3 film still finals

Prints for film stills

I chose these 3 images for my final prints for the film stills. I put a black background and text to make them look more like screenshots.

Famous Film Tag Lines

"They're young...they're in love...and they kill people." Bonnie and Clyde 1967


"This is Benjamin. He's a little worried about his future." The Graduate 1967


"No ordinary love story..." Romeo and Juliet 1968


"It's all about women...and their men!" All About Eve 1950


"They had a date with fate in Casablanca." Casablanca 1942


"There NEVER was a woman like Gilda!" Gilda, 1946


"Hunted by men...Sought by WOMEN!" The Third Man, 1949

Film Stills

Image 1: Psycho, 1960 directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Image 2: La Chinoise, 1967 directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Image 3: Gilda, 1946 directed by Charles Vidor

Image 4: Le Petit Soldat, 1963 directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Image 5: Breathless, 1960 directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Creating the Film poster

When it came to editing my prints to make the final film poster I had a vague idea in my head of what I wanted. At first I had the idea of doing something similar to the "Gilda" poster, I was stuck on a title for my film so focused on the actual photo for inspiration. I came up with the title of "Forever in stripes." I also researched famous film tag lines for inspiration. When I did my first poster it looked like something was missing and a bit pathetic, but I finished it all the same with in mind I would try another version and see what I prefer.

When I did my second version I thought more about the 60s and researched famous 60s films and then looked at their film posters. All of them looked drawn and very colourful, so I used a photoshop technique I learnt in my NCFE digital art class on how to make photos look like an Andy Warhol pop art piece. I chose strong block colours to make it look stronger.

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Image 1: Scan from scrapbook of colourful, pop art style film posters

Image 2: Final film poster

Image 3: First attempt at film poster

Image 4:Gilda film poster

Film still shoot - out of the studio

I did a shoot of my model in her bedroom for the film still part of my project before I did my Studio shoot. This shoot didnt go very well because of poor lighting my negs are very shaky. I was really dissapointed as there were shots I really wanted to print. Even when I tried to print some the quality was too poor to have as a final print.

Because I had my heart set on doing a film poster accomponied by film stills I decided to re-shoot, this time I did the shoot in my room as I have a large window with a lot of light coming in next to my bed, where I set up lots of cushions which have a nostalgic 60s pattern on them. I got my model to wear a stripey top and hold a ciggarette so it linked back to my film poster. When shooting I felt more confident as the camera didn't need to be on such a slow shutter and think there was a more of a 60s vibe.

Image 1: 1st shoot

Image 2: 2nd shoot

Cindy Sherman - Untitled film stills

Cindy Sherman is renowned for her self portraits and film stills, she takes on a different character and facade in each of her photographs creating mystery and making the viewer wonder what story could be behind the photo. When I personally look at Sherman's work I always wonder what story she had in mind when she took the photo and am curious to know if my version matches her one.

Studio Evaluation

I found it very nerve racking working in the studio on my own. Even though i'd practised what lighting I wanted, I couldn't find enough head and honeycombs that fitted each other, so had to play around with the umbrella, as a head without the honeycomb didn't give a highlight it overshadowed my key light. So when it came to setting up I was panicing a bit but got the light I wanted eventually.

I realised when you work in the studio with flash lighting you have to remember to keep a close eye on how it looks when you move your model. When it came to using a medium format camera I had to get my model to sit/lye down as the top of the backdrop kept getting in the frame. So when I did a quick test shot on my digital I could see how I needed to change the angle of the lights and sometimes the mistakes looked quite good, but most of the time the key light wasnt even hitting the model but in the colour shots when my model was lying down the highlight flash lit up the side of her body creating a shadow along the side of her body which reminded me of that 1940s hollywood silhouette.

I didn't like using digital in the studio as I think with the flash lighting makes photos look too flat and aggressive, I would like to experiment with maybe a movement/fashion shoot in the studio with flash lighting and digital to see how that looks as I think it would work better. I was really pleased with my Colour medium formats it was just the look I wanted. I was glad that it I had to get my model to sit/lye down as I think these images looked more interesting and effective than the digital ones of my model standing up, and the lighting technique flourished more in film.

medium format

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My black and white film was very underexposed so alot of the prints I wasn't very pleased with, this image was my favourite as I liked the line of light that follows along her face. When I scanned my negatives there was a lot of fluff because fluff managed to get in the neg sleeve so when it came to choosing ones for finals I cleaned and rescanned them.

Some digital outcomes from my studio shoot

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These are a few of my digital outcomes. I didn't realy like them as I think they don't give off that vintage feel. I took some photos on black and white as well as colour medium format.

Chosen outcome for Image and Text project

I have chosen to do the Film poster idea and focus on around the 60s era. I would also like to do a shoot of my model in my/her house of her talking, looking in the mirror etc to look like an actually film stills to go with my film poster. I will put "subtitles" with the images to achieve this. I want to have my model to have that femme fatale pose like in the 40s but I will style it with 50s/60s clothes.

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Image 1: Example of a film still with text

Image 2: 60's actress Jean Seberg

Image 3: Scan from scrapbook of 1940s Femme Fatales