FIRST BRIEF/ DEBRIEFING

Today I presented my first brief:

"I want to further improve my skills in digital photography, concentrating on studio lighting and narrative. Using my love for the fantastical and my love for quirky/elaborate fashion, the project will aim to create storytelling scenes with interesting wardrobe, props, and locations. Half of the project will explore photography inside the studio and the other half will explore found locations."

DEBRIEFING

_design problem and design brief

My main focus will be studio lighting but there a few problems that must be addressed.

1. lighting

There are 3 fill lights that I have at my apartment. I have one rechargeable battery that I can use with them if I need to use where there are no plugs. Our department has lights that can only be used in the shoot room as well as small film lights that can be rented out. Bel Air Camera has strobe lights that can be rented at $35/day. I need to do research and studies on studio lighting and possibly film set lighting.

2. subject

My interests lie in the fantastical and the quirky. But that is still a bit too general. 

Henri suggested that because my study is in light, I can narrow down my subjects to people who deal with light in their everyday job such as construction workers, photographers, or even someone as abstract as a nun. I think this is a great way to narrow down my subject to a certain group of people while still allowing an broad array of scenes I can produce. I wonder though, if it would be too difficult to get real people to be in my shoot. Would it be better to hire actors/models to act like these people?

I asked about cliche stories like the Brother's Grimm fairytales. Henri said that even though they are cliche, they can be made very intersting like Eugenio Recuenco's series, but it is mostly because of the aesthetics of the fashion and the location. 

Another suggestion was maybe photographing something more meaningful like news events?

While discussing my project late at night with Matt, he suggested that maybe I take a fantastical/fairy tale subject and put then in 'real situations.' For example Snow White at the supermarket, Cinderella at the post office, Belle at the gym, etc. etc. This idea would be really interesting but the location may be problematic in trying to setup lights, unless I recreate small scenes in the studio.

3. location

So half of my photographs will be done inside a studio. I really want to utilize our shoot room but if I need a bigger space I may need to look into other places.

The other half of my photographs I want to do in different locations that I will research and photograph. Of course a lot of this may depend on my subject matter. Or maybe vice versa?

4. style

I am set on using great wardrobe and props. I will need to research prop places as well as costume rental places. I have some things at home that I can also utilize. As far as the overall style of the photograph, I want them to be quirky in a dark way. I love Recuenco's painterly style and so hopefully I can achieve that through some Photoshop studies.

_rich 'picture'

THEME. THEME. THEME. What is my theme? Here are some keywords I want to concentrate on that I've been reiterating over and over again.

light

fantastical

quirky

narrative

dark

painterly