Unite 30 Evaluation

Overall Evaluation

For this project we were given the brief to photograph and create a video which represents the everyday life of an object. Through experimenting with different angles and perspective I was able to see how best to capture the object with in my images, so that it was either the focal point of the image itself, or obscured within a crowd. At the beginning that this project I found it very difficult to come up with ideas on how it  best represents the life of an everyday object, But now that I have had time to think about this concept as a whole I've come to realise that I was over-thinking and stressing about my ideas. Objects are vital to our everyday lives without us even been aware of it. From something as simple as a sweater to our mobile phones, there are objects we tend to take for granted because they are always there. The importance of objects themselves is not just to enhance our quality of life and to make things simple as we continue our tasks throughout the day. They also help to define who we are as a person. Colours shapes and sizes of various objects we bring into our life helps represent our personality and sense of style.  We may not be entirely self-aware of what we do, as it comes so naturally to us. In helping to expressing who we are as people, through the objects we surround ourselves with. Like I said in the beginning of this project I didn't fully understand the concept and therefore found it difficult to choose a subject matter, in which I felt comfortable pursuing. But now at the end I find it is incredibly simple and I could have simply chosen the most used object of our time the mobile phone. I find it frustrating that my mind was so clouded at the time, but I'm also happy that I chose my object. As I didn't want to choose something my other class mates might have and this makes my work unique and help to express my own personality.

As mobile phones are constantly present in our everyday aspect of our lives it would have been an interesting idea to follow. From been shoved into our pockets to the bottom of our handbags, we find them vital in socialising with the outside world and now I think about it perhaps it would have been an interesting concept to tackle. As I could have taken photos from various scenarios, all from a singular perspective of the phone by the isolating object and merely focused on such mundane details. Such as people's hands and the position that the phone is left in, by taking low angle shots with the background blurred out, so that the phone itself becomes the focal point of the image. But, at the time I did not really think of such a simple concept, as I found that the lacking of time to produce the work caused me to be unable to think clearly at the time.

But I digress, my chosen idea was follow the daily life of a toy though the perspective of my teddy bear ‘buttons’. Though experimenting with various tasks given to us thought-out the projected, I was able to use different angles and scenarios to get a better idea for the final outcome of my project. On one of the tasks I took Button with me on the trip to Leeds taking every opportunity to photograph him as I went along the journey. At the beginning my idea was that buttons himself would take the trip to Leeds doing human tasks such as take the bus and catch the train by himself. In the images that I took I try my best to take images lacking the human presence so that buttons himself was the focal point of the image. Using techniques like leading lines to help the viewer's line of sight to be pulled towards ‘Button’. Even though I took some very good images my teacher enlightening me to the fact that even though it is a good concept to humanise ‘Buttons’ is not a realistic scenario that represents the object itself. As you can imagine seeing a bear parade around town by itself would be a rather unusual phenomenon. So, I decided to take inspiration from my favourite Disney film ‘Toy Story’, as it held fond memories of me trying to catch my toys in the act of moving around when I was younger. As, I wish to keep the human accepted in ‘Button’ movements throughout his day. I decided instead of lacking in human presence I would add it instead, to create a more realistic representation of his life. So, I decided to create images based on the idea that ‘Button’s’ when lacking human presence would move of his own accord. I imagined him sneaking around doorways to make sure the coast is clear. To performed very human tasks such as brushing his teeth, as I found it quite comical. To create the illusion of movement I would need to use ‘stop motion’ photography, by taking multiple images of him moving a fraction at a time to try and create a nature flow in movement. I decided to practice my stop motion photography in the form of a flip book. It was fun and very time consuming but gave me an idea of how my overall idea might play out. The only problem was that the flip book itself was rather fat making it hard to flip correctly.

My overall idea was that ‘Buttons’ and his owner would go on an adventure outside house, only for him to be forgotten and left in the playground with nobody president.  He would then act of his own accord and imitates a childlike nature by participating in activities on the playground he has seen other children doing. Some parts of doing this was incredibly hard to capture because he kept falling down or not slaying in the pose I left him in due to the wind. To combat this problem I use white string to tie him  in place. I then would take photograph of his owner approaching whilst he performed one of his activities, only for him to go lifeless again has he is taken home. I feel like I was successful in capturing the relationship between to two in my work.

I then decided to do a washing machine scene as he has been out and became rather dirty throughout photographing. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of him rolling around in the washing machine at the time because I did not feel the need to add it to my film reel. Looking back I wish I had.

To try and make buttons appear to be capable of feeling. In the last few scenes I wanted to give the impression that he is infatuated with another dog teddy that I own and finished off with them together. One of my greatest inspirations in deciding to choose a bear in this project was through the Thompson holiday advert. The perspectives used in the making of the advertised events gave me ideas and inspirations about how best to represent buttons at the time. I was planning on using children in my work, but unfortunately I couldn't get my younger nephew to help follow along with what I was trying to do. My nephew did not understand and decided to simply beat the stuffing out of my poor bear in his idea of playing. It would have made for an amusing outlook on buttons daily life, but it was not what I wanted do. I learnt the hard way that no one is the boss of a five year old with a teddy(lol).

If I could retake this project the things I would properly change is maybe my choice of object, as now I have a million great ideas swimming around my head (stupid brain). I felt my mind was crowded constantly with worrying about time. I have learnt throughout this project that my time management is appalling and I should better plan in using my time more efficiently, so that if need be I can re-shoot scenes (but me being me it’s easier said than done). Overall, I have enjoyed this project and am looking forwarded to  next one providing that I can make it in to lessons more now I am feeling better , as I find that one of the major factors in my poor time management through my lack of attendance. That is something I hope to greatly improve on.