2012 Digital Diary

By Lee Philipson

30th June

Concept 1: Noir inspired piece capturing images of urban life. Strong shadows, kilted frames. Concept 2: recreate scenes from famous films, capturing as much of the cinematography as

possibleo Potential films: Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Out of the

Past, Silence of the Lambs, Psycho.

Both concepts link with my area of artistic practice and would allow me to explore the basic unit of filmic language- the image.

5th July

Decided upon concept 1 as 2 required too much preparation (costumes etc). I Went exploring with the camera to find photos which might inspire me. Great Railway bridge by the beach which looked perfect.

Around town, noticed a lot of people waiting- perhaps a project/portrait series of ‘lost time’? Could have images of people waiting at bus stop, running with groceries, waiting for a shop to open etc.

30th July

Researched noir cinematography and found some great filmic images.

Took Samantha back to the railway bridge for a series of portrait shots, contrasting her beauty with the grittiness and structure of the environment. Asked her to look lost for the photos. Lots of kilted frames and diagonal lines made using fences and meshing to reinforce instability and add depth to the images. Decided to shoot in monochrome so I can work from the image within the camera, rather than rely on photoshop. I know I want to shoot in monochrome as noir films were never in colour.

Shot with a relatively low shutter speed for the photos to add a bit more shadow to the daylight images. The slightly soft focus arising from the slight movement of the camera in my hands while the shutter is open helps to contribute a slight movement to the images. They don’t look like photography with subject, they look like captured moments of a life. I like the aesthetic quality this brings to the image.

Great location just off the bridge with ugly looking fences and rusty signs. Photographed Samantha in front of it. Monochrome blackens the sky. The fence separates the only bit of nature from the strong industrial location, which overpowers the scene.

1st August

Sifting through images from the other day. Several I like, but only a few I will use. For future images I would like to shoot at night, and emphasize the shadows a bit more, as the images are not dark enough to be noir. I really enjoy the way the subject gazes off into the distance. Decided to theme my piece around urban loneliness.

Drew up some other images I’d like to capture for the assignment.

1. A man under a streetlight playing a saxophone with strong shadows cast downwards. Reference to Robert De Niro in New York, New York.

2. The back of a man in a suit strolling through an urban setting. His head is cut off by the frame. Perhaps something in his hand? Maybe strongly lit from the front to silhouette him and cast a glow around his shape?

3. A woman crying in front of a mirror, makeup streaming down her face. 4. Someone sick and leaning against a bathroom wall, clutching the toilet.

18th August

Took some friends to an underground parking lot to experiment with some images. Captured the image of the man in the suit. Placed the subject under a strong down light with a reflector to his back left to splash a highlight onto the arm and hand. Dead-centre framing to indicate his isolation and the structure

of the parking lot. I like the formal attire and will probably make that a running motif as it helps to strengthen the idea of urbanity.

The location had amazing architecture with very strong lines, and diagonals. Played around with some wide shots so as to capture the excellent environment.

Around the corner was a quiet street where we played around with the idea of a lonely young man walking amongst the spotted streetlights. I followed Alan, just shooting around him as he went. Very hard to get the focus right, but got some great images. I liked the shadows cast by his feet. They were almost a mirror image of his form, which combined with his silhouetted body made it tricky to figure out which part was the shadow.

23rd August

Did some lighting tests to explore the noir style. Lots of focus on lighting the wrong side of the face or obscuring the eyes, etc. Some nice photos came of it.

26th August

Took some portrait shots of Samuel beneath a lamp post in his suit. Didn’t bother with the saxophone as it would have drawn his face downwards, obscuring too much of his face in shadow. Placed his head in such a way as to emphasise strong shadows from his brow to obscure his eyes. Single light source from overhead. Played around with kilted frames as well as strong vertical lines. Took lots of photographs, many of which turned out to be out of focus upon viewing on the pc. Wide open aperture made it difficult to hit perfect focus.

31st August

I realised that it would be foolish to attempt to replicate a noir style and not photograph someone with the shadows of a venetian blind over their face! Got Samuel to pose facing the blinds, sitting on the bed. Shot him from a variety of angles, but couldn’t widen the frame enough to shoot his face as there was not enough room. I moved him back, but the shadows from the blinds were not strong enough.

I moved Samuel back from the window and sat him on a stool, then got a 60 LED lamp with barn doors and opened the side panels up to splash some light onto the room. I covered the top and bottom panels with rippled aluminium foil and closed them as tight as possible, whist still letting light through. The reflections from each of the barn doors and the shadows somehow made a convincing venetian blind effect for my photo.

Used the same set up to grab some two-shots as all of my photographs are limited to one subject. Asked Clarice (an actress) to create a back story for a ‘character’ and a scenario. She wanted to play a wife, whose husband was leaving her. She has a very emotive face. Light from window dispersed as a soft light at that distance, so the LED light was placed at her knees to cast strong shadows over her face. These photos with Clarice are some of my favourites as they are definitely the most cinematic. Having two subjects and some form of scene to the photos really added credibility.

Afterwards, we went for a walk downtown looking for more photo locations. Took some test photos. Some were quite useable, however lighting was poor.

2nd September

Collating the photos and culling them to a useable group is a difficult job. Spent time going through them as groups of similar images to pick the best from each shoot and then short list them. It is saddening to have slightly similar photos excluded when both are meritorious in slightly different ways, but only one can be used.

There is a definite distinction between my early shoots and my late shoots. The early shoots are simple in nature, while the later, more noir inspired images are more complex and compelling. The size and shape of the photograph detracts from the cinematic qualities of the images, so I shall crop them to a 16:9 ratio to give them a more filmic quality.