Preparation for the Poster Ancillary Task

In prepartion for undertaken the task of making a poster for our short films, my media studies class had a visting photography instructor, Miss Williams, from the BRIT school. She begined to teach us everything we needed to know about the cameras we would be using, showing us its many uses and how they could be used to create certain effects. After teaching us all of the technological knowledge we needed to know, she began in teaching more theoritical thinking. Showing photographic examples of work done by established and amateurs photographers, photos which were centered around different themes, from celebrities to architecture. She encouraged us to develop micro to macro links in each photo, showing us that the knowledge we had gained through anaysis of film products, could also to some extent apply to photography products.

With this photo I angled it downwards towards her, whilst she laid curled up on the floor. Her being curled in this positions suggests she needs comfort, some form of release. The camera being positioned above from her just shows how she feels, feeling at 'rock bottom'. I had her dress in darkish blue and white clothing so that using Photoshop I could desaturate all the colour from her, without draining the background. Desaturating her is symbolic for her having no zest for life, just the desire to die. Luckily I noticed while editing that the grass was going brown in some areas, this I thought will enhance the theme of death. The patchiness of the grass between the colours brown and green indicates her grasp with life, she alive (green grass) but wants to die and leave the world (brown grass). The brown and green presents the diachotomy between life and death.

In this photo again I desaturated her colour for the same purpose. I placed her next to the tree, a tree being a metaphor for life and nature. This contrasting with her at the bottom of the floor. Her sitting at the bottom is showing her as young and venerable, someone who needs some help in order to grow. Also originally I had none of the concrete area present in this photo, but later decided to add it. As on one side you have the bountiful nature, exuberant with life. On the other side you have the concrete, artifical, lifeless area where there are no signs of nature. She is placed on the side of the nature, but absent of any colour, this is because although she may be living, she lusts for death. The photo symbolises her on the edge of life and death, at a crossroads, where she will have to make a decision.

With this photo I you the same Photoshop devices as the first one, desaturating her of colour. I had her curl uo again in this position, to again show her feeling desperate, sad and miserible. What I did differently was postion her in a different location from the other, instead of having a plain grass background, I positioned her in front of this bush. Having her body as grey and then a wall of green behind her, contrasting her lust for death with the bountiful colours of the world. The contrast shows her disinclosed from the world around her. Using Photoshop I increased the saturation of yellows and greens, trying to make more colour in the picture. But with the grass I wasn't able to, due to the small drought at the time the grass had lost all its colour. At first I was going to discard the photo but realised that the grass and the bush can be symbolic. The grass being pm one tier and the bush on another, again the grass acting as a reflecting to her 'rock bottom' self-estmee and the bush, ripe with colour as it rises from the ground. Although this was a interpretation I made of the photo when I had already finshed editing.

In all three of my photo's there are similar editing techniques used, but the element that makes them all different is the positioning of the character. Each location shows her in a different state, in all three she may be feeling in 'rock bottom' but photo 1 shows her in despair and helplesness. Photo 2 shows her in the early stages of hr life where she is faced with two options, one of which is more appealing to her then the other. And Photo 3 shows the contrast between the low depths of her misery and the tall colour-filled canopy that is life. I only wanted to mainly have one editing technique because I wanted to explore the power of how where you position your camera and character can lead to very different effects and interpretations.