Friday 26th Nov. 09 - Tattoo Studio

Last week I booked out a digital SLR from Central Media in Westbrook College Building. When I got there on Friday, they said I hadn't booked it out, so I had to take out a Panasonic Digital Camera; much to my disappointment.
I then set off to the tattoo studio; Dragon Tears Tattoo Studio in Brighouse.
I chatted to Scott the apprentice and Helen and Steve who tattoo there about my project, and they were more than happy to help.
Scott offered to model so I could photograph his tattoos, and then I asked him if he could write a short career bio so I could include this in my proposal.

This allows me to show the personality and aspirations almost of the clients, to show diversity between people who choose to get tattooed.

These shots were test shots as the quality is quite poor compared to SLR standard. I will take more photographs of people I know and at a Tattoo Convention I am planning to go to in January. This way I will have many people to photograph in a confined space within one day. There will be also tattoo artists in action so I can get some action shots while i am there.

Preparation: Photojournalist Brief

Preparation:

- I've contacted various tattoo artists and tattoo magazine editors to ask if I could shadow them at a convention or come along to a photoshoot to create some test shots for my brief.

- Neil Dalleywater: Editor of Skin Deep Magazine

- Dragon Tears Tattoo Studio: I worked there for work experience so know the owner quite well

- Skunx Tattoo Studio

- Total Tattoo Magazine

- Tattoo Artist Magazine

- Craig Burton: well known tattoo and music photographer

- Physical Poetry Tattoo Studio

- Louis Molloy

Philip Hunt

We went and saw a presentation by Philip Hunt in one of the halls at college.
He works for studio aka who have produced animations for Lloyds TSB and I'm A Celebrity...
He presented his latest project called Lost And Found is a 30minute animation film aimed at children.
Its about a boy and a penguin's friendship and the problems they come across during their trip to the North Pole.
Its very touching and appeals to all age groups, even though aimed at 7 year olds.
I found it very interesting to see how much work was put into a 30minute animation.

Editing My Photojournalist Slideshow

ABOUT THE NARRATION

How was your final narration put together?
My final narration was put together by editing 3 takes of my narration and fitting them together, comparing takes and seeing which parts of my narration were better in which take. I edited a couple of them together to make my final narration.

Describe any difficulties experience and how you resolved them
At one point my script was too long so I had to carefully edit some of the text to retain some of the important information.

Did you use any helpful tasks?
I timed myself by reading my script over my music for the piece including breaks between beats and text to see how much information I needed and at what pace I should read at.

Did timing your narration help you make any important decisions?
It helped me choose what tone to read my narration in as at points in my music it feels very dull and sad as its in a minor key.


RECORDING

Explain the process involved in recording your narration, from the initial recording to final edit.
The first take of my narration was a straight run through and if I made a mistake I took a breath and repeated my line and carried on. The next take I did the same but without as many mistakes. I collected my recordings and listened to each one to see which one had the best sound quality then used that as my main take and I used the others for any mistakes in my base take.

Detail any difficulties you experienced and how you overcame them
The sound quality differed between takes so it was difficult to choose a main edit as the quality could differ, or you preferred your voice on this one but the other had better quality and no feedback noise. You have to make a decision in favour of your slideshow to allow it to be the best it can be.

Did anything surprising happen that you did not expect?
Not really. I was surprised at how much feedback you can pick up in recording but nothing else.


REVIEW

What would you do differently next?
I would allow my voice to be more relaxed because I believe in the recording it sounds quite strained which I felt when I was recording. That way I can allow more emotion to be conveyed into the slideshow.

What do you feel worked and why?
I feel that my music worked really well in that it tells the progression on Freed's life through the tone and tempo of the music, so it flows well and keeps the audience engaged by the music hanging overhead.

As a short documentary slideshow do you feel yours was successful in giving the audience/viewer a good insight into your chosen photojournalist? If not what extra information do you feel your slideshow needed?
As a short documentary I believe that mine fulfilled its brief. It includes key information relevant to the photojournalist's career rather than personal life. Although if we did have more time for this brief, say double the time up to 10minutes I believe I could produce a script containing a brief biography on his personal life and a more detailed insight into his work.
As time is limited you have to decided what is relevant and what the audience will want to hear about as I had trouble with that after trying to condense my script into the 3minute time slot after gathering too much information.

What has been your overall experience of the project?
I feel that overall the project was good but it felt long winded at times. I felt limited by the time issue with the music as well.
My favourite part of the brief was making the music as I like creating music for any brief.
I feel I have improved my skills on iMovie and using it to produced a clean piece of work.