The Final Video.

Our Mission Statement.

We set out to create work that represents the 'patchwork cultures of Manchester'.  We wanted to create clothing that would have a truly local feel to it, and would be able to dynamically and instantly represent the area in which the wearer found themselves.  We wanted the clothing to be temporary, so that it might change with changing cultures.  This is why we used projection- to show clothing that can instantly change.  To create this we:

• each researched an area of the city, and the cultures found there.
• created drawings and samples based on these findings.
• merged our drawings and samples using digital print to create 'patchwork designs'.
• created moving images from these designs.
• researched and perfected using projection.
• found a dancer, and studio space to film in.
• projected our moving animations on to the dancer while he performed.
• filmed the performance.
• edited  the footage into our final video.

We made the video energetic and vibrant (using music and dance) to represent the energy and vibrancy of the city.  We were also sure to make the video available in full 1080p HD, to give the best possible image quality.

Editing film

After filming we edited all the footage together for our final outcome video. This took alot of time but we are all really pleased with the outcome.

Having music that had the same beat all the way through really helped us as it made it alot easier to fit the dancing and projection in time with the music.

We used a number of effects while editing, changing the opacity and copying images to make two, resizing and crossing over images to make a kaleidoscope effect. Fraser also added a short introduction to the film as a title for our 'patchwork manchester theme'. This includes sounds and images recorded around Manchester which was something we said we wanted to include at the beginning to show we have been influenced by different areas of Manchester in our work for this project.

Ewan 'The Poppin Worm' Davies

The dancer that we used in our video is called Ewan Davies.  He did a fantastic job.

More of his work can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im7FB-NGilc

https://www.facebook.com/Poppingworm

Continued prints

Continuation of my print samples that contributed to our digital designs; hand painted screen printing onto silk and cotton...

Final Filming

Today we shot our final video, using a dancer to be our model for our projections. After our last shoot we have gone back to our idea board and decided we needed a blank canvas for the projections to be applied onto. From this our model has been styled in a all in one white suit completed with a white mask. These are some stills taken from the shoot, the projections were very clear and vibrant and worked well with our dancers shapes.

Urban Media Festival Cologne

When looking into videos that show projections on bodies, I was shown this short film from the Urban Media Festival Cologne from 2009, from a friend who took part in this project. This video was made with the collaboration of a few people from around Europe, all taking elements of their cultures and creating one final piece. It has shown me what a group of strangers can accomplish when working together, which is similar to our group work. We have all brought our individual styles and ideas together and have created a concept that involves us all equally.

Found Colour

Continuing colour references relating to my starting point, here collections of fabric with vibrant tones and soft texture. Colour continues to inspire me and influence development as we begin to finalise our outcomes.

Some 'animations'.

These are a few examples of the 'animations' that we will project on to our models. When they are being projected, they will appear much larger than this- covering the entire body of the models. The change of colours and the movement will make the projections more interesting than just having solely still images.

Henna

 This is an A1 oil pastel drawing of a hand that I have then added henna patterns on digitally.

Above was my attempt at creating henna using henna paste and lemon juice. 

knit samples

I have been looking at using hand knit to interpret aspects of John Rylands library. It works well using rib knit and cableing, below I have created my own pattern.

However when we brought all our work together as a group, the knit samples didnt fit in as well. I think that it would be more successful if we just use drawings and paintings as these are more successful when putting them into prints for the projection.

dancers outfit

We have decided to keep the makeup/outfit simple for our video and have bought a simple white mask and full dancers leotard. This gives a blank canvas for the projection. The mask also adds abit of mystery to the video and stops the person being a distraction, so attention is kept on the body that will be projected onto.

Colour

Love the subtle use of colour in the following two images, from World of Interiors June 2012, 'La Vie en Rose' a graceful pink stucco villa in the old French outpost of Pondicherry, uses colour that relates to my starting point, however the use of tone in relation to such colours creates a stark contrast to my developing 'gay pride theme' .

Artist Research... Projections

 I decided to do some digging, as we are at the later stages of our project, and after successfully learning how to project the way we want to for our final video, I thought it would help to find some examples of still images; artists that use projection, as we may decide to produce a collection of stills to present at MOSI.

'Austin, Texas-based artist Davis Ayer shows off light projection art at its finest.In each shot, Davis masterfully blends projections with a woman's body, turning them into intriguing pieces of art. Stunningly beautiful and almost like tattoos.' These seem effective as they appear as pieces of art rather than just photographs of the projections, maybe we could use this idea to compliment our final video, our digital prints could be tailored to produce abstract imagery ......

(http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/light-projection-body-art)

Video Development

After several failing attempts to master our projection concept successfully, we booked a large room with black out curtains for another attempt.  Frazer had produced some mock layered prints from our growing collection of drawings, that we could use to test our theory.  It soon became clear the prints that were more saturated, and that contained stronger colours, gave a more effective projection, this is evident in lorna's latest post, even from stills the success of colour is evident.  We continued to experiment filming the projection from several angles, and eventually managed to position the model close enough to the projector and the camera, however at a very difficult angle to ensure the projection(that does actually appear on the floor to the right of the model) is not evident for filming. The process proved time consuming, the images and video illustrate how much improvement has occurred from last week, however in our opinion does not reflect the amount of work involved in reaching this breakthrough!  This we hope will be evident in our final video!It proved really difficult to avoid the projection 'projecting onto things behind the model', I feel the results below are extremely successful the projection is almost exact in terms of following the shape of the body!

      In terms of our images we aim to produce more in the next few days, continuing with the layered idea, however will convert the stills into some form of moving sequence to enhance the quality of our final outcome.  We have agreed all digital prints need to be replicated, each replicated version should have increased saturation, contrast levels, and reduced exposure levels to achieve the best projection results when filming.  We hope to print large scale examples of our most successful prints to exhibit at MOSI,  this is why we will replicate all prints so the originals can be kept for this.

AIMS FOR WEEK BEGINNING MON 7TH MAY .....

. Contact dance department, circulate email to secure 4 dancers for filming end of this week/beginning of next.

. Buy all in one white suits for dancers to wear.

. Complete/edit all final digital prints.

. Meet with Mary to discuss editing of final video.

. ........ FILM FINAL VIDEO!

Resin colour sample

This photograph is of a sample created by trailing the material resin. I have sealed oil pastel in resin, and knotted thread set in resin. I have selected two different materials that represent colours that I have been sampling in my experimental work.

Chinatown drawings

I began drawing using acrylic and watercolours, to reflect the colours in Chinatown.

Colours of India

These water colour pieces are picking out the colours and shapes from images from the Holi Festival 

These are colours from my research on the festival of Holi that I have used fabric transfer paint and printed on to different fabrics to see which works most successfully. I then intend to develop a sample using this method. 

Drawing from research into India

Holi: Indian festival of colour

The Holi Festival is also know as the Hindu festival of colour! In march in India and other countries with a large Hindu population.

People celebrate the coming of spring by forgetting their troubles and throwing coloured paint, powder and water over each other.

Filming

After filming in Hotspur House we realised that we needed to use a room that was completely dark. We wanted our video to give the illusion that the model was walking across the screen. The aim is to have a few models walking across with the projection and layer these together into one piece of film.

The set up inside the studio worked out exactly as we had planned, the projection was clear, the background didn't detect the projection and the model looked as those his clothes were virtual.

These still frames show how the projections show up on the model, using our images and samples to create unified clothes. We all agreed that the video should be set to music, but at this moment we are undecided on which song will fit best to our images. We used "Skrillex - Kill Everbody" for this sample shoot, it fits well but isn't completely what we envisioned for it.

Digital Print Designs.

Above are a few examples of the prints that I have designed, using the drawings that we each, as a group created. I will use these to create some moving animations which, along with these still prints, will be projected on to our models' bodies in the video. I tried to make them really vibrant, so that they project well.

Henna patterns

From the start of my project on Rusholme I have been interested in the Body art Henna. I have experimented with my own patterns in different media on different backgrounds with colours used in Indian.