In terms of inspiration for this idea, makeup brand Anastasia Beverly Hills inspired me for the initial photography practical. Their previous advertisements for highlighting product 'Glow kit' used male figures in an empowering manner. After then photographing and using Adobe Photoshop for my promotion of the makeup brand, I had been inspired and was convinced I wanted to follow the same LGBTQ+ route, however no use of Photoshop this time. Though I had developed basic skills I previously had, including merging and locking layers, and further learning the editing of text using italics, bold, etc. If pursuing photography for my Final Major Project, I will take the software into consideration. Coming off from the photography idea, I had decided to explore both photography and moving image. My inspirations for the final idea included musical artist Troye Sivan, who is openly gay and expresses this through his music and music videos, along with social media platforms with a target audience of teenagers. Examples of LGBT exploration include music videos 'Bloom' and 'Heaven,' where he continuously smashes stereotypes by wearing makeup and dresses. As we had just studied soviet montages, we felt that the visuals under the Heaven music video fit perfectly as it included black and white footage symbolising LGBT history, such as protests, signs, fights for rights etc. Footage in which we could link using the montage effect. The montage also links to the voiceover narrative, where the candidate speaks about growing up. History of LGBT developing in parallel to the candidate growing up was therefore our goal. With sound covered, another inspiration for the cinematics of the piece came from an artist who had inspired me from the beginning of this course, and has continued to do so through to my Final Major Project, being Connor Franta. His cinematic shots and edited voiceover in Youtube video 'More than just words' creates an artistic vibe - one in which I wanted to match and incorporate to keep the audience's attention and keep the whole video cinematically / artistically fresh. It also inspired the artistic side of the edit, we had decided to add something to make the video look more interesting, this being the grain overlay. The grain contributes to olden black and white footage, and to the historical research conducted behind this project.
After finalising our ideas from said inspirations with a view of our desired end goal and being clear of our changed idea, we began pre production. This including a storyboard, location scouting, a shotlist and risk assessment. Location scouting did not take much time, as I was aware of the locations we wanted to film in. When filming on location, we did not have a time frame - therefore did not overstep anything, and filled the time with as many shots of surroundings as possible. Using two cameras as part of our resources, both generally for moving image and photographs, however as done in previous projects my partner undertook more moving image, and I photography. Further documentation included the storyboard and shotlist. We found that we did not use the storyboard as reference when filming / during post production, however we used the shotlist in both circumstances. All shots recorded from location Soho were filmed, however due to deadline timing and the requirement of time to edit, we did not film graffiti shots in Shoreditch. To ensure and improve time management for future projects, I could view which shots are most important and balance these out between locations, ensuring there is time for both in equal amounts - e.g if we halved the time used in Soho then using the remaining time to shoot in Shoreditch. Separating the shot list into important / vital shots and spare footage is something I will continue to pursue when creating shot lists within my media projects. As we filmed on a Friday night in an area for socialising and drinking, a risk assessment was vital, further considering the time of year and weather - when it filmed, it was raining. One thing I have learnt by viewing the result of the project is to make the most of surrounding conditions - although it was raining and weather had been listed as a risk for slipping / camera damage, certain shots including the rain made the overall video cinematic, shots including the video shown below of various lights and raindrops onto a puddle. Colour also had a huge effect on our end product, in constant linkage to the LGBT rainbow.
The risk assessment overall made us aware, with further explanation as to how to avoid the risks that were carried through from this pre production stage till filming on location. In terms of post production, blogging the lyrics of Troye Sivans 'Heaven' with notes on our ideas helped as a reference point, and helped me remember what to edit, using Adobe Premiere Pro. To improve for my Final Major Project during the pre production stage, I could undertake test shots - in the case that I do not know the location I am filming, and ensure my time management upto this point improves and is accurate - and could do test edits for the post production stage, finding various royalty free sounds and noting these / experimenting with Adobe Audition, etc.
Theoretical research including First wave Feminism through to Fourth wave and Post Feminism all act as contribution to the final piece. The idea of history linking to the participant 'growing up,' with further hope to inform the audience on how LGBT personas struggle / overcome, and how they smash stereotypes and pass labelling. Theorists such as Judith Butler contribute to my final project, Butlers trans rights book titled "Gender trouble" published in 1990 proves a change into feminism and an increase in changing opinions throughout the Third Wave. The theorist and Waves of feminism link to the developing narrative of my project. The parallel idea that the participant grows up and overcomes / accepts who they are, in comparison to the development Waves, in further comparison to how the cinematography and editing develops. Beginning in black and white with montage footage of suppressement, then developing in the colours and order of the LGBT flag, to then viewing colourful footage with a range of couples in London. Undertaking both the research and editing using key/ smart colour are attributes I have learnt during this project, though I feel both skills - research and colour correction editing, can be developed and improved within future projects. Constant filmmaking and editing also means desire for new experimentation and research, which is something we have attempted within this project by adjusting the ratio of our film. Inspired by musical artist Travis Scott who made a music video in 'skybox' form, this being something researched into artistically and something we wanted to try.
Overall completing this project, I have learnt how to artistically explore using narrative, research and cinematography whilst expanding my technical knowledge on Premiere Pro using overlays and music, with colour correction learnt by working with my partner. I would further like to continue with experimental, cinematic shots, further ensuring I have test shots for my Final Major Project (if pursuing moving image) in contribution to pre production. Next time, I could also use Adobe Audition, or other Adobe software's such as In-design if pursuing photography, to edit a voiceover in more detail, or a photograph. Time management will be sorted more efficiently, as I am aware I wanted to start the project using audio in a special way - in which was done with the editing between music and voiceover, however I could use Audition next time / could also ensure the quality of the voiceover is better by using resources such as a microphone in a quiet / soundproof room.
Bibliography -
https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/judith-butler-c-v-r.html
https://youtu.be/8VNV__mV38s
https://youtu.be/CAoDrPIBVdc
https://youtu.be/924fAhI_rU0
https://creativecloud.adobe.com/apps/all/desktop
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