken, When I first saw these, I thought about how clear the shots were and how much the person / people had to work to get the right shot to sell what he / she is photographing,
I'm really impressed with the this work. I think that with my previous shots I have a lot more work to do however, I think with more time I could get some interesting shots.
The third and final technique was creating 3D text, I missed this tutorial when my other class members learnt it so I had to pick it up really quickly, and I realized that I had used something similar to this when making my animation, so I knew the basics needed to create a sample of 3D text, however I was a little rusty and needed some more practice and needed to be reminded again. After I had been shown the run through, I understood it again and remembered exactly what I did for my animation text. I thought that as I had used it before it would have come naturally to me again, however that wasn't the case. I had used this sort of 3D text once before and hadn't used it again so I forgot the important details.
For example, if you are using footage of a person walking, you can the play footage of the person moving forward, and then play a few frames backward to make the person retreat, and then play forward again to have the person resume walking. Time-remapping is good for combinations of slow motion, fast motion, and reverse motion. This was really interesting as it came in handy when editing footage,
I used a sample from the catwalk footage, and trialed it. It was really tricky at first, however it did become easier the more you attempt it. I quite liked the way that it is a lot easier to make something go faster or to slow something down in a more efficient way. The time-remapping technique is really simple and quick now, and it will be a technique that I will bring forward if needed.
The second technique was trialing product photography. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the art of product photography, it was something which really enticed me. How certain products got the lovely crisp, and elegant feel and it was down to the way someone shot the photograph. I really liked the way we got to shoot some ourselves. The use of a light tent was really interesting too, as I'd only seen one on TV and it looked very elegant the way that certain photographs were produced. When I tried to get some interesting images with things I found laying around they did work really well and I was happy with them, I thought that they were good for what I was trying to achieve.
Then I went on to research product photography a lot deeper and was really intrigued with what I found, I came across 'Packshot Factory' a specialized company for product photography, and many more other kinds. I was in awe of some of the photos in which they had taken, When I first saw these, I thought about how clear the shots were and how much the person / people had to work to get the right shot to sell what he / she is photographing,
I'm really impressed with the this work. I think that with my previous shots I have a lot more work to do however, I think with more time I could get some interesting shots.
The third and final technique was creating 3D text, I missed this tutorial when my other class members learnt it so I had to pick it up really quickly, and I realized that I had used something similar to this when making my animation, so I knew the basics needed to create a sample of 3D text, however I was a little rusty and needed some more practice and needed to be reminded again. After I had been shown the run through, I understood it again and remembered exactly what I did for my animation text. I thought that as I had used it before it would have come naturally to me again, however that wasn't the case. I had used this sort of 3D text once before and hadn't used it again so I forgot the important details.
Contextual Influences:
I found that the Cremaster 4 film was rather disturbing and damn right vile, I didn't like what this video was trying to get across and it's meaning made me physically queasy. The Cremaster Cycle was created by Matthew Barney and, Cremaster 4 was the first installment that he filmed. Cremaster 4, was filmed and set on the Isle of Man - an small island (about three times the size of Washington, D.C.) in the sea between Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. The film incorporates imagery from the island’s folklore, wildlife, and annual Tourist Trophy motorcycle race. Biologically, Cremaster 4 deals with the organism’s desire to return to a state of neutral gender as its male identity is formed.
I found this 42 minute film to be rather disturbing and made me feel ill, I simply thought that this is completely freaky and I felt that it didn't have any real meaning whatsoever. In conclusion, I don't understand how that was "art".
I found this 42 minute film to be rather disturbing and made me feel ill, I simply thought that this is completely freaky and I felt that it didn't have any real meaning whatsoever. In conclusion, I don't understand how that was "art".
Idea Generation:
For my idea generation, at the beginning I didn't really know what sort of advert to do. I didn't want to do a filmed advert because I didn't feel confident enough so I settled on taking a stills sequence.
When looking at the TIGI: The Unity Collection, 2009 book, it really opened my eyes to the photo sequences, and I liked the look of it as it was more cleaner, so I decided to create my own photo sequence, the thing now was what sort of photo sequence would it be.
The sequences in that book was people getting their hair cut or it being dyed, and that would be a huge step for anyone in our course.
I decided to do something quite basic, I thought about someone simply putting their hair up into a ponytail gradually. I liked this because I thought that most people could relate to it, I also had my model show off the product at the end which made it all the more interesting.
However, when I look back on it, I think I could have done something more intriguing and something that would hold the viewer's gaze.
Overall, though I am pleased with the idea generation side to this project, I thought it was a nice, easy rounded project.
When looking at the TIGI: The Unity Collection, 2009 book, it really opened my eyes to the photo sequences, and I liked the look of it as it was more cleaner, so I decided to create my own photo sequence, the thing now was what sort of photo sequence would it be.
The sequences in that book was people getting their hair cut or it being dyed, and that would be a huge step for anyone in our course.
I decided to do something quite basic, I thought about someone simply putting their hair up into a ponytail gradually. I liked this because I thought that most people could relate to it, I also had my model show off the product at the end which made it all the more interesting.
However, when I look back on it, I think I could have done something more intriguing and something that would hold the viewer's gaze.
Overall, though I am pleased with the idea generation side to this project, I thought it was a nice, easy rounded project.
Hair Advert - Photographs (FUDGE)
I chose to do photographs instead of filming because I like the way the photos look, as I think that a video really wouldn't have looked as dramatic. I think that the clarity of these photos is really interesting as the first three are really sharp and can see the pieces of hair. On the fourth photograph I chose to have a soft focus, as I thought that it would look quite effective, however now I think it should have been more in focus.
The last image, is one I really like, as she's showing the product off and I also like the fact that we see her face, it's not full profile which I think is more effective than if it was in full profile view.
With this series of photographs, I stuck to my original idea generation plan by having her side profile and taking photos of her gradually putting her hair up and pointing the product at the camera.
I'm really happy with these photographs as the lighting made a real impact on these photos, I also like how she was side profile as it gave a clear view of her hair. Also, the composition of the where she's placed within the frame, I really like this, as she's in the middle of the frame which sets up the shots. I also like that there is an equal white background on either side of her, as this makes it look more professional.
Overall, I'm pleased with my photo sequence, although I think I could have done something more dramatic and eye catchy, like I could have had the fan on to blow her hair just a little bit to make it look wispy and quite mysterious.
However, I'm still pleased with what I was able to envision and to create a quick, and easy shoot like that to promote FUDGE's product.
The last image, is one I really like, as she's showing the product off and I also like the fact that we see her face, it's not full profile which I think is more effective than if it was in full profile view.
With this series of photographs, I stuck to my original idea generation plan by having her side profile and taking photos of her gradually putting her hair up and pointing the product at the camera.
I'm really happy with these photographs as the lighting made a real impact on these photos, I also like how she was side profile as it gave a clear view of her hair. Also, the composition of the where she's placed within the frame, I really like this, as she's in the middle of the frame which sets up the shots. I also like that there is an equal white background on either side of her, as this makes it look more professional.
Overall, I'm pleased with my photo sequence, although I think I could have done something more dramatic and eye catchy, like I could have had the fan on to blow her hair just a little bit to make it look wispy and quite mysterious.
However, I'm still pleased with what I was able to envision and to create a quick, and easy shoot like that to promote FUDGE's product.
Creating the Final Outcome:
When creating the final outcome, I thought it was very simple and straightforward to do, as I did photo sequences, so it was a lot less pressure. However, I opened up Adobe Premiere, I imported all of my components which I needed was around five photographs. After that, I simply dragged my images into my timeline in the correct order, of course. I then RAM previewed the sequence so far and it was happening too quick for my liking, so I had to slow down the sequence by selecting all of the images in the timeline by clicking down with the mouse and dragging so that all the images where selected, after this I had to take the very last image and drag it to the right and adjusted it until I got the right speed.
I then had to create a title for my desired advert promoting FUDGE, to do this I had to go to TITLE on the top, tab bar, then I had to click NEW TITLE --> DEFAULT STILL. Once I pressed the DEFAULT STILL, a little box came up with the specific video settings, and it needed a name of the title too, after I typed in FUDGE I pressed okay and then a strange box appeared over my images on my timeline. I simply used the text tool, and to write 'FUDGE', I needed an interesting font so I looked down the range of fonts and settled on CRACKED, I liked this as it gave a cracked effect to the text which looked really intriguing and seemed to fit with the concept. I made sure that the text wasn't dead center as I wanted the viewer's eyes to settle on the model putting up her hair, so I moved the text over to the left, and rotated it 23.6 degrees. I made the text orange, so it did come into context with the brand itself. Once I was happy with my title I pressed the 'X' at the top left, and this took down the box over the top of my images. Then in my components bar, I saw my title component, all I had to do with that now was to drag it into my timeline. I wanted the text to go throughout my advert so I did exactly what I did the images. I put the cursor over the end of the component and dragged it out to the right, this now made my title go throughout the advert of the photo sequences.
I now wanted to make my images black and white, to do this I searched fast colour corrector, in Premiere and dragged it onto my images. When I went onto the effects tab, I opened up the fast colour corrector tab and on OUTPUT, I set it to LUMA, which made the images turn black and white. I liked this rather than the coloured version as it was more crisp, and the shadows the models jumper look really interesting in the black and white colour.
I then had to render my video, and once that had been complete, I had to export my video so that it can be uploaded to YouTube.
I then had to create a title for my desired advert promoting FUDGE, to do this I had to go to TITLE on the top, tab bar, then I had to click NEW TITLE --> DEFAULT STILL. Once I pressed the DEFAULT STILL, a little box came up with the specific video settings, and it needed a name of the title too, after I typed in FUDGE I pressed okay and then a strange box appeared over my images on my timeline. I simply used the text tool, and to write 'FUDGE', I needed an interesting font so I looked down the range of fonts and settled on CRACKED, I liked this as it gave a cracked effect to the text which looked really intriguing and seemed to fit with the concept. I made sure that the text wasn't dead center as I wanted the viewer's eyes to settle on the model putting up her hair, so I moved the text over to the left, and rotated it 23.6 degrees. I made the text orange, so it did come into context with the brand itself. Once I was happy with my title I pressed the 'X' at the top left, and this took down the box over the top of my images. Then in my components bar, I saw my title component, all I had to do with that now was to drag it into my timeline. I wanted the text to go throughout my advert so I did exactly what I did the images. I put the cursor over the end of the component and dragged it out to the right, this now made my title go throughout the advert of the photo sequences.
I now wanted to make my images black and white, to do this I searched fast colour corrector, in Premiere and dragged it onto my images. When I went onto the effects tab, I opened up the fast colour corrector tab and on OUTPUT, I set it to LUMA, which made the images turn black and white. I liked this rather than the coloured version as it was more crisp, and the shadows the models jumper look really interesting in the black and white colour.
I then had to render my video, and once that had been complete, I had to export my video so that it can be uploaded to YouTube.
Final Outcome:
I quite enjoyed this little project as it made me think of everything to do with advertising from the right typography down to the composition in which we should shoot our photos or the film for the advert / promotion of FUDGE. I also thought that this project was fun and I enjoyed the creating element of this promotion for FUDGE in our own way, I also liked the way in which the others chose to do filming, but I thought of doing stills in a photo sequence because I was influenced by the TIGI Unity Collection book.
I liked the way in which they shot their photo sequences of people getting hair cuts and / or people getting their hair dyed.
I thought that this gave a nice, edgy feel towards the photos and then it went into detail about what was happening within the photograph. That's what I decided to do with my own. I asked a student in our group to help me, I wanted to her to gradually put her hair up. Simple, yes however I wanted her hair to be volumised by a FUDGE product, which would tie in nicely within the shots. I liked the way that the lighting is on the students jumper as it gives a warmth feel towards the photo sequence, I did originally think of having this sequence in colour, but decided against it because, I thought that the black and white looked more appealing to the eye. Overall, I am pleased with my results as I found it easier with directing people, and with the editing side of things, and also to create a story within these photos.
I didn't want a song to go with this little advert because I couldn't find something short enough for this little piece, so it is soundless.
I liked the way in which they shot their photo sequences of people getting hair cuts and / or people getting their hair dyed.
I thought that this gave a nice, edgy feel towards the photos and then it went into detail about what was happening within the photograph. That's what I decided to do with my own. I asked a student in our group to help me, I wanted to her to gradually put her hair up. Simple, yes however I wanted her hair to be volumised by a FUDGE product, which would tie in nicely within the shots. I liked the way that the lighting is on the students jumper as it gives a warmth feel towards the photo sequence, I did originally think of having this sequence in colour, but decided against it because, I thought that the black and white looked more appealing to the eye. Overall, I am pleased with my results as I found it easier with directing people, and with the editing side of things, and also to create a story within these photos.
I didn't want a song to go with this little advert because I couldn't find something short enough for this little piece, so it is soundless.
Summary:
Throughout this project, I have more respect for adverts and how they are put together, and the fact that the have to create it over a few days / weeks / months etc. I was really happy when we found out how to do product photography, as it was something that has intrigued me for a while, and when I learned how to take some photographs like that, I was really amazed and the craft of it is something which is interesting.
The strengths I had throughout this project would be, the product photography task as that was something which I was amazed by and it opened me up to the World of product photography. I would also have to say, the way I have written throughout this project. I think that my writing capabilities have dramatically increased since the start of these projects and I'm happy with that, as it means that I'm improving within the written side of these projects and it means that I'm really understand what it is that I'm talking about.
My weaknesses, throughout this project I think would have to be, the final outcome. Yes, I have said that I'm overall pleased with that piece of work, however I think that it could have been greatly improved. I think that it was too safe and simple and quite boring. The only reason I think that is because I've developed my skills so much and I didn't think to bring them forward enough, and I think that's what it was lacking. I think that I should have done something which played to my strengths. I think I could have done something interesting with the photo sequence, but maybe add a bit more, like have another person doing something with his / her hair as then it would have been a varied choice and would have been instantly better. I suppose I could have done product photography with some of their products, and done some interesting typography to go with it, I think that this could have looked quite striking and I think would get people's attention.
I think what I need to consider for the next project is do a lot more research, and think of other outcomes and not do something safe. I should have a variety of outcomes in case one fails, and that I should be able to back that up with written documents from myself. I also think that I should look into typography more as I think I could use that in any outcome or in any project as it is varied and can look very interesting / intriguing depending on what the circumstances for its use.
The strengths I had throughout this project would be, the product photography task as that was something which I was amazed by and it opened me up to the World of product photography. I would also have to say, the way I have written throughout this project. I think that my writing capabilities have dramatically increased since the start of these projects and I'm happy with that, as it means that I'm improving within the written side of these projects and it means that I'm really understand what it is that I'm talking about.
My weaknesses, throughout this project I think would have to be, the final outcome. Yes, I have said that I'm overall pleased with that piece of work, however I think that it could have been greatly improved. I think that it was too safe and simple and quite boring. The only reason I think that is because I've developed my skills so much and I didn't think to bring them forward enough, and I think that's what it was lacking. I think that I should have done something which played to my strengths. I think I could have done something interesting with the photo sequence, but maybe add a bit more, like have another person doing something with his / her hair as then it would have been a varied choice and would have been instantly better. I suppose I could have done product photography with some of their products, and done some interesting typography to go with it, I think that this could have looked quite striking and I think would get people's attention.
I think what I need to consider for the next project is do a lot more research, and think of other outcomes and not do something safe. I should have a variety of outcomes in case one fails, and that I should be able to back that up with written documents from myself. I also think that I should look into typography more as I think I could use that in any outcome or in any project as it is varied and can look very interesting / intriguing depending on what the circumstances for its use.