Advanced Skills Workshops

The Advanced Skills Workshop that I attended was ‘Design Principles for the Web’. I have a keen interest in web design so I was really looking forward to this workshop as a way to develop my ability to design the elements of a web page before coding them. Miek Dunbar, a freelance web and interaction designer, conducted the workshop and covered a range of different methods to use when mapping out a website. The method that I found most helpful and will definitely utilise in my own practice involved sketches called ‘wireframes’. Wireframes are simple, usually black and white hand drawn sketches of all web page in a website. They are act similarly to storyboards in a movie in that they ensure that all of the necessary elements of the web page are plotted within the aspect ratio of a computer screen, and they also ensure consistency between all of the pages within a site. During the class I drew a number of wireframes to a fictional website brief that I created just for the exercise, and learnt that although the exercise sounded simple enough it took me over ten attempts to achieve a wireframe that I was happy with. I found that although one layout might have worked well for the homepage, it might not have been appropriate for the other pages of the site and so would have failed to maintain an element of consistency throughout the different pages. This realisation will prove to be very helpful when designing web pages in the future. Previously I used to just go straight to Photoshop and create the different visual elements of a web page without really drawing out the layout to consider how the elements will interact with each other over a number of different pages. Incorporating this process into my practice will allow me to create websites that are more aesthetically appealing. It will also help my webpages to become more functional because it allows me to consider where elements like the navigation bar should sit so that they can be easily accessed without impeding on the content within the body of the web page.
I would love to be able to display my PP2 documentary on The Social Studio online within its own webpage so that it can be publicly accessed and shared, and this knowledge will help me in the process of designing a website that can appropriately display a visual documentary.

Another skill that I took away from this workshop was the ability to create a good site map. As Miek explained, a site map is a tree diagram of all of the different pages of a website, and is essential to be being able to understand how the different pages relate to each other. It graphically displays the different access points and is extremely helpful in managing a large website with a lot of content on it. I’ve previously drawn site maps when creating my own websites, however Miek gave me a few really good tips that I will take away to improve my practice. He taught me to differentiate between the different pages on a site map that will be static and remain the same, and those that act more like ‘buckets’ and will have forever changing content. For example, the homepage of a website usually changes to update content and highlight new activity. This tip will help me  in the future to manage websites more efficiently, because I can now use a site map to instantly tell which pages I will need to keep updating weekly and which ones I can leave without checking constantly.

Production Project 2: Fashion Documentary Ideas

Here are some ideas that I have brainstormed for my fashion documentary, ranging from thoughts on subject to angle to production medium: 

1. Character

One key point that I picked up from both the documentaries I watched was the intense sense of character each of them possessed. Both Bill Cunningham and Anna Wintour posses unique idiosyncracies and eccentic personalities that proved extremely captivating for the viewer, and I think it would be prudent to find a subject that is just as enthralling for my fashion documentary. I have not met any of the workers at The Social Studio, but I think that given their past experiences as refugees many of them will have extremely interesting stories to tell. I think the best angle to go for here would be to find one or two subjects within the Studio that are willing to participate and help them tell their story to the best of their ability. I am excited at the prospect of doing this, because I feel that the workers there would prove to be extremely interesting subjects for a number of reasons. First of all, they each come from a different culture and way of living, and it would be intriguing to document their transition to life in Australia, and how they’ve brought their customs here with them. Also, the conflict and struggle involved in fleeing one’s own home country references emotions and feelings that are both compelling and tug on one’s heart strings, captivating the viewer and eliciting a sense of humanity and care from within them. I think that through focusing on a sense of character and a personal story I could create a documentary that is not only about fashion but also about one person’s story of struggle and inspiration behind it.

2. Street Style

I would love to inject the theme of street style into my documentary. In Bill Cunningham New York, the subject notes that “the best fashion show is definitely on the street. Always has been, always will be.” I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. To me fashion is the style that emerges on the street, what happens when ordinary people go about their daily business in fascinating ways. Having travelled quite a bit and lived overseas for the past couple of years I have come to notice just what a unique sense of style Melbourne has. I was often reminded of this when I first returned home this summer at places like the Victoria Night Market or various music festivals, where the more eclectic crowd would come out and I’d be delighted by the girls wearing long, flowing sheer skirts that were cropped in the front, or most recently long woolen cardigans cinched at the waist with a belt and worn as a dress. Melbournians sure do know how to dress, and they never fail to inspire me with their creativity. I know that the original subject for the documentary was The Social Studio, but amidst some recent talk that the subject may change I think Street Style is a great potential theme that I would love to explore.

3. Fashion Pin Board

From my understanding the creation of our documentaries are not only limited to the medium of film, but can be created using whatever medium we see fit (within reason). I am drawn to the idea of creating a documentary using a virtual online, a social space. My recent interest and focus on social media in my degree has got me thinking about the different ways I could document a subject and house it online somewhere where people can interact and play with it. Recently I have begun using Pinterest, a content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects onto their pinboard and also includes social networking features allowing users to easily share them with each other. 

It might be an interesting idea to create a pinboard for my documentary of The Social Studio and pin different mediums such as photos and video and text onto it to create a diverse user experience. The creation of a ‘pin’board for a fashion documentary is ironically appropriate.

Bill Cunningham New York

This documentary was transfixing. To be completely honest I’d never heard of Bill Cunningham before in my life, but his name and his story are going to stick with me for years to come. The reasons I liked this documentary are varied. First of all, the Bill’s passion – street photography – was already a very visually appealing subject to work with and it translated brilliantly onto the video screen. That our documentaries are also going to be based on fashion is a blessing, because the subject itself is already one of beauty and colour, just waiting to be shot.

I also really loved this particular angle on fashion…street photography. “The best fashion show is definitely on the street. Always has been, always will be.” I’m attracted to this idea of the street being a runway, or THE runway and would love to work this idea of the ‘ordinary man’ being the subject into my documentary. I identify with this notion of challenging the traditionally ‘high end’ or ‘exclusive’ view of fashion and examining the beauty that is created when it is put in the creative hands of the everyday man.

One thing I think works so well in this documentary is its sense of character. This sense of character comes from two different things, I think, one of which is the city of New York, and the other being Bill Cunningham himself. New York’s personality is felt through a number of means, firstly experienced through the big band jazz music that accompanies the opening scene. It is also felt through the inclusion of shots of New York taken at various times of Cunninghams’s life, spanning from the 1920’s to the present, as well as featuring landmark buildings as major parts of the storyline – for example Carnegie Hall, which was the photographer’s home for many years. The remix of old and new footage also lends to a dynamically interesting rhythm.

Cunningham himself makes for an amazing subject, and it is his eccentricity and idiosyncrasies that really draws the viewer in. The focus on his particularly unique personality traits – his undying passion for his photography, his disregard for relationships and food, his hate for money and belief in financial liberty – are what give this documentary its character. I think that featuring a human subject, one that viewers can identify with or feel for, is a very important element of a documentary, because that is what makes the viewers connect with what would otherwise feel like static, disconnected information.

What I think I love the most about this documentary though, was the inspiration I drew from it. I found that I sat down with a notebook and pen, and by then end of it had pages and pages of notes and quotes I’d scribbled down in my haste to not miss the next shot. Bill Cunningham was an amazingly wise old man, one who I cannot help but admire for his passion and dedication to his art. I can also completely identify with his disregard for money and desire to stay unbound by financial ties. “You see if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do kid.”

I will end this post with a handful of my favorite quotes from the legend that is Bill Cunningham:

·       “Money is the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive.”

·      “I eat with my eyes.”

·      “I don’t work. I only know how to have fun every day.”

·      “The wider world that perceives fashion as a …frivolity that should be done away with in the face of social upheavals and problems that are enormous…well the point is in fact that fashion…it’s the armour to survive the reality of everyday life. “

Here are some photos of the notes I couldn't help but scribble down as I was watching the documentary:  

The September Issue

 

My response to this documentary was rather different than to Bill Cunningham’s. I thought that Anna Wintour, editor in chief of fashion magazine Vogue, was a great subject choice given her famously cold demeanor but I also thought that it lacked a certain connection. I was drawn to the documentary mainly through my own curiosity as to what she was actually like, wondering if the stories I’d heard were true and if Meryl Streep had depicted an accurate portrayal of her in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. However after the first half an hour of the documentary all my questions relating to her personality had been answered, and I found myself getting bored. What I think might have sustained interest more effectively was if the subject was more accessible and more humane so that viewers could relate to her and feel for her.

There is the recurring theme of fear, and Anna mentions at the start that a lot of people are scared of fashion, it has a way of making people nervous and so most people just drop it. I think this statement rings true for the audience experience with this documentary too. Anna’s character is hard and cold and uninviting, and once the viewer gets over the novelty of getting to know this about her, it quite quickly gets boring and her demeanour simply makes the viewer uneasy. The focus on Vogue’s production process, including following the team on shoots to Rome and Paris, helps spark interest at different points of the film but isn’t enough to sustain it. One of her co-workers at Vogue makes the comment that “she’s not accessible to people she doesn’t need to be accessible to”, and while this might work in the fashion industry I think it is the death of this documentary. Because the main subject isn’t accessible to the viewer, the documentary fails to incite any emotion or feeling, or make me care about the story. This contrasts greatly with Bill Cunningham New York, where I found myself falling in love with the little old man’s eccentricities and views on life. I found myself thinking after watching the documentary that I would absolutely love to just sit down with Mr Cunningham and have a conversation with him, listen to his stories and absorb the wisdom he always seems to impart through conversation. After watching The September Issue I have no desire whatsoever to ever meet Anna Wintour, or even be in the presence of her on-screen self again.

The Social Studio

 

My first impression of The Social Studio is of a kaleidoscope of color. An array of bright and vivaciously coloured garments adorn the space, hanging from racks and hooks on walls, draped across working desks and piled on tables.  The burst of color is a pleasant surprise from the cold and dreary streetscape, a little dream world hidden behind the somewhat bland exterior of Smith Street. The simple black and white block lettered sign that adorns the outside doorway does not do justice to the creative space it stands gateway to: The Social Studio.

These colours, featured on the many scraps of material, thread spools and garments about the space will look absolutely beautiful on screen, and will make for a very vivacious tone to the documentary.

Inside the studio area the walls and part of the ceiling are covered with light brown waferboard, an appropriately neutral backdrop to this creative space. This will provide an appropriate background to make the colours of the garments ‘pop’ against the walls on screen, and also lend a kind of sunburnt ‘african’ feel to the space. Lights run across the ceiling, casting a glow onto the studio. I’m not sure that this level of lighting would be bright enough for filming purposes, but this is something that could easily be enhanced. The space is small but utilised well. Depending on the size of the production team, navigating around the space might prove a little difficult but these are all things that can be taken into consideration when deciding on what type of equipment to film with. My suggestion would be something small, perhaps my Nikon SLR would be best with its HD filming capabilities.

I adore the way The Social Studio has a little bit of a higgledy-piggledy feel to the way it’s been thrown together - perhaps because it’s constructed on donations - creating an unpretentious yet very real and creative sense of style. I draw parallels with this feel to the idea of street style, the style of the People and not the elite, and think this could be a relevant theme to explore in the documentary.

The café space and the store space both have a different feel to the Studio space. They are both more spacious with less clutter, but I feel that the studio room has the most character and would make the best subject of the three.