[As we all worked together on research, this blog post originally came from Lily's blog - as this was the blog we used to output all things relevant. This is a repost of what we ALL did]
Our set build went fairly well in the end. We encountered quite a few issues with the building and authentisity of our set as well as getting the right light to create the right exposure.
We built the 4 walls and the base of the tree the week before and had a clear idea of what we would need to do on the set build week, but after putting the walls up we began to realise that our idea for the roof would not work with the rest of the set. So with the help of the tutors we built 4 wooden beams as the base which we then interlaced with vines and ivy. The tree was quite difficult to inititally set up but once we just dove into it and tried lots of different ideas it all fell into place and we decided to add several roots to the bottom so ditched our tree house idea as it became too hard to translate that idea. The floor was made up of woodchips and slate and we added a rug to make it a more homely set up. The curtain that we wanted to use initially was not as prominante in the image as first planned as it looked a little awkward being in full focus. The props reflected back to the initital hording idea that we had but in more of a considered way and with fewer of them. We used a combination of old photographs, glass vases, trinket boxes and bottles all interlaced with blue roses and filled with blue liquid. These were all places on old tree stumps and an old wooden chest.
The model stood directly in the center of the set and the camera angle was moved quite far round to the left side of the set to get more of a depth then a straight on image like we had originally planned.
At first we had only planned to use 4 different lights at most but once the set was up we realised how dark it was and how much of it that we still needed to light in order for all our hard work not to go to waste. In the end we used about 13 lighs in total. With two HMI lights from the back with blue filters over to recreate a moonlight effect and this lit the set significantly which allowed us to get a good exposure of 5.6. A few lights were arranged at the front to light up our model from top to bottom and several dedo lights were placed hidden around the set to light the finer details and the back of the models head to enhance the mood light glow.
This is a drawing of our final lighting plan:
We did struggle with the characterisation of our model as we just couldnt get the look of anger and confrontation that we needed for the situation. We told the model the whole story and the emotions the character would be feeling which then lead us to an expression of distance and inner torment as our model looked distantly into her own thoughts. This seemed to work as we constantly took images and Jess moved around the set changing expressions and positions. This lead to about 10 images taken right at the end that seems to collaborate perfectly with the set and her clothing. These are the images we will put into an edit and select our final one.
The costume changed several times throughout the shoot to try out 3 outfits that we had previously decided on. In the end the one we felt worked best was a folk style top with a long black skirt and quite ferice black suede shoes. Our model wore her long brown wig which was slightly matted and hung around her face and Laura Dack did her make up to look quite glossy but with dark and smokey eyes. This brought together our witchy look and harked back to our folklore theme.
