Free Day Wednesday 2nd May 2012 Commission Location research. Fort Amherst

Wednesday 2nd May 2012 Commission Location research. Fort Amherst

Main entrance for the gatehouse via the car park

Inside the top level Gatehouse main entrance

Inside upper level main entrance looking inwards

Inside upper level main entrance looking inwards  (turn left at base of these stairs to enter upper level corridor)

Gatehouse corridor leading to TWO rooms (LH side in this image-note doors)

Gatehouse room (one of two identical rooms)

Gatehouse end of corridor 

Stairway down to lower level

Stairway down to lower level

Lower level and base of stairs

Lower level (with base of stairs out of shot to the left behind arch)

View from base of stairs along corridor showing ends of beds in two identical  living/sleeping spaces

Wall space opposite living areas

Corridor between living spaces (above) and unlit large area

Unlit large space leading to lower level entrance/exit on the left, note arched recess on RH side (opposite which at same low level is the separate living quarters room)

Arched recess, note fireplace in the corner (RH side of this image)

Photographed from in front of the arched recess looking at opposing wall with entrance/exit door on the very RH side of the image

Note entrance/exit is official fire exit door

End wall next to entrance/exit

View between lower entrances

LH side. Entrance to unlit area (lights are n/s atm). RH arch leads to separate living quarters room

Living quarters room

Living quarters room

Living quarters room

View towards entrance/exit door (note only one point of entry/exit for this room)

Exterior features

Stairs leading to lower level (and lower rear door to enter/exit  the Gatehouse) leading to the only entrance to the separate living quarters room, if not accessed via main gatehouse route)

Main gatehouse entrance 

Gatehouse Entrance

Free Day Tuesday 1st May 2012 Fashion Constructed Image Post Production

Today we as a team spent the entire day (starting at 09:30) editing our shoot images, we worked our way through the captures until we had narrowed down the selection  finally to just one image. Then utilising the members of the group who are proficient with Photoshop  to make the appropriate adjustments we set about making a list of things that needed attention. Having personally only ever had two hours basic Photoshop training from JS followed by a rather intense two hours session with Bjorn (that wasn't aimed at the new/basic user!) I have used this session to try and watch and learn the software. Amie used her excellent notes from Bjorn's session along with the rest of the groups skills (Sacha and Ian in particular being good with PS and especially masks) the team worked really hard and finally called it a day at 19:00 after a long but interesting day. Although physically we weren't all required to be in attendance we all wanted the image to be as perfect as we could make it and all took pride in having equal input in the creative decisions. I was very grateful to have my fellow team members to learn from by listening and watching the technical changes being made. I was also pleased to have some positive creative input also.

Final Image

Today I also assisted one of the groups with supplying more branches for their set as you can see!

So glad I don't have a decent car!

Free Days Sat Sun 28th 29th April 2012

 Sat Sun 28th 29th April 2012.

This weekend was spent looking after my son as usual. Uni work was restricted to uploading and storing all the surplus material from set-build. I updated some blogs and returned my KCC library books

Day 90 Friday 27th April 2012 Fashion Constructed Image set-build day 5 (striking set)

Friday 27th April 2012 Fashion Constructed Image set-build day 5 (striking set).

Myself (Health & Safety) Lucie (Build Lead) and Ian (Lighting) arrived to strike set this morning at 09:30 whilst Sacha and Amie attempted to return one of our props (the table), also Sacha and Amie volunteered to investigate methods of cleaning the dress that had unfortunately picked up some marks during the shoot.

  Striking the set was a very strait forward process of carefully and methodically reversing the build process. We took care to use the correct tools, worked as a team and used steps and gloves where required. Various pieces of wood were removed and returned to the UCA wood pile in the corridor as we'd loaned a few extra pieces for braces on the rear of the flats for example. In an attempt to recycle as much as possible most of our 'scrap' will be re-used and has not been binned. The three team members between us managed to strip down a large amount of the set including: skirting (including removal of all panel pins for safe handling), wood panelling (including removal of all panel pins for safe handling), flats (including removal of braces and supporting frames), door, architrave, deconstruction of window, deconstruction of black out area around window, removal of 'C-stands', and of course returning everything to stores that we had borrowed with nothing missing and no complications. At this point the rest of the team returned and took over phase two as we stopped for a lunch break and the rest of the set including the big goal post lighting rig, carpets and removal of final props all occurred. I spent a good deal of this latter half of the project loading wood, tools, props and the window into my car and I also assisted team two (I was parked near the skip) who needed extra hands in loading ballast into the skip etc.

All images below care of Jenna Williams UCA

Removing parts of the window

Removing brick effect surround

Removing more of the wood panelling, note the black-out polyboards and curtains have also been removed from around the window/camera area

Door removed and back wall flats being taken down

Rear wall flats deconstructed, now starting on the RH flats

All the flats including the corridor flat taken down and in or about to be  back in storage.

Team 1

Removing the carpet and sorting extension leads

Nearly complete here, by the end of the day only those items required by other teams were left in the studio. Numerous trips to my car were required, and whilst some of the team attended the PS workshop others loaded and removed props.

Sacha had pre-arranged the collection of several props including the carpets via a van driven by Jack (her boyfriend) but JS informed us that we had "A short Photoshop session to attend at 14:30". This short session turned out to be a rather badly timetabled session which lasted over two hours. Sacha had to leave to load props during the session. I was covered in ballast, and a lot of information was passed over to us. Having written IT training material, and having an NVQ in training IT solutions in business I'd have to say this session was badly timed and a tad too intense considering it was the Friday afternoon on the set build week (and we all have different levels of knowledge of Photoshop), and it wasn't timetabled and I certainly wasn't prepared, or in the best frame of mind to take in all the info! I also don't lean very well when information is simply presented to me (unless it comes with excellent supporting user guides or hand outs). If I don't get the full 'tell, show, do' training package I tend to get frustrated with the training material/delivery and feel it has less value or isn't properly planned.

At the end of the day I tidied away the final material in the studio, leaving only the items from our set that team 11 plan to use (in week 3). I awaited the arrival of the next team to take over the studio from us and moved the sideboard to a location that is out of their way based on how they plan to shoot. I also wanted to check they were happy with the trees/branches they had sourced via Sacha and myself.

This weekend I will be looking after my son, so I'll update the blog and include images as they become available.

As a team we now need to make our final edits and complete the tasks relating to post production

Day 89 Thursday 26th April 2012 Fashion Constructed Image Set-build day 4 Shoot day.

Thursday 26th April 2012 Fashion Constructed Image Set-build day 4 Shoot day.

Getting in for just gone 08:30 after meeting up with Murray (who'd helped on day one of set build, and wanted to see how the shoot went) and then Jenna (who was shooting our shoot for her project!).  I met up with Tom Williams on the way in, Sascha and Amie were in the room first followed by us and then by a later Ian Wisbey.

Our female model Esthphanie Standen  arrived on time followed by Maria Leao (Hair and Make-up) and along with Tom soon set about make-up and then hair. We'd asked for our male model Ollie Gapper to arrive a tad later as his make-up would take little time to complete. After hair and make-up the models dressed and we set about testing the lights on them (as opposed to the stand-ins we'd used during lighting tests).
As expected a few lighting issues arose especially due to the darker hair colour of our female model. This latter issue prompted some experimentation with lights and advice before JS added an extra Dedo light to the goalpost aimed directly at the models hair. The rest of the morning was spent testing and correcting lights, followed by pose, posture and gaze before we broke for lunch. We discussed our post lunch plan and planned to shoot basically until we felt we had numerous good images. This approach included slight changes in position, pose etc as well as testing slight alterations of props and of course we had to maintain the set, rest the models and lights and deal with focus issues and a mac that decided to freeze up at one point as well! Colin and Steve Pocock checked our progress as did JS. After shooting on and off all afternoon, we made one final set change (removing the perspex) before final shots and wrapping up after another quick check of image focus on the captures.
After the models had left we did some basic set clean up and JS kindly backed up the images. The day had been a long one and intense as expected but the team worked really well together and I'm pleased and proud to say I was a member of team one!

Day 88 Wednesday 25th April 2012 Fashion Constructed Image set-build day 3

Wednesday 25th April Fashion Constructed Image set-build day 3.

Another good day with the team working hard to experiment and finesse the lighting and the image. The list of changes, experiments and solutions is long and as the day progressed they included:

• Cutting a bespoke light modifying black paper band to fit to the space-light (which was eventually replaced with  flags).

Discussing flags and shadows (here the black bespoke modifier we later abandoned is still in place).

• Moving background corridor light.

Here Ian has moved a light to remove a shadow whilst still lighting the 'corridor wall'

• Swapping the male model light for a bigger light (before dismissing this after the test). We also colour adjusted this light to change the colour of the documents.

• Improving the black out/light control of the camera position by the addition of two pieces of scrap hardboard I brought in from home

• Creating external window light and testing gels to create desired lighting effect on the bricks (swapping the initial light for a larger one, using a reflector to bounce the light).

• Added two new lights for to increase light levels on props (one is a 150, the other is a Dedo) before testing that ensured no awkward shadows were created

• A changing area was created for the model, and the hair/make-up area was cleared and made ready for tomorrow

• Tested dress and tweed jacket under lights (The brown of the tweed jacket became somewhat lost in the brown of the set).

View from the Canon (Not the actual shoot camera hence the camera angle) to test lights

• Testing rain effects (and dismissing the concept). Test perspex off-cut was removed and our full-size section was finally fitted.

One of the last jobs on the whole set, fixing the perspex into the window. We'd been using an off-cut throughout the lighting test, this allowed us to test for and block reflections. The off-cut allowed us to test one option that we had considered, rain on the window. This option didn't provide us with a viable  result.

LH camera is being used by a Maidstone UCA student who is  recording the whole project and plans on producing a book on the project for team 1