Final images

I think my images work well together, the repetition of harsh tones and dramatic lighting create a well flowing sequence. Individually though I don't think all of the images are strong because of individual reasons of their own. As a series I think these images represent the 'Spying', 'Thriller' story that I had in mind. In terms of the story being told I think I could have shown this clearer by using the same time frame between each event in each image for example the time frame between images 3 and 4 is almost instantaneous but the time frame of the events between images 13 and 14 would have lasted longer. I haven't kept a mutual time gap between each image, some of the images seem to 'skip' and event before arriving at the next one. I will ask someone who I haven't told my story to, to look at this series of images and tell me what they think the story is, if they tell me a story similar to the one I was trying to represent then I will know if this series of images have gone to plan. 

Final images before and after edit

For this image I draw the 'tattoo' on the man's hand. The purpose of the tattoo is for the viewer to be able to identify the man throughout the series of images as his hand will be the most visible part of him throughout. I decided to write 'GAME' on the right knuckle and 'OVER' on the left, I was influenced to do this by a guy I met when I was out in a club. This guy was a cage fighter and had quite a temper, he wouldn't let anybody else take control of any situation, he seemed like a strong minded character and someone who you wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of. This guy had 'GAME' and 'OVER' on his knuckles, this stuck out to me and the time as I thought it was the perfect tattoo to visibly portray elements of his personality. I wanted the man in my images to have the same characteristics as the guy I met in the club so thought the tattoo would enhance this. The tattoo has two purposes, one being it showed the kind of character I wanted the man to be and two, the first time we see the man in my series is through his hand being shown on this image. The first encounter of him shows his 'GAME' knuckle and the last encounter we have with the man shows his 'OVER' knuckle. I thought the 'game over' message fit in well with my story line because in the beginning the man's 'game' was going well when all his plans were coming together but at the end, the 'game' is over for him. I think this photo as an individual is strong because it's clear to understand what's happening and the composition frames the image in a way for the 'GAME' to stand out as well as make the viewer look through the window to try and find what the character in the photo is looking at (in this case the girl is what the man in the photo is looking at even though it's not too clear), this takes the viewer in, it gives the viewer an interactive sense to the image which gives them a personal connection as well as gives then the role of, in this case, 'The man'.

This is one of my Sophie Calle inspired images, it's showing the man's view of the girl, she isn't aware that she's being followed. I made the lighting around the girl more dramatic to make her stand out and show that this is where the attention of the viewer is supposed to go. I like this photo, I think it works well both in colour and black and white but think for the colour one to have a bigger impact then the lighting would need to be made more striking to make the girl stand out more from the houses in front of her.

I think this image is very strong, once again both in colour and black and white because of the way the girl's silhouette is highlighted by the street light, I think it frames her perfectly which makes her the focus in the image. Even though most of the light is on the top of this image I think it's a well balanced photo because of the grey line running from the car on the right to the bottom of the image.

This image shows that the man has stopped following her, it suggests he was thinking about going ahead with the kidnap here but changed his mind for now. We can tell the man has stopped or at least slowed down with the following because in this image there is more distance between the two people. Once again this photo is taken from the man's eye view. I like this image but I don't think it's as strong as the first two Sophie Calle inspired ones because the bottom half of the image seems very bare making the upper part look top heavy, this makes it look off balance. With the girl being so small because of how far she is from the camera, she is almost hidden away in the details of the house so I enhanced the lighting which surrounds the girl to make her stand out more.

This photo is taken from the man's view, he can see his own shadow and a compilation of images that he has gathered of the young girl. This image is very strong in my opinion because of the creepy set-up. The motionless shadow of the man just stares at the images, it makes the viewer think what must be going through his head at this time.

This photo is a view from the man looking at the young girls door, he is wondering whether or not to knock. I think the angle makes it seem as though the man is looking at the door handle region which enhances the idea of anticipation on his behalf. As you can see I've manipulated the original image on the left a lot to get the result on the right, I did this to make the door look like the initial image that I was given which was of a door. Even though this image lacks detail, I think it's very interesting, it tells a story on it's own. The image suggests something is about to happen without it visually happening.

Once again from the man's view, this image shows that the man has knocked on the young girls door, she doesn't look happy to see anyone at her door but she's not showing any signs of fear or shock either. I edited the image on the left to get the image on the right to look at though she was exiting through the door which we saw in the initial image at the very start of my narrative sequence, I achieved this by cropping the top of the image to hide the detail on the top of the door and removing the middle lines of the two shaped sections towards the top of the image. The lighting in the image on the right suggests a calm atmosphere because of it's smooth tones and pale lighting.

The reaction of the girl in this image shows slight fear, she's backing away from the camera which is taking role of the man and she's putting her hand out to protect herself or to attempt to restrain the man. I wanted the lighting to reflect the events to I made this image darker to suggest not only that the girl is in danger but also to show the approaching man, he is stopping some of the light from getting to her. I had a hard time editing this image to make the door resemble that initial image because I couldn't work out how to draw the angle of the horizontal line that should be near the bottom of the image on the door so instead I made the bottom of the door darker in hope that the detail-less door wouldn't be noticed. I don't think this image is strong at all as an individual photo because of the dull but dark tone, feeble reaction of the girl and badly edited door.

I took quite a large jump from the image before this to get to this one because I wanted the viewer to decide how the man ties her up, this allows the story to be personal to everyone but still follow the path I want it to follow. Once again this is the man's view, he is stood looking at the young girl while she sits helplessly in the chair. This image is where we get he first hint of why the man wanted to capture the girl, there's a romantic feel with the candles and flower. I think this image works better in black and white because the coloured image is very much bottom heavy where as the black and white one is more balanced because of the white bricks in the background on the left and the young girl's pale face and hands.

I think this is a very strong image both in colour and black and white although I do prefer the black and white one because I think it suits the 'horror' theme more and allows the tones to take control to emphasize the drama whereas tones on the coloured image have less impact because of the colour itself. I like everything about this image from the girl's reaction, the composition and balance, the tones, lighting and even the glossiness of her eyes, I think it all comes together to produce something that has a realistic and horror like quality.

This is the first image we see that is taken from the young girl's view as apposed to all of the previous images which were taken from the man's view. In this photo the girl is watching the man leave, the fact that the man is entering into light suggests hope for the girl, this image is building up to her escape. I included the man's shadow on the door for entertainment purposes, without the shadow the photo looked very plain, basic and boring. I very much like both of these images but prefer the black and white one because of the dark framing around the edge and the dramatic contrast of tones between the surroundings and the silhouette with the light source in the center.

This is the second image taken from the girl's view, it's showing her view of looking down at her tied hands, she is thinking of a way to release them. The opened left hand in this image contrast with the earlier on clenched fists she had in the previous images where her hands are shown, this shows that the girl is more relaxed now and is thinking of how to break free. Like many of the photos I prefer the black and white one because it has no colour to take away the dramatic tones or grab attention in unwanted places like the bright pink candles on the image on the left.

This is the last photo taken by me in this series, it's also the last image taken from the girl's view. The girl is crouching down looking at the 'appearing to be lifeless' man's body. We can see the tattoo on his hand says 'OVER' to suggest the ordeal for both characters is over. It is up to the viewer to decide whether or not the man is alive and it's also up to them how the girl escaped and what she has done to the man. I really like the texture of the floor in both of these photos but think the black and white one stands out more because of the highlighted tones within the small cracks.

One particular image

One of my images shows the man staring at a wall full that he has created of a compilation of photos of the young girl that he is later on planning to 'capture'. This particular image has images within an image. The images which will be on the wall of the young girl are photos which I will get off her facebook page to make it look like the man has got them off her facebook page. My initial idea for the wall image was to have it as though the man had taken secret photos of the girl whilst she's been doing her everyday things but I realised with technology these days then gathering the images off facebook would probably be the most likely source for him.

The image above is the photo I took with the images of the young girl inside of it. I chose the images of the girl carefully, I made sure I chose ones which held clear information as to who was being portrayed so they could be clearly seen from the angle and distance I had in mind. I chose some photos which had more than one person on, the young girl and a friend for example because I thought by folding away the other person and just leaving the young girl in view would highlight the fact that to the man, the young girl was the main character.

Feedback

I didn't enter my first feedback session with much confidence because I thought the reactions to my idea would have been negative as my idea can be seen as silly, very literal and unrealistic but I believe I have the ability to create images which don't hold these characteristics whilst still capturing what I have in mind, my challenge was to get this message across to my peers and tutors.

The idea I went into the feedback session with was basically a man kidnapps the young girl who lives in the apartment across from him and locks her inside his house in an old, worn out room then after a few days she finally escapes but I was made to realise by my peers and tutors that if the young girl had been away from society for a 'few days' then people would have become suspicious and realised she was missing therefore disrupting my narrative so as a group we came up with the idea that the young girl is captured for just a few hours and forced into a 'date' like situation with a 'romantic' setting, this way my story shows that the man had a reason to capture the young girl and it makes it a more likely story.

I re-drew some draft images so I had a final set of drawn photos of which I could use to plan and capture my real final photo series.

Initial drawings

I drew out what I wanted each of my images to look like to make it easier to capture with the camera on the day. I wanted to know where everything needed to be and what lighting I wanted to use before the day of the shoot.

The images above show my first rough sketches of how I wanted my sequence of final images to look. Even though this page looks unreadable and messy, I don't find this technique of recording ideas difficult to understand but for the benefit of my tutors and fellow peers I decided to draw out neater, cleaer versions of these sketches to present and gain feedback on in the feedback session.

Research - 'Sophie Calle'

I've looked at Sophie Calle's work before so have confident enough idea of how she portrays certain images. The images i've been interested in are the ones of when she follows strangers secretly taking their photo from behind. I wanted to look at these more closely as some of the photos I have in mind of taking are of someone being followed without them knowing. My images are going to be in black and white because the initial image which I was given is in black and white. Sophie Calles photos are also black and white, I think this works very well with the content when following people because it gives the images a sinister look.

 

I noticed that most of her shots capture the stranger in the center of the image. The center of the image is a satisfying view point for the eye and with the subject being there we automatically see that the point of the image is to focus on the stranger. I will use this technique in my images to ensure full attention is on my character and not the surroundings.

Research - 'Psycho'

Since my idea has a very literal/storybook feel to it and the idea of a psycho/thriller element, I researched some stills from the film 'Psycho' to gain inspiration for angles, tones and layout.

In the still above the expression on the womans face is very serious, it's as though she's 'on a mission'. To me it looks as though she wants to get somewhere fast, it doesn't look as though she's getting away from somewhere fast. The lighting doesn't suggest something drastic is happenening, it's not dramatic enough. The lighting brings attention to her face and no surrounding details. To me this doesn't look as though this scene would stand out when watching the film. I could use these techniques on images which I don't want to take lot's of attention within my series which would leave maximum impact on the images were lot's of attention is wanted.

The silhouette of the man creates a myserious, thriller and spooky effect. It creates a kind of 'fear of the unknown' situation. I'll use silhouettes when wanting to show similar effects.