Evaluation
When I was first given the brief on this project I was rather puzzled, self-portraiture photography has never really been my forte as I don’t really like taking photos of myself too often. I started off by doing some in-depth research into photos of people who inspire me, I analysed what kind of connotations the photos held and what they told you about the individual’s overall character and persona. This task helped me understand how photos can be interpreted further than face value. I made sure consider what kind of underlying themes I wanted to have in my photos. I then examined photos of directors and producers I admire. This task was a lot more specialised, I examined how their photos were clear representations of their own work. I’ve never really noticed how self-portraits could tell you so much about an individual and their personality. I continued with the photography analysis by analysing my own photos. This was challenging as I don’t have many photos of me in my younger years. After analysing my photo so realised that I should take some new photos to compensate for the lack of photos. I planned out my photos and tried to ensure that the meaning was clear as in the past my messages have been very unclear to some. However, my photos came out nothing like my plan due to time and location issues as it’s winter. I improvised and took photos in a location I had intended to shoot in, however, the scenery was completely different as it was snowing. In that time I also did some further research into photographers who’ve done self-portrait photography in an attempt to draw inspiration from their work by making interpretations. I did photography in the style of Cindy Sherman as I was fascinated by the use of colour which gave all her work a gaudy over the top feel. Also photos in the style of Francesca Woodman, I was really intrigued by her themes. This task really helped me understand about photography styles and it helped me think about what exactly I want my own style to be.
When I had gathered slightly old photos and the other photos I shot I edited all of my photos so they were ready to be compiled. I had to figure out how I’d complete my visual personal statement in such a short amount of time. I then began writing my script. This was severely challenging as I had to talk about myself, I’m usually very good at writing scripts when it’s on a subject or is pure fiction however when I have to look inwardly I have to take my time so I can clearly portray myself as there are different sides of who I am. I didn’t want to sound disingenuous however I also didn’t want to sound too honest. I opted to have a voice over rather than text on screen as I wanted it to have a more authentic and real touch. It took me about two takes till I was happy with the recording. I decided I wanted some upbeat music, however, all of the royalty free music I could find wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I decided I would ask for permission to use an 8bit remix of a song I like. I emailed the company and they had me clarify that I was using the music for educational purposes. It took about a week for me to get full permission to use the music. I compiled the photos in time with the music and it felt like the video was starting to come together, however, I realised I didn’t have many photos of me working for the second part of the video where I talked about my dreams and aspirations. I got some classmates to help me take photos of myself using the filming equipment. After placing those photos into the video I was done.
Overall I learned the importance of how you portray yourself in a professional aspect through photos, In the future, I’ll be more mindful of how I portray myself online.
Tehreem Hussain 