Task One
Thinking/Creating
30/09/13 Our first brief was to create a long portrait of ourselves which raises questions on what is going on in the image. It has to be 1 minute long and one single shot with no sound or music or text. We need to pay attention to detail and really think through the idea we have. When this brief was first handed out I was a bit apprehensive as being in front of a camera is not something I am most fond of. Having said this, as I read more through the brief and Pete showed us examples of some long portraits, I realised this would be quite a fun and exciting first task. I then came up with a few ideas that I tried to tailer specifically to the things that I like or dislike, these ideas were:
- Me infront of a camera with a white background, from the shoulders up. I would be looking down through most of the video and the viewer would not be able to see what I was doing but would know I was writing/drawing something. Then, towards the end of the video, I would hold up a picture of myself and place it in front of my face, this picture would be the version I see of myself. This would play on self confidence issues as I have a feeling my drawing of myself would be very different to the actual me.
- The next idea I had would be to do something that I love, this was inspired by the David Beckham asleep video, as sleep is something I definitely love doing. I thought I could either sit with headphones in and just chill out to some music or I could eat my favourite food in front of the camera. This piece would focus on emotions and how different simple things can make us happy.
- I toyed around briefly with the idea of wearing a lot of jumpers and gradually taking one off as the video progressed so I ended up in just a bra. This would be a more personal video for me as it would express how I cover up to try and hide the real me? I think this particular theme would take a lot of confidence for me to pull off.
- The fourth idea I had was inspired by the long portrait of Debauchette. She raised a lot of issues in this video of sexism and identity and this is something that I would like to put my own spin on. I had the idea of me starting out in a video, set out much like that one, but I would have a face full of heavy make-up, with my hair done up as if going somewhere special, there would be quite fancy things around me like expensive wallpaper and maybe a posh mirror. As the video went on I would gradually wipe away the make-up and undo my hair. Once this was complete, the mirror would be taken off the wall by a man dressed in black, and the wallpaper would be removed to reveal a blank, bare space. I feel this video is the strongest of the four and would be quite effective. For me, it would symbolise the pressure on women to be the “perfect girl” with the rich and fabulous lifestyle and it would also show that when women do achieve the “perfect girl” look it is all a facade and underneath is a normal human being, who has issues just like the rest of the world.
My next step is to look at each of these ideas more closely and pick one that I like the best. I will then look in more detail on making the video and booking equipment and maybe a studio. I will also look at the links given to us on the brief to give me more inspiration. I went to Pete to ask some advice on my ideas and see which one he thought was the strongest. He liked the 4th idea the best, as did I. This is the one I will now concentrate on. Tomorrow I will search for inspiration online to give me some more ideas on how I can make this video visually stronger.
Planning/Research
01/10/13 I had a look at some of the second years work from last year to see what kind of thing they had produced. I copied the URL’s to the ones I felt had more connection with my own theme: https://vimeo.com/groups/cinecollective/videos/50766835 – Paige Thomas. 
I liked this piece because it is very similar to the point I am trying to get across, with the heavy make-up and the drast contrast between that and the natural face. https://vimeo.com/groups/cinecollective/videos/54451246 – Chelsea Ballaam 
This shows a girl with a natural face, who gradually ends up fully made over. This is basically the video I will be creating but in reverse order. It is good to see how it may look as an end product. https://vimeo.com/groups/cinecollective/videos/50931104 – Ashleigh Hodgson 
This was done in a similar way to the first video, but this shows the two sides of the face for longer, so we can compare them easier. I think I prefer the narrative to this story, but prefer the visuals to Paige Thomas’ piece. https://vimeo.com/groups/cinecollective/videos/50935307– Joshua Farmer 
I liked Joshua Farmer’s video mostly because the more you look at it the easier it is to see the zombie-esk image. I think this idea worked perfectly for the long portrait task, but felt he should have opened his eyes more suddenly and more towards the end. I like how this shows two completely different images and two completely different people, which is something I am aiming to create in my own video. I also looked at some others on Vimeo, the hair whip one has the lighting perfect, this is how I want my lighting to look. https://vimeo.com/24938204 – hair-whip heartbreak https://vimeo.com/24938204 – Reconnoitre
Background research:
http://ffffound.com/image/fc150efb190cc0ec11fcc80b36e7d2c90d475137?c=4513256 Perfect for imagery I want to create!!!!!!!! I found this image whilst I was looking into Debauchette online. 
Recreating this image…. Will keep the image tight on the patterned background and when all make-up is removed and hair is down, will zoom out to reveal a not so perfect image. Now I just need to find some fabric and find a decent location to film in. After thinking this through I have decided to film it in my home. We have a spare room downstairs with black out curtains, I can attach some fabric to these, pull them really tight so there are no kinks and use this as my background. I will book out Dedo lights to add more depth and meaning, creating shadows and highlights.
Shooting
2/10/13 Once I had planned the video out, I decided to film it as early as possible. That way if something went terribly wrong I would have time to re-shoot it. The filming process went fine. I used the spare room in my own home as it was spacious and had the backdrop I needed. Long Portrait, Final
Daisy Spivey Year 2 