Evaluation

In conclusion, I feel that I have succeeded with the outline of my proposal. I have strived to experiment with different techniques and ideas that reflect my initial ideas. The idea of Thailand and architecture originated from when I travelled to Thailand last year and had the privilege of visiting inspiring and exciting places such as temples in Bangkok, which I had documented in photographs that helped me fuse ideas of drawing and print designs. I combined my work with architecture as I felt my intentions project was unfinished and I wanted to carry on the idea of using buildings as a template for my vibrant bold designs. I took photographs of architecture and nature around Manchester and developed my work with drawings to stimulate a source of primary research. To document my drawings, I constructed two films showing the creation of my visual work. Combining my drawings of Manchester and Thailand did not initiate until the digital process of my work was underway. I used the Photoshop page as a blank canvas and was able to blend both ideas of design into a developing process to create work that will complement the idea of using Manchester and Thailand. By doing this, I felt that I managed to create abstract unique designs that reflected my primary research and my reference colours.

For my live project, Bradford Textiles, I feel I could have spent more time developing my designs and research into the idea of Thai  print. I tried my very best with the limited amount of time I had to work on my designs. As I have explained in my blog, I used some of my work from my personal project, such as my Thai inspired  drawings and created a collection of more Thai drawings to channel into my work. My inspirations and audience are the same as my personal project and this final design is represented for high fashion. Out of all of my test samples, I have chosen this as my final design as I feel it represents my initial research and primary ideas in my work.

I have distinguished that this work provides a high fashion market as I tried to construct refined designs that have a complex structure. The characteristics of my designs exude a fine art, pattern to my work. With my Manchester primary research, I have tried to fabricate designs that are diametrically different from my primary research. I have accomplished this by creating bold edgy concepts of shape and colour in my work and to offer a high fashion quality to my designs. Fashion, print and film fashion designers such as Nicolas Jebran, Marykatrantzou, Nick Knight and Mark Mawson are four of my main inspirations as I have reflected their visually striking and unique concepts of work and try to channel it through my designs and fashion film. My main reason in constructing my designs is to instil a vibrant, outlandish and exciting theme to my work that is inspired by qualities such as the 60s, David Bowie and Andy Warhol. These three concepts have been my source of consistent inspiration to develop an intoxicating, expressive objective to my work. I feel that my work is for an upmarket clientele with individual aspirations on clothes design that counteract a statement and revolution like quality. The print designs will be best suited for fashion films as I have displayed in my work and high fashion catwalk clothes, such as elaborate dresses that correlate with Nicolas Jebran.

I feel that I have reflected my proposal. The construction of making a fashion film was a process of practice by creating a test film. The test fashion film gave me an insight and practice into creating a refined quality of work. I have successfully crafted a collection of six final print designs. I chose to keep my print designs as a minimum to six as the time planning for both filming and editing can be particularly lengthy.

In conclusion, I made a fashion inspired fashion film, which consisted of a collaboration with my print designs projected onto a model layered with ink dripping in water and including my reference colours. This film was aimed to construct how my print designs will appear on garments. I chose to create an animation-like quality to my print designs as the projection moved across the model's body to show how the shapes of my print designs can construct different ideas of observation across the white garment. The model created elegant movements with her body representing the soft but dominating like structures of my print designs. I chose the song Stella Marris by Moby for its atmospheric quality. The sound and rhythm of the music also complemented the model's movements and my print designs. I chose to do a film to show how my prints can come to life, instead of having a static like structure to my designs. This music in the film was to create a dramatic, almost therapeutic atmosphere. It is also highlighted in my blog that all the music incorporated is royalty free and selected from Moby’s website. The inspiration for my final film was from a variety of films from ShowStudio, which is a company that advertises fashion, print and art. This is what I have tried to demonstrate in my film.

This experience of creating two projects simultaneously has been a challenge but I feel it has offered a great insight into what it may be like working in the print fashion industry and how timekeeping to deadlines is so important in this field of work. I have tried to reflect on my proposal and evaluate my creative process throughout these two projects. The challenges I have experienced have motivated me to sculpture my projects into the best refined like quality I can achieve. If I was to change any aspect of my projects, I would spend more time on my live project by digitally printing my designs onto fabric give the impression of what they would look like on garments. For future projects, I want to expand my ideas of film and work with projection in the outside environment instead of in a studio room. This would be a great challenge due to certain variables being less easy to control and monitor. However, I would relish the challenge  to take a risk in constructing something very different and to tackle more difficult concepts of filming.

Personal Project: making final film

Fashion film making final shoot:

There were some difficulties when filming the final film as the memory card in which I was using was faulty, which meant I had to film on a different night. This was frustrating as I am aware of the importance of timekeeping when filming and editing.  Throughout the process of my final film, I have made some changes. I recorded paint stripping into water and the colours represented my colour reference. My inspiration for dripping paint in water was a photographer by Mark Mawson. He also makes short films of ink disbursing into water that gives the effect of the ink dancing and performing in what looks like the open space. I want to take this idea of showing how paint can form and construct different motions through water and layers. My aim is for my print designs to give a visually exciting effect to my work.

On this occasion, the setting up was quite easy for the film. As I made a test shoot for my final film, it was somewhat easier to set up the film and I felt significantly more confident directing and filming the process. For this filming, I got my model (Molly) to wear white shorts with no logo because the Fred Perryskirt I was using had a logo on the front. The process of filming for the final film took quite a long time as I wanted everything to be perfect and ensure I had sufficient material to work with when editing.

Music

I have decided to keep the music that I was using for the test shoot for the final film. I feel that the song Stella Maris matches perfectly to the mood of the film. For future film making, I will try and find a music artist or DJ to collaborate with.

Editing

The editing process of my final film was more complex as I decided to put my reference of colours and paint dripping into water as well as my designs. I used different techniques of fading in and out of movement clips and layering and mirroring. I have layered the paint in water with the film of my print designs fading into my reference colours to space out the film and to give the audience of my film time to look at each print. I think the fading in and out of different clips worked well in my film. However, this process added a significant time delay to the editing process overall as it took time to learn how to fade in and out of film clips.

Theme:

My theme for the shoot was inspired from Andy Warhol, David Bowie and pop art in the swinging 60s. I selected these topics for my theme, as I feel they relate to my colour reference and the type of mood I want to create in my work.

Process:

As I will be making some changes to my final shoot,  I have made another storyboard showing the process of my colour reference through the storyboard. This week I will be filming in two sections. I will film the paint in water and the model with projected prints.

Personal Project: Test film Feed back

Fashion film- Test shoot nature and architecture

I felt the timing and visual work were clear in the test shoot and that is something I very much like about the film. For the final film, I have to ensure that no logos from other brands are shown in my fashion film as I am only advertising my own work. I would like to change the final film by adding my reference of colours by fading in between each print design that is being projected onto my model. I would also like to layer the film so it adds a different element such as paint or ink in water to show the experimental side to my work. I was going to incorporate some footage that I used in my first year of paint dripping in water which are used for dancing paint, but unfortunately I am unable to use the same footage if it has already been marked by the University. I have to re-film the paint in water for all of this current project and that is what I changed through the test film and my final film. The feedback from my test shoot in my tutorial lesson was positive and constructive. It was said that my film will need more spacing between each scene fading in and out of different clips. It was also said to play around with fading in and out of different plane colours instead of just jumping from one clip to another. It was further stated that I should aim to play around with position in shooting and instead of solely shooting my model directly, shoot from the side and different parts of her body to make the film less obvious. The feedback also commented that the paint in water works really nicely with the film and I should experiment with different ways of using it for my final film.

Personal Project: Test film

Process

The intensity and pressure to get the film correct is quite difficult and trying out the test shoot for the first time can be a little tense. I found that I felt just as nervous as the model, if not more, because I wanted the process of the film to go perfectly and as precisely as how I had planned it. Setting up for the shoot was quite hands-on as it was important for me to ensure that the lighting was optimum. I have only carried out filming in the evenings when it is dark as I need to make sure that the room is as dark as possible for the projection lighting to be as bright as possible. When projecting my prints up to the brick wall, I had to make sure that the quality was not blurred and also the same for the camera. Unfortunately, the make-up artist I had hired was not able to attend the shoot, so I did the face paint myself using acrylic paint. I felt like this was the best material to use for the model’s face as it kept structure and the colours are quite bold. Throughout the whole process of my filming, I carried out each component independently, making myself the make-up artist, filmmaker, director and editor. When directing the model (called Molly), I performed different movements for her to copy and she repeated them as I filmed her. I found that I worked well with my model as she is also one of my personal friends. Molly was easy to direct and understood the outline of the theme and took direction well.

Music

I selected the music artist Moby because he provides royalty free music and has over 100 songs that I can apply for without it being taken down off YouTube. I chose the song Stella Marys as I liked the slow beat  and the atmospheric feel to the music. I feel it particularly brings out the therapeutic feel to my fashion film. I told my model (Molly) that I would be using this song before we started filming, so she was fully aware what kind of pace to time her movements.

Editing

The editing process of the test shoot took quite a considerable time, about two to three days in total. I constructed my editing similar to my storyboard. Timing is important when editing so when creating the film,  I have to make sure that every second counts. I find it most difficult when editing to search through the film for the most interesting and most suitable sections. However, dedicating this time to editing  aids my thought process and I take great pleasure in identifying the best parts.