This is It

So, this is my collection of research and some experimentations for my final major project. I hope that I  have managed to give an impression of what I am aiming to achieve, and the story and aesthetic that I am going to create.
Now, get a coffee and a cupcake and settle down to read.

0th

This is an image from an article about an artistic group called 0th, a collective of four female artists who work with performance art. I wanted to show this picture because of the set up of the shot and the props that are being used.

The article can be found on livewithanimals.org

Some fun illustrations

Like this

I drew this to explain what I mean when I say colour themes and details. Here there is a theme of green and brown, and the colours are shown through a green love-seat and a green tie in the model's outfit. 

A fox and a peacock

Leopards in Oxford

I wanted to experiment with collage and Photoshop so using the photos I had taken in Oxford and the Natural History Museum, I experimented with the size and layout of the collage, and the amount of collage in the image.

Portrait advice

I found this little snippet in the Stylist last week and thought it should be shared.

Greenaway snapshots

Here a few stills from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, to show the colour and the set:

Let Me In!

Mario Testino is a staple to the fashion photography world. His photographs are famous, and he works  with the biggest names, both in the fashion world and in the celebrity world. 
I discovered his book Let Me In! about two years ago and it is still brilliant to look through. Testino complied this book full of photographs from his personal archives of his celebrity friends. The photos were taken before or after fashion shoots, at backstage parties and in their homes. He captures these people in a way that shows that there is no barrier between them and the photographer, the mood is light, intimate and playful, and some wonderful images are produced. There is a freedom in the photographers that make them refreshing to look at, and you feel as though you are there in that moment.
Here are some examples:

Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway is a film maker who was recommended to me because of my interest in Wes Anderson's work. I chose to watch The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and within the first few minutes you can see the similarities between the two directors' work. Greenaway uses a rich colour pallet of crimson red, forest green, white and a cobalt blue in his restaurant scenes, which mixes with the magnificent set built up with huge paintings, long velvet curtains,  gold gilded picture frames and vases, and long white-table clothed dining tables. The thing that impressed me most about this film was the incredibly long shots that he films; they go on for minutes and take considerable discipline from the actors. The way the camera is positioned is another similarity between the two directors because they both use this 'chest' or 'head' height position and film with a sweeping shot. In this film Greenaway seems to use shots that stand back from the scene, so it could almost be a play on stage. Another point to note is that Jean Paul Gautier designed the costumes for this film, and the dresses that he puts Helen Mirren in are just stunning. One of my favourite parts of the film is where she is in the white bathroom and her dress and stockings are white, she then steps out into the red-walled corridor and her dress is red, her stockings and shoes black; it is seamless and one detail that is genius.


Here is the trailer for the film, which displays some of the colour themes and the position of the camera.

Story time and character development

After my chat with Sue I started to think about what my photos would be saying about the models in them, and what I would use to show their characters. I decided to take little details from the TV shows and films that they like and use them in my collage to give layers of information.
For example TV shows that they like, and regularly quote from, include Arrested Development and 30 Rock. They are huge fans of Wes Anderson films as well and enjoy all of his films that I have talked about before on this blog, and also The Fantastic Mr Fox. The details that I could use from these TV shows and films include:

Angus the peacock from 30 Rock

Mr Fox

The zebra print from Margot's room in The Royal Tenenbaums

Chat with Sue

Yesterday I had a talk with our tutor Sue Dray about my project and told her what I was planning to do. She suggested that I build up a story for my photographs based on the characters of my models.
We discussed taking inspiration from their jobs and starsigns to make little illustrations or deatils in my collage.
So for one of the models I would use a lion because he is a Leo, and a scorpion for another because he is a Scorpio.
One of the is a surgeon, and Sue suggested maybe using stitching as a detail on his clothes or to draw the figure to reflect this.
Very inspirational!

Styling

As a birthday present this year I was given a real Artic fox scarf. It is incredibly beautiful and I want to use it in the shoot.

I also have a pair of striped Ralph Lauren braces, a lot of expensive suits and shirts, hats, jumpers, some very nice shoes, waistcoats, jackets and ties. So lots to play with to make up outfits.

It's All About the Details!

As I have tried to show below in my research of other people's work, the details in the photos of my project are going to be a key part to it. The colours, props, styling and illustrations are going to be detailed down to the finest point.  Through these details I want to build a feeling to the photos, an aesthetic that will act as a hallmark to them.

Hotel Chevalier

This short, 13 minute, film is the prologue to The Darjeeling Limited. It is a lovely short film and builds the characters' stories. The colour ways are red and yellow. And with attention to detail, one of the pictures that I posted below from Darjeeling Limited shows Jason Schwartzman wearing a yellow bath robe with Hotel Chevalier written on the lapel, and later on in Darjeeling Limited Anderson shows a clip of Natalie Portman in the hotel.

Here it is (spoiler! contains nudity...young people look away now):

And here is a lovely detail from the film:

The Life Aquatic

The trailer for the film. You can see symmetry and the colour ways (blue, yellow and red).

And something I found on the etsy website. You can also get the Team Zissou Adidas trainers.

The Royal Tenenbaums

This is more research into the trends in Anderson's films. These are pieces from The Royal Tenenbaums.

First, colour. The colour theme in this film is a mix of pink, red and green. Which you can see in a majority of scenes, in the clothes, carpets, walls, and objects:

And here are examples of symmetry:

Check out the green Monopoly house acting as a light pull in this cupboard!

Here are examples of the styling in the film:

Etheline Tenenbaum's tan Hermes bag:

 Richie Tenenbaum is wearing a custom made Fila headband and wrist bands. And Margot is wearing a Fred Perry tennis dress.

In this film Anderson uses chapter headings and subtitles to help the audience understand the story. This attention to detail is something that makes Anderson's films unique.

And lastly, some great shots from the film: