Evaluations and final hand in day

Can you all make sure that all of your work is handed in next week, all sketchbooks need to be here. All blog work work needs to be finished as well.
All of the work for both units will be marked and graded over Easter. A final evaluation for photography and another seperate one will need to be done for the animation that you have done.
Check the tutor support website in order to make sure that you have read the assignment papers and produced work to meet all of the required criteria.

I have offered everyone the chance to gather any missing images over the last few weeks so everybody should have everything that they need to complete this course.

After the Easter break you will be working on your FMP projects as discussed with Lance, all time will be devoted to this after Easter and preparations should be made as regards you intended ideas as they need to be written into your proposals.

3 weeks left before Easter break

From now on on this course you have 3 weeks left to finish off any aspect of your work. That will include making sure that you have all completed making an animation video.
Also have you made sure that you have all completed your studio portraits and finished them in photoshop.

Then it will be the easter break, after which you will all be specializing in one area of your choice, photography, graphics or animation or a combination of these.
All of you have enough studio images that you have taken, so should be able to finish off your blogs regarding this work.

Also the studio photography that you have done will need finishing off in photoshop, we will do this on Thursday's sessions.

The arrival of spring theme we did for the last few sessions needs finishing off as well, again the triptych images will be layered together on a Thursday when we do the photoshop sessions as we did with the Hockney images.

Finishing off what is required is vital in order to pass this course and must be done, I will be going through with each of you on Thursday what you need to do in order to pass and finish this course and the work you are doing for me.

Today I want you to take images for any area that you feel you haven't done properly and then these images will be used in the Thursday class to finish in photoshop.

You all have to focus more on research to support what you are doing as this is to give you ideas and inspiration, if this isn't happening then the photography and animation work becomes difficult to understand.
Use today fully to concentrate and either do stop frame photography, animation images in order to help you finish these units properly before Easter.

Apple iPad Art Exhibition in London

David Hockney - Arrival of Spring

The 'arrival of spring' photography that we did on tuesday was in response to the work of David Hockney as we discussed. The exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts from January until April.

He worked on this project with paint, photography, ipads and video so you will need to look into these areas when you do your research.

The images that you took of '6 different  areas with 6 images' in each area will need to be placed alongside each other (in a similar way to his work and how its arranged within the exhibition).

Can you sort out sets of 6 images off the front computer and put them into photoshop, I will show you how to place the images together in a block of 6 within photoshop document.

The whole point of this is that is 'stop frame photography' in a series, the gap between each shot can vary in time, and as Hockney, did space the project out over different seasons. The stop frame photography that you have done has to include people in one form or another in some scale or size within the shots.

They may be positioned in one image or across the scene, or be walking across as the pictures are taken that would be a creative way to resolve this assignment.

If the weather is good we will go out as a large group to do some photography over the washlands as the most important aspect of this type of photography is that it is done in a creative way.
We may (if there are enough cameras) set up 6 cameras on tripods altogether in an area and do a large version to see if it will work on a larger scale.
With this you could end up with 6 stop frame movies all joined together depending on how complex you wanted to make your work.

Stop frame final cut editing

For this session can you get your images from the front computer and add these onto your desktop, then open final cut and import your images into the software.
Place only the images on the timeline that you need, you may choose to add an effect or alter the sound with music or audio effects of your choice or off the Internet.

The final cut video will then need to be exported and then uploaded onto your blogs, then you need to write about what you did, what kit you used to do it, how well did it go, what would you do differently next time to improve it.

Then when you have done that you need to be doing research of stop frame photography on YouTube and on the web. Then you need to write about what you like about each video that you have added onto your blog.

These videos will then give you ideas for your own versions that you need to do with the digital Canon 450d cameras.

Links for Stop Frame Photography

Now we are back after half term you are now doing a new assignment about Stop Frame Photography on location. This is where you will involve people and objects within a series of still photographic images that you take on a normal digital SLR camera.
The assignment paper is on this site in full and will explain what you need to do so please read it. The photographs that you take will need to have a clear theme and be shot entirely on location.

Plan and prepare where you intend to go, make sure that you have the right person or people with you to do the shoot, and above all put some thought into the objects, outfits and props that people will use and this will make all the difference to the final images and movie that you create.

Try to be creative with the locations and get them to fit the style and theme of your shoot, do them near your home or on a day out somewhere to make them as interesting and original as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwX7uEiEWx4&feature=related

plus look into music videos as there are many that have been shot in this format.

Design / Learning Cycle

                       

The research that you do fits the ‘Design Cycle Model’ this is a cyclic event where continual evaluation takes place.

You may start with the ‘Design Stage’ and plan what you wish to explore based on inspirations from your research. Then the idea will enter the ‘Development Stage’ where the whole concept, theme, resources and equipment required will be considered.

The ‘Implementation Stage’ is where the actual photography will take place in a practical way. And the ‘Analysis Stage’ is where you can reflect back on how well the outcome has met the initial thoughts and ideas.

All the way through all of these stages you will be continually evaluating how well your project is evolving. This takes the form of a reflective process where you will consider what went well, what you think needs improving and what you would do differently next time. 

The areas identified can then be rectified, and so you will go round the cycle again repeating the same process hopefully in an upward spiral raising the level of your work each time.

You are also expected to compare your work against that of your research to see how well you have done and to help you final evaluate your work.

The whole point of research is to examine the images of photographers who are renowned in their own particular field or genre. The analysis or deconstruction of these images is very valuable and will enable you to add value to your own work.

The main key words you can use to identify the value from the photographs are;

Composition, Colour, Shapes, Patterns, Lines, Tonal Range, Frames, Rule of thirds, Texture, Form, Focal Point, Perspective, Scale,  Denotation, Connotation, (literal and implied meanings).