Reflection

In reflection, when considering our completed film, the success of our collaborative work is evident.   We initally aimed to create a concept that 'represented' and 'celebrated' the diverse culture in Manchester, adopting the idea of a 'patchwork culture' we hoped to digitally explore the idea of  temporary clothing through the use of projection, echoing the rapid changes in culture and fashion, and tackling the problems of capatlaism and 'the need for more clothes' ; that lead to environmental problems.
Personally and collectively we researched a particular cultural area of Manchester. I searched Canal St focusing on the 'gay' aspect of manchesters culture and continued to create oppertunites to feed into our team through the exploration of colour, form and texture and the use of drawing.  As a group we continued to share such drawings, discussing the potenial for development continuously.  Attending the proposed lectures given by 'guests' gave us an insight into alternative ways of researching, marginal culture in Manchester and several existing design archives.
In response to our agreed theme, the 'aims' proved difficult for me to visualise as outcomes, the digital format and submission was daunting and I struggled to understand how to adapt my working metohod to explore this practice.  However the support from team members meant that as we progressed such digital aims became more clear, I began to visualise my personal developments in relation to our concept, and future outcomes, I became confident grasping new practices and continued to learn from my peers.  It is clear being creative collectively was key to the success of our film.
We  were initally aware the outcome of our video was dependant on the standard of filming ,editing and delivery, we therefore continued to explore relevant technology throughout development, this proved the most time consuming and involved aspect of production, however did prove vital when reflecting on our achievments.  The use of colour also proved significant, high saturation, contrast and colour levels needed to be maintained for the projection to project well.  The biggest problem arose when attepmting to 'map' our projections exactly to the dancers body, with his increasing movements this took alot of practice, however experimenting with camera angles, lighting and editing techniques (I am now aware of these practices, and can tranfer my learning for future tasks) allowed us to successfully achieve what we origanlly planned.
It is clear from the 'stills' taken from the final shoot that the idea of 'cultural patchworks' was portrayed effectively, the designs clearly depict colours, patterns and textures that are evident in original research, and the amalgamation of our collective ideas appear convincing.
 I contiune to be inspired by colour, an aspect of our collective designs that proved vital when projecting successfully.  My extensive exploration of colour throughout the unit allowed to me to envision our ideas effectively.  Within Unit X I have challanged myself by approaching aims in a way that is new to me.  I had to visulise my ideas with the awareness that the outcome would be fully digitalised, which proved difficult however proved rewarding.  In reflection, if developing this task futher I would have liked to develop skills to enable me to use Final Cut Pro, I hope to use film in future projects and still do not feel overly confident with editing techniques, this therefore being something I hope to improve on.

Collaborative Designs

Below are examples of our group designs that influenced our final outcome, my personal drawings are evident within each.  The images are evidence of a definate working method as they illustrate how drawing and intial research, both form the basis for development and the evolution of an outcome; the success of our collaboration was dependant on such methods.

Projection Stills

The following images illustrate the final stages of development.  As a group we spent monday completing our final film, and are currently in the process of editing.  In reflection the stills portray our 'patchwork culture' effectively; the designs evident in each projection depict colour, pattern and texture we initially discovered from our searches.  The amalgamation of designs are fluent, complimentary and convincing and we believe such stills will compliment our digital outcome well in the form of large scale prints.  To date, taking part in the group task has allowed me to develop knowledge in relation to digital design; I am now more aware of this pratice as a concept, and will transfer such skills for future tasks.  Such knowledge has influenced my own working method from inital research through to outcome and has significantly effected my development.

 

 

( The collection above focuses on the significance of individual drawing, each still highlights the layering and integration of a range of themes, fullfilling our inital aims; creating designs that interpret a 'clashing of cultures'.)

Video Development

After several failing attempts to master our projection concept successfully, we booked a large room with black out curtains for another attempt.  Frazer had produced some mock layered prints from our growing collection of drawings, that we could use to test our theory.  It soon became clear the prints that were more saturated, and that contained stronger colours, gave a more effective projection, this is evident in the proceeding images, even from stills the success of colour is evident.  We continued to experiment filming the projection from several angles, and eventually managed to position the model close enough to the projector and the camera, however at a very difficult angle to ensure the projection(that does actually appear on the floor to the right of the model) is not evident for filming. The process proved time consuming, the images and video below illustrate how much improvement has occurred from last week, however in our opinion does not reflect the amount of work involved in reaching this breakthrough!  This we hope will be evident in our final video!It proved really difficult to avoid the projection 'projecting onto things behind the model', I feel the results below are extremely successful the projection is almost exact in terms of following the shape of the body!
      In terms of our images we aim to produce more in the next few days, continuing with the layered idea, however will convert the stills into some form of moving sequence to enhance the quality of our final outcome.  We have agreed all digital prints need to be replicated, each replicated version should have increased saturation, contrast levels, and reduced exposure levels to achieve the best projection results when filming.  We hope to print large scale examples of our most successful prints to exhibit at MOSI,  this is why we will replicate all prints so the originals can be kept for this.

AIMS FOR WEEK BEGINNING MON 7TH MAY .....

. Contact dance department, circulate email to secure 4 dancers for filming end of this week/beginning of next.

. Buy all in one white suits for dancers to wear.

. Complete/edit all final digital prints.

. Meet with Mary to discuss editing of final video.

. ........ FILM FINAL VIDEO!

(Projection 1 )

(Projection 2)