This week we had a group review of the work we’ve all completed so far on this BIMM Brief project. I stayed up late last night to prepare the PowerPoint slides that would detail the progress from the day we found out the brief to the latest update.
As well as the review I also took the opportunity to process a roll of 35mm Portra 400 that I had shot in my M6 partly at the rehearsals and the rest on the streets of Shrewsbury.
So far the story goes thus: We received the brief, Brian went to meet our selected artist, then we visited BIMM to do a shoot of a rehearsal, before bringing them across to the Wolverhampton School Of Art photo studio.
Some of our other course mates have also been to their chosen artists live gigs or events to make images of them in action. Our collaborators Wooden Dog from BIMM are due for a gig on the 22nd March which you can read about here. Therefore my slide set would not include some of the content that will be needed for the final output.
First up was a reminder of the brief that Sam had given us and a list of four items we should be producing.
A bit of info about the band and an understanding of their music and influences.
A bit of info about meeting the artists at their university in Digbeth, the comms methods we were using and also a preliminary list of gear that I thought I’d use on the day.
I was unable to attend the first visit to BIMM as I was being subjected to an ISO9001 and ISO14001 audit at work.
The second time that Brian had met the band was my first time and we headed over to Digbeth to witness the band in their rehearsal rooms having a play through and arranging some of their original music. I was a bit nervous about doing this but managed to cope with it in the end and was happy with the shots that I picked up.
Some of the shots that I selected from this shoot, the colours are quite warm with the wooden tones coming through and the standard lighting set up.
I chose to change some over to Black and White and then sent these to the band, who came back and asked if they could have the same photos in colour. Discussions with the band about their aesthetic and why they prefer the colour shots meant that I would be reticent about producing further photos in black and white.
After the rehearsal rooms it was time to plan for the band to come to the studio at the Uni Of Wolves and capture some set up images of the group in a more controlled environment. The slide shows some of my ideas for the backgrounds that I had planned on projecting over the band whilst they were stood in the scoop. I mention that I had bought some white disposable overalls tat I planned to get the band to spray and then this could be a sort of uniform. After the initial shoot and discussions around colour photos and influences and styles etc I decided that I should not push this direction on the band as it wasn’t really their vibe.
I had carried out some research into the influences of the band, their Spotify playlists and the mood board that they had sent through before the shoot. The colours were all pretty similar to the wood warm tones of the rehearsal room photos so we had an idea of how to theme the photos for the studio session.
My idea to create a bit of a theme similar to a working mans club or front room meant that I would need some props so off I went looking for some items from charity shops and antique centres. I picked up the dominoes as these featured heavily in my growing up with people in the pubs my dad took me to partaking in this sport/game. I figured that a display of dominoes on the table might portray this atmosphere or the band could play with them. I’d also bought a board game, Operation, but decided to keep this away from the set as it was a bit boring. I’d taken the chance to print out some A3 size images using multi page printing to replicate other paintings that were kitsch and featured heavily in my childhood. A large wall clock would also be a welcome addition to the scene.
The day of the studio shoot arrived and we had a prepared set for the band to come in and move around as required, we played with the lighting and tried out different formats, positions and even lying on the floor looking up. I talked about the booking of the scoop and the equipment as well as some of the other steps needed.
This slide was about the editing and I used the actions that Sam had given us at the start of the Semester 1 to help with cleaning up areas of the photo that needed dirt and dust removal. The band had been happy with the overall shoot and were also happy with the outcome, in terms of the photos that they had been sent via wetransfer. I discussed the collaboration that we had in the studio too, with them asking for shots and set ups that they wanted to try. It was all good and I had no issues asking them to pose a certain way or move chairs etc.
This is one of the finished images after cleaning up the walls to remove the joins between the panels and tidy up the floor to remove the dirty marks. Dan made a point at this juncture to remind us that if we have an important shoot that we can always come in the day before and repaint the floor and walls of the scoop. I think that I would take this up next time as it would save hours in the editing software.
This second photo was selected due to the layout of the band in the scene, the drummer’s leg sticking out seemingly creating a triangular format to the shot. There is a bit of an issue with the editing in that I’ve been a little heavy handed and some artefacts can be seen, these are documented in the post: Semester 2 – Week 8: Editing
I’d chosen to do a shot with nothing on the walls behind the band, leaving plenty of room in the top of the framer text in the event they wanted to use it for another purpose such as an editorial in a magazine. The pure white background was needing a little clean up too but the white light was refreshing after the pink/yellow combination of the previous shots.
The last slide of the pack was an illustration of the future gigs that were coming up including the Soho gig detailed in this post. The gig for the BIMM Live is now on the 27th March so we’ll see how that pans out and it might appear in a future post.
When I asked for questions after the last slide, Dan shouted up that he had a couple of queries.
He asked why I had shot some photos in a certain way and why I’d framed it that way I had.
He asked about the moving of Luca in the white shirt to be in front of Ben, which was a purposeful move to balance up the photo so darker shirts were behind the lighter shirts. I hadn’t considered the added benefit of the fact that the white shirt might have blended into the background walls if it hadn’t been against the checked shirt of the drummer.
He also mentioned that that photo with Ben sticking his leg out was a good one and the balance of the shot worked well.
Dan also brought up the cropping of the mid length shot and we had a brief chat about where is the correct place to crop someone’s limbs. Turns out different people have different ideas?
Sam mentioned that I should be looking at linking the research on photographers that the band might like and seeing how they work as photographers in the music photography field. He says if I include a little more linking then it will help with the overall mark and I seem to have got most other things covered.
Other Reviews
Dani and Callum
- Asked for influences from Kitty Bella and was told Lola Young
- Fave artists
- Kamal, beabadoobee, Lola young
- Shot in the shop opposite the uni
- Used a leaopard print blanket, and newspaper on the board
Louise
- Luca Simian
- Mood. Beatles and Dylan, Steve Mcqueen, nick drake
- Dan pointed out that the one phot is backlit
Joel and Lilly
- Dear Lilly
- Show was one woman show, no movement and she didn’t open eyes much
- Pale shooting in the studio, light on walls behind,
- Comms really poor
Evie and grace
- Leah
- Studio photos on the black background and warm lighting
- Spent the day with the artists
- Use of balloons in the studio
- Couple of technical corrections
Courtney
- AJ
- Dark images, around serious subject matter
- Not able to make shoots all the time
- Silhouette and partial lighting
- Colour backdrop in the studio
- Pink eye makeup
Meg and Sophie
- Daisy Peacock
- Inspired musically by Taylor Swift
- Using pink backgrounds and mirrors
- Shot through some cardboard apertures
- Some feedback on framing
Not everybody did some feedback though for one reason or another. So I didn’t get to see the work of everyone in the group but what we did see I liked a lot.
Processing……..
Then once the review was over I went and warmed up the water and chemicals in the colour processing bath, ready from my roll of Portra 400.
I warmed up the chemistry in the box using the Cinestill Sous Vide and then whistle that was warming up I loaded the film into the Paterson tank in the loading room pitch dark.
Then it was time to check the temps and start the process. 39 degrees C, was the right temp and I used the normal process of developer, and then Blix (bleach/fix) returning both to their bottles after I’d used them. Then it was into the wash and lastly into the dryer. Once it was cooked for thirty minutes I took it down and placed it on the Lightbox in the studio area before cutting it into strips of 6 negatives and then banging it in the negative sleeve.
Once in the negative sleeve I moved to the Epson scanner to digitise it and see what I had on the film. It appears that I used the film in my M6 and took it to the BIMM to capture some photos of the band in rehearsal before spending the rest of the frames on a trip around the streets of Shrewsbury.
The photos were not great and not that well exposed but there were an ok couple of shots of the multi-storey car park in my hometown. I was ok with these and might scan them in using the DSLR scanning process at home to see if I can get them cleaner without the hair and dust that is inherent when using the university scanners.
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