rated R.P.G

Sunday, 18 April 2010

street photography

Speaking about jungle gyms...... I went back over the holiday to the site where I hope to use the monkey mask again. Still couldn't get access to the scafolding but theres a new poster as you can see.

Let the right one in

Let The Right One In, is a 2008 Swedish horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson. It was shot on 35mm film rather than HD video and uses mostly natural sounds. Its very odd, its a horror romance but is very subtle in how it uses the language of a horror film. There is gore and some CGI but mostly it is very naturalistic in how its shot and played. I think the locations are fantastic, its mostly set in a Stockholm housing estate, school and playground and has few gothic elements.

Theres a fantastic use of focus with the actors often being really close and the set slightly blurred which gives tension, instead of relying on things jumping out of the dark. The intimate cameras, realy close to the actors work with really close mic'd sound. You can hear the breathing, gulping and movement of clothes. The sound recordist said he didnt want any hollywood sound effects, and even though he did manipulate them electronically he always started with a natural sound.

The sets had no ceilings so that it could be shot with as much natural light as possible. When the two main characters meet its often on a jungle gym in a play ground, this was specially made because they were shooting in wide screen and normal jungle gyms are to high. This one needed to be long and wide so it didnt get cropped.

There is one over the top scene which is in fact really funny where a woman turned vampire is attacked by a room full of cats. It uses stuffed cats attached to the actress, CGI cats and real cats. Still, the scene works really well, a bit like Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds, in the scene where the heroine is attacked by birds in a small room.

Octopus and umbrella

Last week I got the chance to help out on a photoshoot for Oskar who's a student at Glasgow School of art, environmental art course. The course is for fine art but from what I can see most people are using photography and video, I think the environment part is that the work has to be socially engaged. He was in london getting some technical help for some sculptures which are for an exhibition in Glasgow next month. I took some shots while they were setting it up.

This photo shows how the octopus sat on the end of the umbrella when the piece was finished.
The beak was cut out of the octopus and a tube was inserted.

The hood part which is the head, had been gutted and it had to be stuffed with expanding foam that had been shaped to fit.

It was then set up in a studio to take reference shots so that it can be set up again, and for publicity.

When the artist took his own shots he used a digital camera, natural light from some skylights, one spotlight above and to the right, and some silver reflectors to get light under the umbrellas.

Monday, 5 April 2010

Orozco

I saw these images by the mexican sculptor Gabriel Orozco. He works with objects and installations but I like his photography.

He's using found objects, and making images from what he finds in the street. With the puddle and bicycle marks I recognised the effect, I've noticed this myself. The rubbish piled to echo the city skyline is more diliberate than found but still looks natural. The ball with water, again it's an effect I've seen and liked, I'd tried a similar shot but more abstract with water on a seat (below).

billboard ape

I got my mate to take some images of me in the monkey mask. I spotted an empty billboard on Herne Hill Road and had already taken some shots. I put the image of me in the mask on the billboard in photoshop using layer, free transform, skew and distort.

I like the idea but I'm not sure it's the best location for the mask. I've found a good space with some old scaffolding supporting a building. It looks like a jungle gym, I'm going to try hanging up side down from the scaffolding.