Evaluation

The start of the year was a whirlwind. I enjoyed having tutorials with my tutors where we spoke about my weak points and my strong points, this gave me motivation to start this semester off as I meant to go on.

Your going to be making a fashion film this semester, shocked and scared this line echoed in my head all day. Directing, filming, designing and editing my own film? with 12 weeks to do it in? this seemed impossible. I enjoy watching films when I have spare time, which for the past few years has been rare so having this as a starting point for this unit has been great. I have enjoyed watching several of the movies we were directed to watch such as The Single Man, Psycho and Inception and I have not enjoyed some films such as 8 and 1/2 and Bladerunner. I also enjoyed re learning about films, something I had previously done but not enjoyed however this time around, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My concept for my film got off to a pretty dull start, I had many ideas swirling round my head I did not know which direction to take my film in and how to make fashion the main focus as such. I started to watch more films, visited the art gallery and watched some Fashion Films. I was introduced to Nick Knight, a legendary man who I am gutted to have not known about for this long, i saw his series ‘Colour Explosion’ where I finally got my idea, Colour Phycology. I re visited the art gallery to re look at the images i loved the first time around and started off researching how certain emotions are portrayed through the use of colour, such as red in horror films or red for love.

I then drew a blank, I didn’t know how to show this within a film so after watching some fashion films on SHOWstudio and other websites I came across a short fashion film about love, this inspired me to create a fashion film based on colour psychology but with a sub theme of the emotions during a relationship. I feel I have a great narrative/concept for my film and I was extremely happy to get this as such an early stage in my design process, I really have been opened to more mediums of research as the art gallery i visited in Southampton, even though it’s extremely small, this started what I feel has been a great, rewarding project. How I wanted to show my sub theme love within my film was the next task I had to tackle, I narrowed down emotions you feel when in a relationship to happy, excited, seductive, passionate, lustful, jealous, angry and sad and matched them with colours such as red, pink, green, black, yellow and orange.

I started to think where i could film and what I could film and I slowly but surely started to gain some research, I looked at romance genre, films, romantic filming locations and these all helped me build my storyboard. I’ve made the decision to move out of Southampton to film where possible visiting places such as Poole, Bournemouth and I have also done some scenes here in Southampton. I feel I have branched out of southampton as and where I can, however I do feel a little insecure knowing I have filmed in the park across from the university, i feel this will bring my location research mark down, however I feel strongly about utilising what we have and I really think the part of the park i filmed in, is beautiful which I think made my film scene look particularly nice. I did however, enjoy the adventure of leaving Southampton and filming in a new place which bought challenges, such as the weather. I have had to reflect on certain aspects of my film and change them according to problems such as the weather, locations not being available etc. These experiences have helped me learn and develop as not just a make up artist but as a director, producer, photographer and stylist.

One part of this project i instantly detested was the editing part, the thought of using yet another alien program which I had several weeks to learn how to use gave me nightmares. How wrong was I, premiere pro has been a great experience and I have really enjoyed learning tips and tricks from Ken but also teaching myself how to use this program, I would never have thought i would have enjoyed this aspect of the Make up and Hair Design course but I have to say, it has been one of my favourite classes so far along with Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn such skills and after helping other students with their editing process, I am considering mastering in this area of work upon leaving university, which i am shocked but excited about.

I feel I have used many more mediums of art this semester, films, TV, Books, Galleries, Fashion Films, Music Videos have all been apart of my work and designers such as Nick Knight, Alexander McQueen, Alberto Seveso, Mark Mawtom and  Gareth Pugh have helped me design a film I have enjoyed making and designing.

Getting more creative this year has boosted my confidence, I initially wanted to create a green smoke effect for one of my scenes, which I did not think was possible and then I heard about ‘Water Ink photography’ many students have done this, this year and I am glad I have had the chance to experience the fun behind the beautiful images. I researched different artists who had used this form of art in different ways, which was really interesting to see. This has helped me gain more photography names for my list I keep for research purposes, i am really happy with the final scenes I created on my own with water and Ink.

My Final film is something I am proud of, raw footage, captured, directed, styled, edited all by myself. 12 weeks worth of hard work crammed into two minutes. I am really really happy with my final outcome based on the fact I chose outdoor locations mainly, in the middle of winter with some of the worst weather we have had and I have managed to create a great representation of Love. I am however a little concerned. As I finished my film I took a step back to observe others films, mainly done in the studio with a very heavy fashion concept. My film has fashion in, my character is very hipster and grungy, her clothes referenced my concept of colour and emotion as well as locations and her make up. I do feel I could have done a more fashion/make up concept on colour psychology if I were to base my film in the studio and although I am pleased with my finals, I am glad I have been able to reflect on this as I don’t feel me having a new idea for my concept now is a bad thing, it means I have learnt from my experience and I now have the basis to extend my project in my own time!