Twin Screen Final Edit

After the previous edits of my two screens individually I was really pleased with the outcome of both and was ready to edit them together. I transferred each edited side into Adobe Premiere Pro so I could edit the length of each clip as it was easier to do in that software.

I then downloaded the twin screen template from myUCA so I was able to put my footage into it and watch it side by side.

I had already made sure the backgrounds matched so when I put the two clips side by side they would blend well together and show a good relationship. 

I decided I was happy with the footage and rendered it all together as a twin screen. 

I am really pleased with the outcome of my twin screen. My concept was to show the way we are obsessed with digital technology, and how the use of phones specifically is taking over our lives. The left side is to show how we live through our phones, and how it can be messing with us as humans. The right side is to show pure memories but how we are now distorting future memories as we live behind technology rather than in the moment. 

Final Edit of Left Screen

Final Edit of Right Screen

Final Edit of Twin Screen

Twin Screen - Right Screen Development

For the right side of my twin screen I want to have an iPhone to follow with the theme of the left side. I want to play footage of my younger memories on the iPhone screen to suggest how we now live our lives through out phones, and even all our memories are trapped inside the digital world.

I used the draw tool again to mask out the screen of the iPhone so that I could make the clips play within the screen. I chose four clips and cropped them down so I could feature them all and they wouldn't go on for too long. The screenshot shows how I intended the screen to look.

When I looked back over this edit I decided that maybe I should glitch the clips so it has a relation to the left side. This would really bring the twin screen together and show a relationship between the two sides. 

Edit 2

The clip above shows the second edit I created for the right side of the twin screen. I added the same stock footage glitch and followed the same steps to create this glitch look that matches the left side. However, there were a few problems with this edit. Firstly I didn't line up all the clips correctly, so sometimes there are edges that don't align with one another, which makes it look really unfinished. I also didn't think the colours were dark enough.

I also realised that the glitch was only working right in the centre of the video, which meant not all of the footage was being affected. This was something I really needed to go back and change.

Edit 3

This edit seemed to be pretty close to a final cut. The colours were better throughout the footage and I managed to change the glitch to get it to affect the entire footage. However, on the last clip for some reason the footage didn't align properly, meaning some of the glitch appeared over the iPhone, which was irritating. 

Final Edit

In my final edit I decided to remove the moving glitch as I thought it distracted from the footage too much, and the colour glitch was enough to show the relationship. My thought process behind this was that on the left screen the idea is to demonstrate how technology is messing with us as humans, whereas the memories shown on the phone on the right screen are pure, of a time when we weren't so obsessed with the digital world.

Twin Screen - Left Screen Development

After looking over my first attempt at creating my left screen I reconsidered how I wanted to make it, thinking about what else I could put inside the iPhone screen.

I came up with the idea of putting my face inside the screen also, to match up with the background footage, but glitching it so it played differently.

The screenshot above shows the pre-composition I made after I was happy with the edit I had created. I placed the iPhone on top of the footage and use the draw tool to cut out the screen in order to be able to place footage 'inside' it. I then added the same footage, but zoomed it in to fit the screen and match up with the background, just showing my face inside  the phone. 

This screenshot shows how I created the glitch. I downloaded some copyright free footage of a glitching screen to use for the moving glitch. With the footage I created an adjustment layer and added the preset effect displacement map onto it, this then made the glitch appear through my footage. 

I then added the 'set channels' so I could play around with the colours emitted through each channel of the footage. This is how I created the coloured footage. I then just moved them around so they weren't displayed perfectly on top of each other which allowed each individual colour to be seen. This also worked well with the glitch. 

This is the free stock footage I used:

Here is what I created:

The idea behind it is that we live through our mobile phones, which is why I wanted to have my face seen on the phone screen, glitching as if it is being affected.

I am really pleased with how this screen edit came out and I want to use it in my final twin screen. I will need to edit it further for the final twin screen as I need to make it loop for the duration of my final piece and cut off the ending slightly.

Twin Screen - Left Screen Idea

For the left side of my twin screen, my idea is to have footage of my face, not moving just blinking and still, then I want to put an iPhone over my face to symbolise how we live through our phones, and that we are becoming obsessed with technology. 
On the iPhone I will have a slide to unlock background, as if you would be unlocking me and gaining access to my life.

I decided to try out this idea by filming myself, and the screen of my iPhone and then going onto Adobe After Effects to put the footage together. 

This was my first attempt at creating footage for the left side of the twin screen. Although it's not perfect I was pretty pleased with myself as I remembered the effects we had learnt in one of our workshops to create an alpha matte, which allowed me to cut out the section that I wanted and put the iPhone screen on my face. 

The clip is only 10 seconds long but I would have it looping on the left side for the duration, as it would be the simplistic link to what would be going on on the other side.

For the right side I want to just have an iPhone, and create moving footage on the screen, another thing I will have to do using an alpha matte so I can cut out the section I want and just place the moving footage inside that area. 

Multi Screen Idea Development

After creating my experimental film, I began to think about what route I want to take with my twin screen, incorporating this idea of glitching footage. 

Thinking about the relationship between humans and the digital world, I want to try and visually express this idea that we live through our phones, not really living in the moment anymore. We are constantly updating our status with elements of our daily lives, rather than calling someone on the phone to tell them about what we've been doing. It is much easier to text your friend than arrange to see them for an actual conversation, which is worrying to me.

I also wanted to think about technology can be seen as something evil, something that can mess with us and potentially ruin our lives. This lead me to think about an increase in horror films using technology to develop their storylines, showing it as something dangerous that can bring threats to humans. 

Unfriended (2015)

Six high school friends with a dark secret receive a Skype message from a classmate who committed suicide a year ago after someone uploaded a video of her online.

The footage of this film is mostly seen through what is a laptop screen, featuring Skype calls and showing other elements of social media, with an anonymous profile terrorising the friends. This demonstrates the dangers of social media and not knowing who you might be talking to, or who can get hold of your information and data online. This was interesting to me as it shows technology as a threat to people, rather than something positive.

Hacked (2016)

Creepy found- footage horror about a grad student whose research into video chat culture quickly takes a dark and unsettling turn.

This film is another film that uses the features of technology to portray the storyline. With most of the film being shown as if on a chat room, it shows how people might be hacking into our webcams and watching everything we do, recording footage of ourselves to use against us. Once again it portrays a negative relationship between the digital world and humans, something I want to explore further.

Multi Screen Initial Ideas

For the final project within the Portraits module, we have to create a multi screen film showing how well we can use Adobe After Effects, as we have been having weekly workshops with Phil to learn some skills.

The theme of the project is to explore the relationship between the human body and the digital world. This can be interpreted however we like.

Initially I started by thinking about the hold the digital world has on us, and how the younger generations today are becoming totally reliant on the use of technology, as they haven't grown up without the most advanced versions of the internet, phones etc. 
I looked at some recent news articles discussing this idea and similar ideas, proving that it seems to be a very relevant and recent concern in the media.

Are Young People Addicted To Digital Technology? (2017)
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/young-people-addicted-digital-technology-12961456

This article discusses the increasing concern for the young people of today who are obsessed with the use of digital devices. The concern of the development of social skills because of children constantly being online. Another concern being that excessive use of digital technology can disturb sleep, affect concentration and disrupt school work.

This article was particularly interesting to be me because it was discussing a lot of the things I was thinking about already, how people are becoming addicted to technology and not living in the real world, interacting with people in social situations or having actual conversations. This is something I could develop into an idea visually, thinking about the control of the digital world on humans. 

Social Media Safety: Protecting Yourself And Others From Online Predators (2017)
http://www.upmatters.com/news/local-news/social-media-safety-protecting-yourself-and-others-from-online-predators/704067766

Discussing how modern technology and social media apps have become a regular part of everyday life. The importance of keeping yourself safe online if you are a regular user. Encouraging parents to teach young people about being safe online.

From this article I began to think about the need for safety talks and measures regarding the online community, thinking about how young people don't necessarily worry about who they might be talking to or who they are sharing things with.

Generally I want to explore ideas of humans being totally obsessed with technology, making it a regular part of everyday life to be checking your phone or updating your status. I think I could make an interesting twin screen exploring these ideas as it would demonstrate a clear interpretation of the relationship between humans and the digital world. 

Presentation of Portraits Project

I have decided that I want to present my photographs for the portraits project using bulldog clips, as I think it looks simple yet effective.
I only have three images and I think that hanging them together with the clips will keep the attention on the images.

I looked at some images on google for examples of this and found the two images above. The second image is more of what I'm going for, as I want my images to be hung in a straight line, however I don't mind if this is landscape or portrait.

I also read on some forums about how to present work for an exhibition, and lots of people spoke positively about this method.

As my images are printed in A4, I think this method suits them better than mounting them on foam board, as it gives them a more delicate feel for their size.

Portrait title: Intimacy

Artist Statement: My concept for this portraits project was to explore the unconventional ideas of intimacy, similar to artists such as Emily Knecht and Nan Goldin. Focusing on the skin and having the photographs taken on a bed, I feel like this series captures a new look at what the word ‘intimate’ can express but also shows how portraiture doesn’t have to be of the face to capture a personal photograph.

Photoshop Manipulation

Since I had chosen my final images it was time to play around with them in photoshop to see if I could manipulate them in any way to improve them.

I was influenced a lot by Nan Goldin and after looking at her photographs I realised that they're very gritty and have good colouration to them. I really wanted to try and adjust the colours slightly in Photoshop, whilst also messing around with other features and seeing what I could create.

Brightness

The first thing I thought to adjust would be the brightness of the image. This didn't really work that much however because of the lighting I had used in my room, it made the image appear very over saturated and I didn't really like the outcome.

Levels

Levels

Messing around with the levels was really interesting as it made certain parts of the image appear really dark and shadowy, whilst not really affecting others. I really liked the outcome of the second image, however once again I thought about printing and how it might appear too dark for the viewer. Also, because this image was taken with a different composition to the others I couldn't achieve the same effect on all of them, and I didn't want them to look very different as they wouldn't match as a series.

Exposure

Playing with the exposure was very self explanatory. It just made the images too dark and I didn't really like the outcome.

Auto Colour

Applying the auto colour feature had potential, however it made the images appear really blue, harsh and almost cold. As I was thinking about intimacy I preferred a warmer look to the image so I didn't want to make the skin look really washed out and harsh.

Colour Balance

Colour Balance

Adjusting the colour balance was the best manipulation I chose to do. I started off really extreme and put the cyen tones right down to -100, which made the image too blue as you can see in the top image. However, once I adjusted this to -50 I was really pleased with how it made the images look. It kept a warmth to the photographs, but also looked very Nan Goldin inspired, with the tones being more warm but all matching with an underlying colour match. I was really pleased with how this turned out and chose to apply this effect to my final three images.

Final Images

Finn / 9:49pm

Self Portrait / 9:32pm

Intimacy / 10:02pm

Shoot 3 / Final Images

From doing some artist research on Nan Goldin, I decided I wanted to take a very candid approach to the series, still including this idea of intimacy. I went back and looked over the work of Kiele Twarowski, because she was one of the first artists to really inspire me for this project. Combining the ideas of these two artists I realised I want to capture the unconventional side of intimacy, with the portraits being of the body. However, to make it interesting I wanted to include the aspect of a mirror, as I really liked the piece of work I saw by Kiele Twarowski where she used a mirror to take a photograph of her body.

I wanted to use interesting and somewhat darker lighting in my photographs, inspired by Nan Goldin, as they would be taken in my bedroom and darker lighting is more suggestive. This meant I had to take some test shots to make sure I had my camera settings correct in order to get good exposures.

Annoyingly I didn't write down the settings I had my camera set to for each of these test shots. Although I really liked the darkness and tones of the first image, I thought logically about how it might turn out when printed and decided it probably wasn't the best idea to have such dark images.

Once I had the settings correct I proceeded to do the shoot, and came out with three images I liked the best for my series:

Self Portrait / 9:32pm

Finn / 9:49pm

Intimacy / 10:02pm

I'm actually really pleased with my final images. I took a lot of photos for this shoot but these were my three favourites. I really like the effect of the mirror, because it almost makes it seem like you're getting an inside look, almost secretly. I think these images are intimate, but not in a sexual way, which was what I was trying to achieve.

I didn't want to just include myself in my photographs and I also wanted to make my images have a different, more interesting element than just simply taking them of the skin, which is why I thought it would be interesting to play around with the mirror. 

I chose to take the photographs on the bed because I liked how you could play around with the sheets and bunch them up to create a more candid look.

Nan Goldin - Artist Research

I have always found myself looking at the work of Nan Goldin, whether that be for a project specifically or just because her work intrigues me. I love almost all of the photographs I've seen of her work, as I think it's really raw and I love her candid style.

In relation to my project, the work of Nan Goldin really inspires me because she loves to take candid photographs of the people around her, capturing very real moments in their lives and in hers. She also takes a lot of self portraits, and very unconventional portraits of her friends.

I have looked at her book 'The Other Side' before and I love the style in which she took those photographs. It features all images of Drag Queens and the lifestyles they lived at the time, showing their most intimate moments in their lives. The people that Goldin worked with said they were extremely fond of the way she portrayed them, almost innocently, rather than just exploiting their lifestyles for her own gain.

Self-Portrait in Blue Bathroom, London, 1980

This particular photograph really stood out to me as it is a really unconventional way to take a self-portrait. Although you can't really see the person in the photograph, you can notice them in the mirror and there is a lot of focus on the location of that person, which makes the photograph really interesting in my opinion. I really love the bright colour of the blue walls and the cut of the bath that just makes it into the frame, it makes the image really interesting.

Nan and Brian in bed, 1983

This is another photograph by Nan Goldin that I really love, because I think it does well in capturing the relationship between the two people, whist giving off a feeling of intimacy because we are looking into their private life. I also really love the lighting and colours in this photograph as the natural light reflects on the walls, really bringing out the yellow tones.

Untitled, Boston, 1990

There were so many images of Nan Goldin's work that I wanted to show, however this particular photograph stood out to me, so I wanted to include it. 

Something about this image really interests me, maybe it's that you can't clearly see the persons face, but it still looks like a portrait in some way. I really love the lighting in this photograph as I think it brings something different to the composition, almost splitting it in half. It keeps the image interesting that we can't make out the persons face, but you can tell that they feel comfortable around Nan, as they seem pretty calm and relaxed.

I really think that the work of Nan Goldin is beautiful, even though it shows a gritty and not so glamorous lifestyle. The ideas behind each image are really personal to her, and capturing all her memories in a candid way is really beautiful, something I do myself with my friends and family too.

I want to look into her style further and let it influence my shoots, hoping something positive will come from it and I will be happy with the outcome of my images. 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/nan-goldin/

http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/34062/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-nan-goldin

Shoot 2

I went into my second shoot just thinking about all the artists I'd looked at, and with an idea of testing out some different compositions for my photographs. I had to set the camera up on the bed beside me, and as I couldn't really see the framing that well, as I was taking pictures of myself, I sort of had to guess what I would end up capturing.

Ribs

This photo above is probably my favourite out of these three. I really like it because it captures the curves of my ribs and the shadows on my skin from the lighting. I'm not too fond of the background as it has a lot of different things in it, whereas I'd prefer to just have a plain wall so you aren't distracted from the main focus.

Face

I really like how close up I managed to get this image, and because of the flash it made my face really show up, showing all the marks and blemishes on my skin. I like it, but I don't at the same time. I think it makes the photo rather intrusive because it's so close up, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I don't really like the composition of this photo, and I wish I could relate it more to the example of Nan Goldin's work where she takes an image of a face but has the shadow of the camera over it.

Back

I like this photo because it just captures the skin really nicely. I would have preferred to have been lying on a white sheet because then it wouldn't make the image appear so dark, however because of the dark sheets it does make my skin stand out and makes it more clear.

These were the three best photos from the shoot, but even still I don't really like how they turned out. I am planning on doing another shoot with me and another person so that I can have some variation in the images.

Tutorial with Leah to discuss ideas

Today I sat down with Leah to have a discussion about my ideas for the portrait project so far.
I discussed how I want my idea to be thinking about intimacy and the identity of the body. I showed Leah the first shoot I've done, which was literally a look at skin and a focus on close up images. This shoot was purely to think about the idea of skin as a mean of identity and the markings that are individual to us.

We discussed how it is a good shoot to start with, but now I need to further progress to take more images that will fit in a series, thinking about the idea of identity entirely. I want to go back and look at my artist research, maybe look at some new artists and do some planning for my next shoots which will hopefully bring my project together.

Leah suggested to look at artist Corinne Day, who has taken a lot of unconventional portraits that reveal a lot of skin, but look very intimate as they are not so polished and perfect.

photography by Corinne Day

photography by Corinne Day

I also feel to look at the work of Nan Goldin, thinking about the idea of gritty images and the way she composes her photographs.

From this tutorial I want to go away and look at these two artists, also review the other inspirations I've looked at in the past, and do a few more shoots to hopefully take some final images I am happy with.

Initial Shoot

For my initial shoot for this project I decided to take inspiration from all the artists I've looked at, and focus on capturing skin. I took a few pictures and I'm generally quite pleased with the outcome and how they look, although I think I can come a long way before I think about what I want my final images to look like.

Primarily for this shoot I focused on extreme close ups and capturing skin on skin. I really like the ECU's of just skin, with not much else in the background and I really like the way it appears. 

I also took some photos of my hair, which was really interesting under the light. I just used the lighting in my bedroom, and had the flash on for some of the extreme close up's to capture the pigment of the skin. 

My progression from this shoot will be to look at taking pictures of skin under different lighting and maybe the use of gels?

I also want to go back and review some of the artists I looked at first and see what other inspiration I can take from their images and how I can incorporate it into my own idea of identity, thinking about intimacy.