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.