Monday (in college):

This morning I went in college to mount my third board against the back so that I could create a small room. Overall...

Saturday (D-Day):

This morning I was round B&Q at 8.00 am getting the boards to mount my work on: I got 6 separate boards which I taped up together with strong duck tape so I could fold it up for easy transport and be able to mount it up as 3 pieces. I also bought a hook to place my headphones on which is actually a door stop but will look good once mounted up. I then went to Hobby Craft to get a piece of A2 mounting foam board, double sided tape and whilst I was there came across a paper cutter with a guide, which I bought so that I could cut all of the photographs the same size.

Once I had got all of the things that i needed for the exhibition, I started to cut the photographs, cutting each side of every photograph one by one so I could make sure they were all the same size - This was a very tedious process and took a lot longer than expected. I then measured up on the boards the space I would be putting the photographs, leaving a 2" boarder around each side as well. Then I got the correct order and stuck them down with double-sided tape which was very fiddly and time consuming and this had to then be repeated two more times. The whole process was very long and I am glad that I decided to do it before Tuesday and overall I think it looks really good consider how difficult it was to do.

Friday...

- Continued updating evaluation

- Finished majority of sketchbook

- Started to write blurb to go alongside exhibition

Overall I am feeling stressed about the exhibition but I feel once I have got the boards to mount the photographs on and that is all done then the biggest worry for me right now is going to be out of the way.

Printing of photographs...

I searched around for printing of my photographs but found that it was very expensive for all of the photographs so in the end I was able to go to UWE and use one of their printers so all I had to do was buy glossy A4 laser photo paper, which I bought 100 sheets for around £17.00 in Staples - which I thought was very reasonable (not that I'm advertising Staples or anything!).

The print themselves are of a high quality but perhaps I feel that paper slightly let it down as it wasn't as glossy as I first anticipated. Also the prints weren't as high contrast as I expected so the background aren't really 'black' black more grey/browny tones, which is slightly disappointing. However in comparison to the printer I normally use which is Xerox laser printer I feel that the tones are more natural where as the prints I have in my sketchbook are more blue than black and the white is very bright and slightly over-powering. The perfect scenario would be for both print qualities to meet somewhere in the middle but I know nothing is ever perfect!

Wednesday...

Today I continued to create my sound piece to be played alongside the photographs shown in the exhibition. I started off by cutting audio from the video clips filmed of people watching horror films so that I could incorporate this alongside the music and sounds from the film clips themselves. One problem that has occurred is that there is a lot of swearing and strong langiage in both the film clips and the responses and I don't want to offend anyone but I feel by taking this out I am being biased as to the genuine emotion expressed which is exactly what I didn't want to do. So after some deliberation I decided to keep the swearing in but as moderate as possible so that the affect is still there but I will place a warning sign next to the ipod saying that it contain strong language.

Tuesday...

For the majority of the day I have been finishing off missed out parts in my sketchbook and drawing out exhibition plans so I know what I need to get before next Tuesday. I also started the evaluation of my project as I want to make sure this is done to the highest standard possible and I want to proof-read and re-write a few times before I reach the final copy.

start of half term week...

In the next week I will be finishing off any lose ends to the project, such as sketchbook work. I will also be preparing for setting up the exhibition for when we go back on Tuesday 8th of June - I will get 3 white boards to mount my photographs on, a smaller board for ipod and headphones as well as finding out the best place to print my images as I have at least 60 A4 photographs to do.

FRIDAY (LAST DAY)...

Today I finished giving my board another two coats which should be enough for it to look even and clean. (I intend to go in next Monday after half term to drill it onto the wall so that I can do it whilst not many people are around and its a big job so I don't want to get in anyones way too much). I also collected some sounds noises from the videos of my photo shoots of people watching horror films so that I could use it for my scary sound clips to show in the exhibition.

I then made sure I took all my work and collected everything that I need over half term to complete my work.

THURSDAY - CLEARING THE STUDIO:

This morning we all spent sometime completely clearing out the studio out of all of our work so I had to make sure that all of my photographs were down from the boards that I mounted them on. As well as clearing all of my stuff out of the studio, I knew that I had to get an extra board to mount the third set of 20 photographs on - the board needed to be around 8ft by 4ft. My initial plan was to go to B&Q which is a 5 - 10 minute walk from the college to get a boards which I could paint once I had got it. However after asking around college about boards I came across a spare board which had been previously used for graffiti work so on one side had graffiti on it but the other side was plain so I decided to paint this side of the board white. This was a useful find as it saved me both money and time to continue to organise the rest of the exhibition work. - Today I painted one coat on the board but I still feel it needs two more coats which is why I intend to do tomorrow.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON/WEDNESDAY...

Over the last two days in college I have mainly been concentrating on creating a animation of the photographs that I have taken of people watching horror film clips. To create this animation I have used Flash and Photoshop.

Here is the animation itself:

(Video currently not uploading)

As well as the colour version uploaded above I also experimented with creating a black and white version similar to the photographs I have created. However I found that the black and white version was too dull as video and didn't really grab the viewers attention enough so I kept it to the original colour version.

One problem that occurred whilst created the animation was that if I was going to upload all of the images at once then they would end up being to big for the 'stage' and that meant that I would need to re size all of them - However I used a similar technique as I did to crop the edited photograph using Photoshop. I first found out what size the frame was in flash and then did a 'Batch Resize' in Photoshop so that when I uploaded them they would all be the correct size and Flash would do the important automatically for me. Another problem was that when the images were uploaded they were off cue with the frame of the 'stage' which then meant I had to move all of them slightly. However when it came to watching the animation I realised that there were small white area of the stage showing where the images had not been moved correctly, therefore I added the final animation to Final Cut Pro and cropped around the sides a little so this would no longer occur.

Tuesday morning:

This morning I pinned up some more photographs up on my wall, this time it was of the edits that I had done over last week and had printed off A4 over the weekend.

Here is photographs of the two boards that I covered this morning:







After pinning up the photographs with a white boarder I experimented with cutting of the boarder and just lining up the images themselves - I feel that although this will be more difficult and a longer process I believe that it will look much better, particularly against a white background.

WEEKEND...

I firstly finished off editing the best photographs from the three last photo shoots so that I was able to print them all on A4 pages and experimented with laying them out in certain orders to see what ones are the best - one major problem that occurred was that I found that some of the images were out of focus and couldn't be used. This was something that I didn't originally notice when editing on the computer, therefore I need to go back and edit some more photographs as alternatives so I have enough for 20 different people in each film category. Here is some examples of some of the blurred images that can't be used:











With the image (above right) I noticed that all of the shots are out of focus and can't be used which is a massive shame as the expressions were very animated, however I still feel as though I have another photographs for the final series

I also experimented with making sound clips by taking audio from the three films that I showed - I merged all of the clips and created a montage of sounds that was as distorted as it could be without all of the sounds being unrecognisable. This clip is only 50 seconds long but I intend to create a 3-4 minute piece which I will put on a loop so it is played over and over again. In the 3-4 minute sound clip I will use sounds from both the film clips I have shown as well as using sounds from the recording that Becky (who is currently making a doc on mine and a few other people's projects) did of the actual photo shoot as well.

Friday...

I spent the majority of the day today continuing to edit my photographs - However the main problem that I came across was that all of the images were different sizes once they had been cropped to the composition I wanted them, this meant that when I go to print the images off then they will all be different sizes and therefore would not work as a series. To overcome this problem I got some advice from some of the other students on my course, who explained that I could use Photoshop to do a 'Batch Resize' which would make all of the pixels of the images the same size so I would no longer have this problem.

I also used Photoshop to edit the photographs, I desaturated the images as well as adjusting the levels so that the tones were as similar as possible. Here are some examples of the photographs that I edited today:












HOSTEL (2005)













THE EXORCIST (1973)












FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 1 - THE FINAL CHAPTER (1980 -1984)

Thursday editing...

Now that I have taken all of the photographs that I had planned to do I decided to start editing some of the photographs. Initially I started out by picking the photographs I wanted to develop further - I decided to pick as many images to develop from each film clip as possible so that when it comes to the point when I need to pick the images to use as part of the exhibition I will have more choice and therefore hopefully will have a better range of facial expressions to display.

I intend to make all of the photographs black and white so that I can make all of the tones as similar as possible because one thing I have noticed in the original colour verision is that all the lighting and colour tones have changed dramatically at times. Here is an example:

Third Horror Photo Shoot...

This morning I decided to do another photo shoot of people watching horror films as I felt that I didn't have enough choice of different people's reactions and I also believe that if I give myself enough choice then I will be more likely end to up with a better final outcome as well. In the photo shoot, I photographed around 10 people which now means that all together I have shot over 30 people so that gives me quite a wide choice of photographs to choose 20 from each film clip.

Today, more so then before I found that the process was quicker as I now know what points in the film provoke the strongest emotional responses from the sitters. For some reason today I felt that more people were getting scared easier, particularly the girls I asked - I'm not sure if this relates to the high-levels of stress that is floating around each group on the course as the end of the project nears ever closer and whether this had played an affect on the sitter's emotions.

Here are set of examples from the photo shoot (pre-edit):

Ideas for how to display the photographs...

This morning I experimented with looking at the best possible ways to display my photographs in the exhibition. I have been debating what size to display the photographs, either choosing an A4 size or A5. I think more than likely I will use A4 images as then this will emphasise the isolated feeling I want to create in the exhibition as the images will seem a lot closer up and make the space seem more cramped and uneasy - this alongside the scary music I intend to create should hopefully provoke the same kind of emotions in the viewer of the work as the actual sitters who watched the film so the viewers should be able to place themselves in the same situation.

I decided to display the images I had done so far all on one wall so that I could spot the photographs that I feel don't work as part of the series and work out what photographs need to be cropped more and what adjustments of levels and tones need to be done in post production.

Here is a photograph of the wall with all of the photographs up:


Overall I felt that I need to do a lot of cropping of the images in post-production as the photographs don't as of yet work as part of series because some of the composition are closer up and some are further away so I need to sort this problem out before I can develop how I want the images to be presented any further.

WEEKEND...

I spent the weekend looking over my photographs and still feel as though I need to take some more photographs, which is useful that I have booked out the photography studio for wednesday morning (I chose weds morning as I know that this is a time when the majority of people on my course are in college and will be available for me to photograph).

Also throughout the weekend I continued to update my sketchbook, particularly recording the photographs of people watching horror films that I have done so far. I also wrote about the set up of the photo shoots, evaluating what worked well and what things I feel I can improve on for the next shoot.

FRIDAY it was THE 13TH yesterday...

This morning I spent sometime in the studio, this time not taking my own photographs but helping out with Nicole's fashion shoot. By helping out for a little while, particularly during the set up, I learnt a lot about the lighting using in commercial photography and a lot more about how I can set the studio better for my own photographs and how to get the perfect lighting conditions for the affect required. I found the experience really interesting and I feel like I've actually learnt a lot more about the importance of using studio lighting to control how a photograph looks, which is good and will help when using a studio environment in the future.

Also today I have been focusing on ideas on how I want to present my final outcome which at the moment seems as though it is going to be a series of around 60 photos of different facial expressions which have been created by showing horror film clips. I intend to split the photographs up under each film, for example I hope to end with 20-25 images for each film clip, which I want to present on 3 separate boards. I want to use the 2 boards with 4 sides and push them together to make a small room from them, of which three walls will be taken up by the photographs themselves and a back wall which may be will display a small piece of writing explaining the idea behind the experiment. I have also started to think about maybe using sound to represent what the model's have watched. I thought about showing segments of the clips but I feel that another visual element will take the emphasise away from the actual photographs created. Therefore I feel sound would be the best option - the idea will based around incorporating a montage of different sounds, some from the video clips shown, some from the sounds creating by the sitters (i.e. scream, gasp etc.) and then also sounds of people talking afterwards about what they saw, such as what they felt was scariest parts etc.

Photographs from both photo shoot (Tuesday 'n' Wednesday)...

Here are some examples from both photo shoots consisting of the sitter watching three horror film clips - The Exorcist, Friday the 13th and Hostel (PRE-EDIT):

Wednesday Morning (Second horror clip photo shoot):

This morning I have continued where I left off yesterday afternoon by continuing to the studio set up to photograph people who are watching clips from horror movies. I decided not to change anything about the last set up as I felt that it worked really well, also because everything was already set up I could go straight ahead and take photographs which then meant that I would be able to photograph more people than yesterday in the time slot allocated.

Today I was gradually finding it easier to photograph the facial expressions as I was becoming more and more aware of the times in the film clips that provoked the strongest emotions and expressions in the sitter. This meant that at times I could be ready with the shutter held halfway down for a quicker release, hopefully catching that instant genuine reaction from the sitter better. I also felt as though I have gradually been finding the experience more and more personal, at times I have felt myself getting annoyed with the fact that some people were not feeling any emotion towards what they are watching or finding the experience at all frightening. I think this is because I have seen the majority of people show emotions of fear and when some people don't I find it difficult to understand their point of view. Above all though it is extremely interesting that my emotions are being provoked by the sitter's emotions and at times I reflect the way they are feeling even though I am only listening to the clips. May be it because the sounds of the clips themselves are as powerful as the visual footage - this is something I feel I must develop on further, how does sound effect our emotions? May be sound can affect our emotions more? Interesting.....

Tuesday afternoon (first photo shoot using horror film clips RESULTS)...

Overall I really enjoyed doing this photo shoot and I felt it has been particularly insightful, especially in terms of looking at how we all react differently to the things that we are shown. What I found most interesting about the shoot was the diverse range of facial expressions that have been created - these ranged from the obvious expression of fear to happiness and contempt. I personally believe that the majority of the seven basic facial expressions (discovered by Paul Ekman) were all produced by a range of different people looking at just the three horror film clips: Hostel, The Exorcist and Friday the 13th. This was actually rather surprising as I thought that the only expressions produced would be fear, surprise and disgust but at times even signs of happiness, contempt, anger and sadness were created by various people. This in a way kept the photo shoot rather exciting as even though by the end of the shoot I was aware of the times in the clips that provoked the strongest responses I was always kept on my toes by the unpredictable range of emotions created in the sitter as it always varied from person to person.

Here are some examples of the expressions that were created by the sitters (this images are pre-edit and have not been adjusted using Photoshop yet):











FRIDAY THE 13TH

Tuesday afternoon (first photo shoot using film clips SET-UP)...

This afternoon I used the studio in college which I booked in advance two weeks ago. Initially I had some help with setting up the lighting to how I wanted it to be. I decided to use two large soft box lights which were placed either side of table. The table was used so that I could rest my laptop (which I was using to show the videos) on it. So that the sitter could easily view the laptop on the table, I used a sit which would be situated slightly behind and in the middle of both lights. I also felt that by getting the model to sit down in front of the laptop this would relax them more, as it would remind them of siting at home in front the television so hopefully they would be less prone to be put of by the camera or lights. I then put the camera on a tripod as I knew that it would be easier to keep the camera steady whilst taking fast continuous shots of the sitter's facial expressions. The studio was completely blacked out, including the window and door, so the only light created was from the two soft box lights. I did this because I felt that this darkened effect would emphasise the fear in the sitter but also it would take them away from the college setting as if they were completely on their own watching a horror film. I hope that this would create more genuine facial expressions but also distract the sitter's attention away from the camera and focus it more on the film clip they are watching. Also unlike the last photo shoot I did in college, I decided to not use such of a close up framing of the face as I felt that if the expressions were strong then this would cause more body movement so it would be highly likely that the face would not be in the frame correctly.

Image of set up needed

Tuesday morning (mid-project review?)...

This morning we had a mid-project review where as a class we each gave a short presentation about the work we had done so far, what we plan to do and achieve at the en of the project. We also went back through our statements of intent to see whether we had done what we said we intended to do and what has changed about our project since writing the statement (i.e. different direction for the project or different use of media chosen etc.). As well as this we all wrote notes about each other's presentations, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of their projects and advice on how they could improve their work.

Overall I found this experience very helpful for me to stand back and reflect upon my work but most importantly it showed me that I need to really pick up the pace for the project and instead of over-thinking everything, I just need to get on and experiment. I also feel this was echoed by the rest of the group in their notes as they all felt the project idea was good but I just need to do more photographs of facial expressions and use different techniques in creating the expressions.

some more photographic experiments...

After looking back through some of the videos I have downloaded, I decided to show some of them to my family - the main reason for this was so that I could work out what videos provoke the strongest responses from sitter now rather than wasting valuable studio time deciding in college tomorrow. I also want to keep the photo shoot very structure so I intend to show the exact same videos to everyone who models so the final outcome of expressions are fair in comparison to each other.

From the photo shoot I found that although the television programmes I showed such as Britain's Got Talent and Embarrassing Bodies did provoke an emotional response in the sitter, the facial expressions weren't as strong or as obvious as I thought they would be. I also found that if the person had already seen the programme before then their response was minimal as the shock-factor had been lost.

Here are some photographic examples of the facial expressions created whilst watching these television programmes above:



Channel 4's Embarrassing Bodies
<-------------->






However, I found that this wasn't the case when showing clips from famous horror movies. I noticed that even if the sitter had seen the film, such as my brother has watched both Hostel 1 and Hostel 2 he did not know what was going to happen next as it was only a short clip of the first film and I didn't actually tell what film he was going to watch initially either. Therefore I found that the shock value was still important in creating a vivid response from the sitter and that it is an important part of ignitiing fear in the viewer whilst watching horror films. I also was surprised too see that the article written in The Telegraph (see earlier post) was quite accurate as so far I have found that the emotional response to watching the videos do vary from person to person and I have found that some people do laugh while others squirm of look away. This concept is defiantly something I want to expand on and I now feel that I will experiment with this idea in the next photo shoot tomorrow. I should my family a variety of different horror movie clips, including the old and new - I found that while the majority ignited vivid response from the sitters some of the clips didn't create any effect what so ever such as Stephen King's It. I also found that the movies that provoked the strongest response from the sitter were Saw, Hostel, The Exorcist and Friday the 13th. However as I felt Hostel and Saw were from a similar torture sub-genre of horror I decided to just choose the one clip which I felt was better - I choose Hostel for the suspense that is created in the clip.

Here are a few examples of facial expressions created from showing the horror films, The Exorcist, Hostel and Friday the 13th:





<---------Hostel (2005) film clip









Friday the 13th film clip----------------->

Horror film clips...

Here are a selection of some of the horror film clips that I have downloaded (the selection is of some of the best clips that I feel will provoke the most vivid responses from the viewer):

WARNING: YOU MAY FIND SOME OF THE VIDEOS SCARY, WATCH AT YOUR OWN PERIL...

Hostel (2005) film clip


The Exorcist (1973)


Friday the 13th (1980, 1981, 1982,1984, 1985, 1986, 1988)

Finding videos to use for photo shoots CONTINUED...

Whilst searching for more information about what emotions horror films provoke in the viewer, I came across an interesting article from The Telegraph online. Here is the link for the article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2535221/Horror-film-gene-that-makes-some-scream-while-others-laugh.html

As well the article I found here is a selection of some of the videos that I have downloaded:

Britain's Got Talent


Embarrassing Bodies (WARNING: this video contains some embarrassing body issues?)


Facejacker

I also intend to upload some clips of horror movies that I have found which I think best represent the ones that I will use in the up and coming photo shoots next week.

Finding videos to use for photo shoots...

I have spent the majority of the day looking and trying to download videos to use for the up and coming photo shoots in the studio in college which I have already booked out. I firstly tried just typing in the videos I was looking for on a search engine like Google, however I found that the majority of video clips were on the website Youtube so I decide to use that website as my main resource. I decided that I was going to continue with the idea of using human-interest programmes such as Britain's Got Talent and Embarrassing Bodies as well as other various documentary-style shows. I found it relatively easy to find interesting clips from both shows using Youtube as both ITV and Channel 4 seem to be uploading various of their shows onto the website, probably to get up with the ever growing use of the internet to watch television. I used a website I found using google to download the videos so that I would be able to show the clips without needing the use of the internet as I know this would not be available to me in college.

As well as downloading various television programmes, that I may or may not use in the photo shoot, I decided to move onto finding films that I could use to provoke an emotion in the sitter. Instantly I thought of horror movies as a very good way to ignite a feeling of fear in the sitter but once I started to watch several clips I noticed that my emotional state varied from film to film. For example when I watched a clip from The Exorcist I personally found it made me laugh at times even if I did feel slightly awkward for laughing, where as when I watched Hostel I found that I was a lot more anxious and disgusted particularly in the torture scene. I found that this idea of how different horror films can provoke different emotions in the viewer really interesting and its defiantly an aspect of the changes in our emotions that I want to explore.

Ideas...

Now that I have a stronger direction on how I want to develop my project, I have decided to research into what kind of videos I want to use to create a certain response in the sitter. I've looked at trying to find videos that should ignite each emotion that I have been studying (seven universal emotion discovered by Paul Ekman; Happiness, Sadness, Contempt, Fear, Surprise, Anger and Disgust) however I didn't feel as though I could find videos that would accurately provoke each emotion. I also felt that this would still leave me in the same position I am in now because I know by having a series of different emotions portrayed I've not really proved anything other than how I provoke the emotion in the sitter and the final outcome may still be seen as random and confusing to the viewer. Therefore I am going to focus on finding a particular genre of film, genre of television programme to use in the hope that I can ignite some sort of expression in different people. I have looked at using human-intterest programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies or Britain's Got Talent because I have noticed myself whist watching the shows, the sheer scale of different emotions that can be created throughout one-hour length programme - This is something that I find particularly interesting especially in terms of how we react to what we our shown - if I was to show something disgusting on a show like Embarrassing Bodies it would be interesting to see if they react differently, such as someone may cover their face, another person may laugh or even have to get up and walk out. This concept is something that I feel I have to experiment with to see if there actually are a range of emotions created or whether they would in fact all be the same.

Thursday thoughts and plans...

After discussing the direction of my work with several different people, including teachers, and also by spending some more time researching into the use of media in order to provoke a reaction, I finally have an idea on what type of external stimulus I want to experiment with further to create an emotional response from the sitter.

I now feel as though the best way to get a genuine reaction from the sitter is to use video, this could be of a television programme or a film. The main reason I feel this is because whilst experimenting with using videos and images in the last photo shoot I found that that the photographs I used worked to provoke a response in the model, however the response was so quick it was extremely difficult to capture the genuine response on camera without the sitter being distracted. Although this was not the case with using videos as I found that all of the sitter's attention was focused on what they were being shown so they wasn't as put off by the camera. I also found that as the videos lasted longer so did the responses in some cases but not all.

ELECTION FEVER...

THURSDAY 6TH MAY:

VOTED.............

wwwwwwwwednesday...

After getting feedback about my work I decided that it was about time I really organised what I intend to get from this project and have a clearer idea on what I want to achieve at the end of the project. Initially I struggled to come up with a solid idea of which I could progress with but after sometime talking to people about my project and researching on the internet about facial expressions, I came up with the idea to focus on why we react strongly to certain things, i.e. when in an argument our facial expressions can make someone else more angry than what we actually say (this is something that I also found out about in the documentary 'The Human Face'). I thought of the idea of photographing people talking or going about their daily business but felt that this would distract away from the main focus being on facial expressions and not necessarily body language. I also felt that this idea may not be very accurate because its hard to get the sitter/model to act as normal when they are constantly aware of the camera.

I know that I want to do a more scientific experiment with the essence of the project to prove something important about facial expressions similar to what Paul Ekman has spent his life achieving. I also wanted the experiments relate to my own interests, which is why I feel as though I have come to the conclusion that a good way to experiment facial expressions is to look the reaction that are created by the media, i.e. newspaper articles, magazines, film and television. I intend to look further into what kind of media to we most react to and what the reactions mean and I hope that I can find a particular aspect of the media to focus on as part of photographic experiment looking at facial expressions.

I also continue to update my newspaper portrait collection, still focusing on analysing the facial expressions that are prominent in the newspapers and what they might mean...

Some edits from the photo shoot taken last weds...

Here are some edited version of some of the photographs that was taken during the photo shoot last week:

I have edited these images using Photoshop - I changed the tone to black and white to bring out the details on the facial expressions and then adjusted the Levels of the image so that the lighting and tones are stronger/contrasting.

umm it's tuesday...

Today I spent the morning selecting and printing the most successful images from the photo shoot I took last Wednesday. I selected 18 images of which I felt best showed a range of diverse facial expressions from a range of different people. I printed them off A4 on a black and white printer and from this I decided to pin them up on my display board in a grid-like style. The main reason for doing this was so that I could get the images out of the computer and be able to look at them in a different but most importantly is so I can show others the work I have been doing and be able to listen to their feedback on how I can improve my work.

Below is a photograph of my board at present (after I have pin up the photographs taken):
Some of the feedback I received was really helpful, particularly in terms of getting more ideas to use for the next photo shoots I intend to do. What I found was that visually people thought the presentation of the work was good and a lot of people spoke to me about what the facial expressions meant, which was my intention to gain as a response. However some people felt that the ideas and reasons for the photo shoot were slightly muddled and hard to understand - for example a lot of people were confused on the direction of the project and what I have set out to achieve. This is something that I feel is echoed by myself as well because I feel that I like the outcome of the photo shoot, however I don't feel as though the process and idea of the shoot was focused enough to be able to prove a certain ideology. I also felt that the sitters were too aware of the camera and this was effecting their expressions so I now know in the next shoot I need to focus on using some sort of stimulus that will distract the sitters attention but also provoke a vivid response from them as well...

WEEKEND...

During the weekend I spent some time continuing to update my collection of portraits from 'The Guardian' - which still is still very interesting and surprising in terms of me realising how much more I am of other people facial expressions now than maybe I was before I started this project.

I also decided to take some photographs Sunday night which related to the work of Gary Schneider who I have been studying. Schneider's images seem to have been created using a very dark room, a long exposure on the camera and a torch to light up the face so this is exactly how I set my images up. I decided to get the sitter to lie on the floor as then they would move less so as not too blur the image too much. I also used a tripod as I would not be able to hold the camera steady with such a long exposure. The photo shoot was an experiment to find out if the effect was achievable and to see how this affected the photographs. The whole point of using the torch was so that I could highlight the areas that I felt were important in terms of identifying a certain facial expressions, for example a happiness face would be predominantly evident through the raising of the corner of the lips or "crow's feet" created at the corner of each eye. This was my main focus so I decided not to worry too much about the emotion expressed but just to experiment with the lighting and how I would be able to show only parts of the face rather than highlighting all of the face.

On reflection, I feel that the technique I used was reasonably easy to pick up and with a bit of practice could defiantly work in terms of only highlighting a small part of the face. However I sort of feel that because the lighting is so dark and eerie would this hinder or alter the way emotion is expressed, for example would a face expressing happiness be as obvious in the lighting used? This is something that I feel I will only be able to find out if I continue to experiment with the idea, particularly in terms of photographing each emotion...

Friday at college..

Today I continued to update my sketchbook containing portrait images from The Guardian newspaper (yesterday was the last day of the seven days). It seems election fever has captured most of the media's attention as I have found that the majority of the images used in the paper are of politician or are of someone who has a so called "unbiased" opinion on who they think should be the next prime minster - it all seems to have gone a bit X- Factor for me (maybe Cowell will decide the eventual winner and we will get charged for a vote that never ever counted). The hugely sensationalised "Live Political TV Debates" have not help and with only one televised political debate out of 3 down, an idiotic journalist/newspaper (The Times) went as far to call Clegg "more popular than Churchill". Hmm....

I also spent some of the day going through the photographs I took on wednesday and picked images that best displayed the seven basic emotions that I have been studying - I chose around 18-20 of the best images which I then adjusted slightly using photoshop (basic image enhancements such as Levels, Brightness and Contrast etc.) I intend to print these images and display them upon my wall as this will then changed they way I look at the images but I will also be able to ask others what they feel has worked well and what maybe hasn't - This should hopeful improve my analysis and development of my work a lot more.

Photo shoot - Experimentation with expressions, lighting an composition...

I spent the majority of the day experimenting with ways to provoke an emotion in the sitter: This consisted of setting up a photo shoot in which I would show material as well as give the sitter a scenario that would correlate to the emotion I wanted them to express.

During this photo shoot I also experimented with the lighting to set up as I knew that I didn't want to use any complex set ups which may affect the mood of the image, i.e to much shadow would hinder an image expressing happiness etc. The lighting set up had been inspired by Martin Schoeller's series of celebrity portraits. I used one soft box light which was situated above and slightly to the side of the camera (which had been place on a tripod) and got two people to hold two large pieces of black card each side of where the model would sit as this would reflect the light back onto the model - This lighting set up was done to create a similar reflection of the light in the sitter's eyes as seen in some of Schoeller's most iconic works that I have been researching.

I also experimented with how I wanted the composition of my photographs to look - I personally felt that I wanted to frame the shot as close up to the face as possible so it would basically show just the face and very little else in the composition. The idea behind this was so that the view would be exposed to he expression and as there would be nothing else happening within the image then the viewer would feel inclined to study the face further. I found that the composition worked very well and was an easy effect to achieve using a zoom lens of around 150mm. However such a close up shot did have it down falls at times, particularly in terms of catching people's facial expressions - For example if the sitter reacted quickly and strongly to what is shown then at times they would appear of screen because any slight movement affected the framing of the shot. I think for further reference I will zoom out and frame the shot as more of a simple portrait so that I can capture all of the sitter's movement and then I will crop the image in the post-prodcution stages of the project, more than likely using Photoshop.

As for the people who I asked to model - I wanted to keep it simple and try not to photograph too many people as this would make it harder for me to experiment with ways to create a response as this was my main focus rather than who was modelling. However I did decide to ask some drama students to participate so I could see whether if I was to give them a scenario or role to play that this would help them to create an emotion which related back to the part that they were playing - (This idea has been inspired by Howard Schatz's photographic series In Character: Actors Acting, which I have researched and presented images of in my sketchbook) - The girls I asked were very nice and helpful towards my project and did in fact create some interesting facial expressions however I found that the way in which the photo shoot was directed, i.e asking the drama students to act out scenarios didn't work, this may have been because it was an open area so other people were around or it could have been because the drama students found it to hard to be in character without being distracted by the camera.

This problem that I have now noticed is interesting and may be something that is hard to get over as I know the sitter is always going to notice the camera at times - However I feel in a darkened studio environment with just lights and the camera it might be a slightly less daunting prospect for the sitter. I also feel that showing images is not as effective as showing video footage this may be because the emotion is a lot shorter by looking at images so its harder to capture. But I also feel that by showing videos then the sitters attention is elsewhere so the expressions are more natural and they are also less aware of the camera - this idea of just using video is something that I feel I want to experiment with further in the project....

Tuesday...

Today I spent most of my time updating my sketchbook which contains the portrait image cuttings from newspapers. I have decided not too rush this and not pay enough attention to the research as I feel later on in the project it will be an important part of the development of my understanding of human facial expressions:

What I have found most interesting about this area of research is how by taking the images from newspaper, it takes the photographs away from the context of the article, which at times has meant that the expressions seem to look different - for example an image could so a woman looking sad and the article reflects this as well, however if you take the image away from its context the expressions could be mistaken for anger or fear. I think to keep the experiment fair it would best not to know too much about the context of the image as this could hinder the way I analysis the image and identify the facial expression.

Weekend...

This weekend I continue to collect the weekend newspapers (including today) and I have started to cut out the portrait images which I have stuck in a separate sketchbook to the main one. I have started to analysis the images and identify the emotions which I think each person is expressing. Straight away I have noticed that I am becoming more aware of the use of portrait photography around me. However most importantly I feel that I am gradually starting to build a better knowledge on how we express emotions and I am starting to find it a lot easier to identify them.

I have also started to organise and schedule days in which I plan to take photographs or use the studio (which I need to book first) - Within this plan I have also attempted to try and decide what type of photographs I want to create, particularly in terms of what expressions I want to provoke in the sitter. This has also lead me into thinking that I need to find more external stimulus to use whilst photographing people so that it is easier to gain a response from the models.

Friday advice...more:

I also discovered a way to improve my analyse of facial expressions further, particularly as a development upon the images from magazines and newspapers that I collected and put in my sketchbook - this idea was good but I didn't write enough about each face and what expressing it was showing. So i discussed with my tutor a way of improving this idea as I felt it was something that I found interesting and enjoyable to do as well as being useful in improving the way I identify facial expressions.

After the discussion I shared with Oli I decided to buy one newspaper everyday for a week (I choose the Guardian as I felt it would have the best diversity of stories) and collect every portrait image that is shown in the paper - this could be anything from a 'wannabe Prime Minster to a wannabe Britain's Got Talent winner' but the most important thing is to collect the images and analyse each one focusing on what kind of the facial expressions they are showing. I will show evidence of this in a separate sketchbook to the main bulk of work because to me this is a separate mini project which relates to my understanding of the project but mixed together in one sketchbook would seem muddled and extremely confusing the an outside viewer.

By spending time on this research I hope to show I share a real interest in my chosen project, whilst conveying the development of my understanding of facial expressions and how they are conveyed. I feel that I will dramatically improve my knowledge of facial expressions but make my self a lot more aware of portrait photography around me and how the mise-en-scene or body language is used to convey a certain message or emotion (particularly in staged image).

Friday advice...

During my time at college on Friday morning I spent the majority of time seeking advice about the directions I want my final project to take and what I feel I want the final outcome to be. I spoke to Nick the photograph tutor as I felt that he would be able to give the best advice as my project is very much based around photography as a chosen medium. Within the dicussion I gained some invaluable advice about the direction my project was going in:

Nick felt that just creating a series of close up portrait photographs of different facial expressions was a too simple concept on its on and need to be developed further in a different direction. Even if I did decide that I want to keep just the close up portraits shots a final outcome at least by looking at different areas of portrait photography it shows that I have thought about other possibilities in order to create the best outcome as possible. We spent a lot of time discussing how I could use photography to expose each emotion, particularly in terms of showing the viewer how that emotion is conveyed in the face - Nick then came up with a photographer he felt would relate to this idea of highlighting the areas of the face that are in important in each expressions:

A link to Gary Schiender's series of portrait photographs on his website:

Schiender's portraits are created in blacked out room with a camera set on a long exposure but most important he uses a torch to control the light so he can highlight the areas of the face he wants to show. Personally I feel this will work really well in relation to my project as I feel I will be able to control the way each emotion is shown and be able to highlight the areas that are important in each emotion. I will also be able to experiment with the idea of merging the emotions that have similar characteristics within one long exposure.

A few examples of Schiender's work:

Thursday Digital and Study Skills sessions...

This morning we discussed the grading criteria for the final major project and what the differences between a pass, merit and grade levels are. I found this particularly helpful as we were given a booklet showing us the different areas of each grading criteria including research, development etc. and how we can achieve the grade we are aiming for or need to get to get into university. Personally I also feel that this will help me to keep organised as I will be able to work out the things I have done and the things I need to improve on to get the best grade as possible.

Within my digital workshop session I created a planning document for what I want to achieve during each digital session per week. This is what I have planned for the sessions so I can keep organised and not waste time:

'During the digital media sessions throughout the final major project, I intend to use this time to support the work I have be doing, this could be in the form of research, development, analysis and evaluation, which can be created digitally. I will continue to update my blog during the digital sessions to ensure that I stick to my time plan but l also so that I can analyse and evaluate my work.

I aim to use the digital software available to develop my photographs that I have taken, preliminarily using Photoshop. Also whilst developing my photographs on Photoshop I will get support rom available tutors on how I can use Photoshop to improve my work and what is the most efficient way to do this. I will also use the available printers to print my photographs off that have been developed. This will ensure that I can show other people my work and get feedback on what they think, particularly on how I can improve my photographs'

Wednesday Continued...

In the afternoon on today, I decided to experiment with a different media, this took the form of stop motion video. Within this stop motion video I decided to show the seven universal emotions that I have been studying through the use of photography and video. I have used the still camera on the video camera to shoot seven different people expressing seven different emotions on their faces. I also chose to get each sitter to right down what emotion they felt they were conveying on a small white board - this was done because I felt that it would give me an insight into how other people feel the emotions are expressed and for later to use when I can compare a more staged image shown in the video with less staged.

Overall I think the video works as part of my research into facial expressions, however I don't feel as though I will choose to pursue this idea any further, particularly in terms of development towards my final outcome. I also may develop the video further by slowing it down using either After Effects or iMovie as the expressions are slightly to quick to notice. Although in some ways I find this interesting as it makes it harder to identify each expressions and this idea of showing quick images of the different expressions part of video and asking people to identify them relates to the work of Ekman and may be an interesting idea to pursue further (this could be easily created using the photographs I intend to take).

Bernini - The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa'

I spent the morning discussing my project with one of my tutors (Shaun). From this I found out different ways that I could develop my project, particularly in terms of having a range of outcome to choose from. I also gained more information which will benefit my research in the project - I was introduced to the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, particularly his sculptor 'The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa'. In this sculptor Bernini shows a swooning nun (Theresa) being speared by an angel (who resemble cupid), however her facial expression does not fit the context of the sculptor - Theresa has an expression of sexual ecstasy and seeing the face taken away from the context of the sculptor emphasises this, however once seen within the scene created, is the expression of Theresa meant to represent pain? Or is Bernini just trying to convey the message that our facial expression may deceive what we our actually feeling?

First Day Back At College...

I spent the first day back at college reviewing my research with other students on my pathway whilst gaining feedback on what they thought I could improve on or any advice they had. I also spent the majority of the morning searching for relevant books that would help my project. I also ordered a book from Queens Road college which is an artist reference for facial expressions book that I feel will be extremely helpful in improve my knowledge of the different facial expressions there are.

I also continued with artist research, particularly with showing evidence of this in my sketchbook as well as analysing relevant photographs that I felt were going to influence my photographic work throughout the project.

First photographic experiments...

Using some of the external stimulus that I have found through internet, research, television news and what I've learnt through looking closer into the work of Ekman, I attempted to make the sitter feel a certain emotion that could be photograph as evidence. I found this experiment really interesting but at the same time difficult to produce a response from the sitter as they were constantly aware of the camera and at times this stopped an subconscious response from happening. I decided not to concentrate on taking the perfect photograph or using the perfect lighting in this series of photographs as I felt that this would hinder my time spending just trying to experiment with getting a response from the sitter and what worked well and didn't.

In response to the external stimulus used I felt that it was relatively simple to gain an happiness/smiling response through the use of humorous videos and pictures as well as news stories. Also disgust was created by using photographs that would repulse people but also by making them imagine the most disgusting thing they could eat or smell, in the case of the photographs shown it was the smell and taste of fish that repulsed the sitter. Surprise was mostly created by using shocking news stories and images. Also anger was created by scenario based stories and by simply trying to get on the sitters nerves. Sadness was created in a similar way as anger using scenarios, for example how would you feel if you was to lose a loved one? Fear could also be created by showing a series of images of fearful faces however this was not one of the easiest emotions to get. Contempt was one of the most emotions to captured, more than likely because its one of the hardiest to spot.

I decided that I would develop these photographs in black and white because in my artist research I felt that the black and white images worked at lot better in terms of bringing out the details on the face, which I knew was something I wanted to achieve. The photographs shown are a select few of the images I have developed and show what I was trying to achieve particularly in terms of compositional value. I feel that as a first experiment this has worked well but it needs a lot more developing and perhaps another dimension to make the images stand out more and become more visually appealing.

Artist Research...

I have spent the last few days looking at different portrait photographers, some contemoprary and some not, so that I can get inspiration for what style I feel I would like my photographs to resemble as well as what style would create the best affect for my photographs and the facial expressions.

The portrait photographs that I have looked at so far are:

Martin Schoeller
Robert Mapplethorpe
Howard Schatz - specifically his photographic series of actors playing a role
Irving Penn
Richard Avedon
Steve Pyke
David Bailey
Yousuf Karsh
Mark Selieger (couldn't find any photographs that I felt would be relevant for my project so decided not to do any further research on artist)

I intend to continue this research more thoroughly throughout the next week or so. Particularly looking to get some more books on these and other relevant artists from the library in college.

Documentaries...

I have just finished watching two documentaries that I found on the internet which I felt related to my project and would help improve my knowledge on facial expressions and body language.

The first documentary I watched was the four-part BBC series entitled 'The Human Face' which was presented by John Cleese and featured a star-studded class including the co-presenter for the series Liz Hurley. I decided to watch the majority of the series but I focused the majority of my attention on the hour special entitled 'Face to Face' which looked at the purpose of the face and how it reveals our personality. Throughout the episode Cleese looked at the seven universal emotions and used case studies, such as a couple close to divorce to show how these emotions which are displayed on our face can affect the relationships we share together. Cleese also talks to Professor Paul Ekman who talks about how to discover a liar and what details to look out for in the face that might be a giveaway. I found this episode extremely insightful especially finding out about how our subconscious emotions can affect the people around us much more than we think. I also learnt a lot more about the micro expression especially in terms of how this can be a sign of concealment or that someone is lying.

The second documentary I watched was a 90 minute special documentary originally showed on the History Channel in the US, entitled 'Body Language Secrets'. The first half of this documentary focused on human body language and how it helps when interacting with each other, for example having a open body language is more likely to help you sell something. The second half of the documentary was a lot more interesting in terms of relating to my project as it focused on the body language of the face. Initially the documentary introduced the work of Paul Ekman and talked about his experiments to discover the seven universal emotions. I found this extremely interesting as it showed video clips of Ekman's experiment. One in particular showed Ekman asking people to put them self in a scenario to make them feel hat particular emotion and then he did the same thing to lots of other people around the world and compared his findings. This is how he came up with the idea that everyone has seven universal emotions which are recognised all around the world.

I have yet to watch the ITV doc 'Tears, Lies and Videotape' but I intend to watch and analyse the episode in the near future.

Newspaper and Magazine faces...

I have decided to spend the next week or so collecting portraits and facial expressions from magazines and newspapers that I have and intend to purchase. By doing this I hope to build up an awareness to the amount of portraits we our surrounded by an often ignore as unimportant -- Perhaps we purchase these magazines with Cheryl Cole's face prominent on the front cover but do we really take note of their facial expressions and what emotions they show in the photographs unless its labelled in a large font over the image?

I was interested to see whether places all together the faces I had found in mags and newspapers were as important if they were placed out of context. I also wanted to see whether it was as easy to identify the facial expressions if the images were taking away from the stories which backed up the images. I found that collecting these images has made me more aware of just how much we see photographs or images of facial expressions whether this be through advertisement or paparazzi shots of celebs, we are surrounded by images of people.

I have also collected some interesting portrait photographs that have been used in magazines and newspaper - one of the most interesting I feel is of David Cameron and was found in Live magazine which is a sunday supplement for 'The Daily Mail'. Due to the ever nearing general election it seems the majority of the media has focused its on attention on this story. This image of Cameron has inspired me to look at the work of Martin Schoeller as it very much reminded me of his work and how this lighting effect may work particularly well in creating my own photographs.

To be Continued....................................Now:

I have continued to research into micro expressions and have found some interesting videos:

One in particularly is a video uploaded to youtube which shows an example of facial expression recognition software in action - this software (perhaps not this particular one) was pioneered by the work of Ekman and his team of psychologists. I found it extremely interesting how the software can detecting even the slightest movements in the face and how this can affect what emotion the face is expressing. The video has also made me realise that there can be only very slight changes in some expression and perhaps with out the software these emotions can be confused, i.e disgust and anger or fear and surprise.

I also found a series of videos showing slow motion shots of the movement of the face in each of the seven universal emotions i have been studying. I found this video absolutely fascinating, especially in terms of showing how at times the emotions are similar but also to show exactly how the face moves and what effect this can create.

Another video is an hour-long interview with psychologist Paul Ekman which had been uploaded to Youtube. Particularly interesting to get his opinions directly on the experience he has done, what he had found and why he decided to do it -- (links to the videos watched are in the useful link section, right)

I have also start some simple sketches of faces from magazines cuttings that I found interesting - I have enjoy using some different materials so far as part of my research and I feel by drawing more faces I will learn more about the movement of the face as well as proportions.

More documentaries...

After some intense research via the internet to find documentaries focusing on human facial expressions and body language, I have finally had some success in finding suitable videos/docs:

First video I found is entitled: Body Language Secrets, originally aired on The History Channel on October 13th 2008. (Need to wait to watch for video to download - intended time: 18 hours)

Second video: BBC's The Human Face, a four-part series presented and written by John Cleese (first aired 2001) (downloading series may take up to 2 days to finish all four episodes)

Finally the third video: Tears, Lies and Videotapes aired on ITV 8th May 2009 (found on a website online via google search)

In all of the videos there is either an interview with Paul Ekman or an extremely close relation to his work, which is why I intend to watch, analyse and make notes on all of them.

Documentary and video research cont.

Initially I found it extremely difficult to find videos/docs on facial expressions and human body language on the internet as all I could find was short clips of videos that actually weren't very relevant to my research and discovery of human expression. I then discovered a series of body language shows on Sky1 entitled 'Body Language Revealed', however I found that this show focused more on how you can get what you want through the use of body language, for example it gave you the best tips on to sell your car using welcoming body language. I found that this show was insightful in terms of how to use body language but it didnt tell me enough on the background of it, such as how we detect certain emotions and how that makes us feel as well as the person viewing the expression. I decided to continue to watch part of the series on Sky1 that I had recorded however I didn't find anything inspirational or interesting enough to watch the entire series or concentrate on taking notes too much (hence why I have decided not to record it in my sketchbook).

After not having much luck with this series I have decided to continue to find other documentaries, specifically ones that explore similar ideas to what Ekman talks about in his book...