final notes

Within this assignment I’ve explored how privacy can be invaded, through societal issues regarding women’s safety, and through personal anxiety in your own space. In my publication I explored dramatic irony to show the audience who the ‘invader’ was, without the subjects knowledge in the first shoot. In the second shoot the invader was anonymous, so the audience could align with the girl in the photos and experience her paranoia vicariously. In the film, the audience is the invader, and through the eye gifs becomes the one who is invaded. 

the film - experimentation and editing

I edited gifs of creepy blinking eyes in between the clips I shot of Katie, to emulate her being watched by an unknown entity. This was an original idea, of which I incorporated to make the audience uncomfortable as then they feel like the ones being watched, being invaded, to feel uncomfortable. This plays with the  overarching concept of just WHOSE privacy is being invaded her, and who is in fact the invader, maybe the audience is the invader. These gifs progressively include more eyes towards the end of the video. 

Typography wise, I used the same text type as I did for the publication to maintain the aesthetic. the title of the magazine plays at the start and end of the video. CCTV style tags of the date and location frame the film and for aesthetic purposes. 

the film - research

For my film, I wanted it to extend from the concept of the magazine, without regurgitating it completely. The over arching narrative in this issue is, “invasion of privacy”, thus the video doesn’t relate to the shoots but follows a different narrative within the same concept. I followed Katie around her uni accommodation, doing mundane tasks such as washing her clothes. We romanticised this through adding a cohesive aesthetic. This aesthetic is to represent the ‘invasion of privacy’, through emulating a cctv night vision camera, as Katie performs daily activities whilst being watched in the comfort of her own room. 

In terms of films I took inspiration from, I looked for simplistic ways of communicating being filmed obliviously. Straight away I thought of cctv cameras, they’re everywhere filming people everyday collecting hours of footage of you without your awareness. Therefore, I looked at different clips of cctv footage, especially those filmed at night as I felt this worked better with my aesthetic. I inverted the images so the colour of them resembled that of a night vision camera. I added the name of the magazine vertically on the left side of the clips in the video to resemble the date and time cctv camera footage has to identify them. I also tagged the date and time in an iridescent font to frame the video - the typography is cohesive with that on the cover of the magazine. In a magazine called, ‘SEDITION’ magazine, there are examples of inverted images I took inspiration from. I shot the film in a very unprofessional, casual way to really get in Katie’s personal bubble, to invade her privacy. This made the film feel very intimate and invasive. 

I also found a fashion a project following Kate Moss in a cctv style video format which influenced my project in how I edit the images. 

publication inspirations/ research

magazines I took inspiration from:

Highsnobiety magazine spring 2022

Kingkong

Buffalo

Sedition

All these magazines establish an aesthetic through their editing choices and images. The majority of these publications are aesthetics based, with an ambiguous narrative, thus they’re up for interpretation unless you take the time to read into the meaning. This is the kind of publication I resonate with as I find them stimulating and interesting to read and I enjoy the immersion in navigating each image to try and decipher the meanings behind them. And if there’s no meaning at all, even better, no closure to an image is even more stimulating. Other publications amongst the list decide on an overarching narrative to dissect and explore it in different ways, through different photographers and issues etc. This structure influenced my choice of publication and film as it explores invasion of privacy through different sub-naarratives. I love how KINGKONG magazine creates almost vulgar, explicit images to dramatise their narratives, it almost gives the magazine its identity as being a very expressive, experimental magazine in terms of its creative choices and how it communicates itself with its audience. 

These are all magazines I admire and would want to experiment further within this aesthetic. Through finding models who would be comfortable taking more expressive/ explicit images I was limited to what I could create but am excited to communicate this narrative further in the future with more resources. 

I also liked the scrapbook aesthetic that is communicated through something magazines as it is messy in terms of how it Formats it's images and typography which  fit well with the theme of my magazine being a Hall Pass which an unrestricted pass into other people's lives in terms of how it isassociated with schools. The scrapbook aesthetic is also very childish which is synonymous with a school, it’s very informal and unstructured which is how I wanted my magazine to feel as the narratives within my m magazine surround students, a lifestyle which is very informal and messy to the majority and I wanted my magazine to reflect that abd resonate with this audience.

dramatic irony

I used placement to build narrative in a photo through what the subjects in the images themselves can see. I wanted the audience to be scared for the girl in the images. These images are from SEDITION magazine. 

INSPIRATION FOR STYLING

LOOK IN SHOOT 1:

Leah dressed in exaggerated business attire. This was to emphasise she’s a powerful woman of business, in a well respected outfit to show harassment escapes no one. The long leather coat was the key piece in this look. Both shoots I used staple jackets to communicate that the jacket is a form of ‘protection’ and is almost Leah’s armour, as long leather jackets were commonly worn in the military, thus illuding to power dressing.

LOOK IN SHOOT 2: 

For the second shoot I dressed Leah in an oversized white fur coat as this encapsulates the glamorous style I wanted her to have as this is a symbol of luxury and status. I paired this with sunglasses and a gold bag that compliment each other and react well to  the camera flash. 

INSPIRATION FROM PHOTOGRAPHERS

In order to inspire myself, I researched a variety of photography styles and how they succeeded in conveying their own personal narratives using different photography styles and methods. As I already have a bank of photographers I draw inspiration from, this process was relatively easy as I only needed to dig deeper into their archives and portfolios. 

IG profiles of photographers: 

@ Zachshotit

@ foxxatron

@ ClaireBishara

These photographers all photograph women in empowering and dramatized styles, conveying their emotions well through positioning and facial expressions. I wanted to incorporate this into my work as the subjects in the photos needed to show their feelings through their body language and expressions; I also used lighting, positioning and camera angles to compliment the desired mood I wanted the images to set. The main points that inspired my personal work was the way these photographers created drama through how they conducted their images. 

Specifically - Zackshotit

I found this photographer through instagram. He uses different lenses (i.e. fish eye lenses) to achieve dramatic shots of his subjects, utilising low angles and long shots to frame the models in the shot. In Particular, I liked a shoot he did conveying a hunt between a woman and a man. I used this concept in my shoots, but recreated it in my own style and aesthetic choices. Instead, I used a lens that didn’t distort the image, and did a shoot with only one subject to switch the point of view to the audience being from the perspective of the ‘chaser’. 

NARRATIVE CONTEXT

NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The ‘narrative’ I have decided to convey is an insight into University lifestyle, through a dramatized aesthetic style, particularly focussing on the shoots of Leah and Jack. 

However, this has developed from my original narrative, which was to romanticise and dramatise student living. This concept I felt to be too vague and ambiguous. I wanted to focus on something more specific, thus reducing this into a more specific issue.  

CONTEXT

This concept encapsulates the fear most women have towards walking alone, whether that be at night or in the day. 

Subject matter: 

Almost 50% of women feel unsafe walking alone at night. 

This issue was brought to media attention more prominently when a woman was attacked by a police officer when she was walking home, a person one would expect to be a person in authority to lead by example. However, he was not jailed and only given a curfew and cash penalty, fuelling the debate of whether punishment for harassment was just. It generated concern for women fearing men would not take these punishments seriously as they are not taken seriously enough in court, and implies men in power are treated less severely in comparison to others. This is proof the system fails women and protects men.

As an overarching social issue and movement, there’s been a conscious effort to relieve women from feeling scared and unsafe walking home alone. This issue struck me personally, as living in Hyde Park is a prime example of a place that does not feel safe to walk alone in. This is the first time I’ve genuinely felt this fear, and has encapsulated the paranoia induced by feeling as if you're being watched. The spectrum of harassment stems from being shouted at, followed, and in more extreme cases a physical assault. However, on the occasion you do find yourself walking alone your mind tends to be in the state of fight or flight, and you fear the worst. This prompted me to want to convey this through my editorial images.

FRONT COVER OPTIONS

I combined the editing I experimented with on previous images, and further experimented with different cover options using the images from previous shoots. I have decided that if this zine was to be distributed professionally, I would offer the different cover options to be purchased separately. Each image conveys a different mood set through each separate shoot.  I decided to include the issue number, season, price, and my name on the cover as they don't distract from the image and frame it nicely.

This was inspired from publications like KING KONG magazine, in which the typography frames the images simplistically.

SECOND OFFICIAL SHOOT

“THE CHASE” 

The third shoot I wanted to do as a parallel to the second shoot, as if to continue the chase into the night. However, Jack, who was originally cast as the man in the shoot, was too ill to shoot the night we had planned to shoot so I improvised and did the shoot from the perspective of the chaser. Therefore, this allowed me to concentrate on Leah’s facial expressions and paranoia as the ‘chaser’ is getting closer to her. By only having one subject in the image also emphasises how when an individual is paranoid they cannot think outside their own bubble of intrusive thoughts, therefore allowing the audience to align with Leah’s fear. We shot on the Uni of Leeds campus because Leah felt more comfortable shooting here than in town, and it offered a variety of lighting to shoot in. This worked perfectly with the white fur coat I chose for Leah to wear as it contrasted the location and showed how she is out of place and feeling uncomfortable, supporting her obviously distressed attitude. The majority of the images are taken from behind Leah, and she is not making eye contact with the camera; this was done to put the audience in the position of the person following/ watching Leah to make them feel intrusive and almost uneasy to be seeing the subject in this way. By never showing what Leah is running from/ looking at off camera, it allows the audience to imagine for themselves what they think is antagonising her, making this a more personal and ambiguous experience as they may interpret this from a personal experience or a stereotype. The purpose of the shoot was to convey paranoia, and I’m confident this was achieved. Through low angles, lighting, mid/ close ups Leah's internal fear was conveyed. The intense lighting provided from the street lamps on uni of Leeds campus was utilised to create perfect lowkey lighting to compliment Leah's facial expressions and contributed to the sinister quality of the photos.

Styling: 

I styled Leah in an IAMGIA white fur coat, sunglasses and a gold buckled bag to make it apparent she's walking home from a night out. This makes it clear to the audience she's out of place in her surroundings and may be in danger. Her coat also worked well with the lighting as it reacted well with the camera flash.

FORMAT OF FINAL ZINE

My zine is going to be called HALL PASS, which by definition is, “permission to do whatever you like or to have an easy time”, (Cambridge dictionary), in the context of a school environment; this fits perfectly with my theme, which is orientated around university life, and how the students behave amid their new freedoms. Therefore, the magazine is almost an exclusive pass allowing the reader to have an exclusive insight into different students' private lives and endeavors. To complement this, the zine itself will be held together by a binder, as inspired by the BUFFALO VIRAL magazine I came across in Village - a magazine store in Leeds arcade, which instantly made me reminisce on the school binders and notebooks I’d use in school. This also is quite a comic appearance for a magazine, giving it a heavy prop like feel, which contributes to the overly dramatized images and subject of this zine. However, unlike the buffalo zine, mine will have a much smaller binder, so it is easier to turn the pages. 

Each shoot will be introduced with, “SUBJECT -”, followed by the title of the shoot , and possibly a piece of text describing the shoot with quotes from different students relating to the topic. However, I don't want to oversaturate the school aesthetic and give the zine a childish feel, therefore this will be conveyed in a comic book style, discrete enough to not distract from the images, which are going to be the primary source for communicating the theme, complemented by text and typography, which will be relatively minimal. 

FIRST OFFICIAL SHOOT

"INVASION OF PRIVACY"

I altered my initial concept idea to fit with the availability of my models who were only available in the day on this occasion, and because I felt natural daylight allowed me to convey my narrative better, due to the fact having the male be visible for the reader to, ‘find’ in certain shots was only obtainable if shot in daytime. However, I preferred this set up as the narrative developed into following a woman in full business attire, being watched/ followed and eventually caught by a man dressed in all black. This all takes place in daylight to imply no one is safe from the male gaze regardless of the time of day, almost symbolizing the fact that women often feel unsafe and paranoid that they’re being watched at any time during the day and it isn’t restricted to the night time. This is also symbolic that in today’s society harassment isn’t subjective and can happen in countless scenarios, as this shoot follows a woman from a coffee shop, through the streets, even into a supermarket. I also wanted to convey the fear of the woman in this situation, as she is actually caught by the chaser and the hunt is over. I decided not to use a fisheye lens for this shoot, as I feel it will be better suited in other circumstances. 

Styling: 

I decided to play on stereotypes with respect to the styling, as I dressed Leah in exaggerated business attire, to emphasise the mindset of a student romanticising their day studying/ working, and Jack wore an all black outfit as he isn’t the main focus in these images. Leah’s outfit is a very exaggerated interpretation of student attire, as these images are inherently supposed to be dramatised.

EDITTING TECHNIQUES

Using images taken on test shoots, I experimented with different typography to use both on images within the magazine and on the cover. I learnt new ways of editing text on photo shop and particularly liked the chrome font effect, and liquifying the text to add another dimension to it. I feel this compliments the shoots as they're lighthearted despite depicting relatively dark tones. This creates a more comical approach to the subject matter. This also allows me to add a coherent theme of editing throughout the magazine, creating fonts and logos etc that can be attributed to my work.

SECOND TEST SHOOT

Within this shoot I experimented with the fish eye lens in different lightings and angles, in natural lighting. I intend to take the fish eye lens out again as through this shoot I also experimented with different poses, angles etc. A few images I took I may consider in my final publication however, I will take the lens out again first before making any final decisions. I really enjoyed shooting in natural sunlight, however in order to achieve the effect I want I will need a mirror to reflect the sunlight better on the subject, to determine the tone and mood of the image to be more luminous and glowing to make the lifestyle portrayed in the image more desirable. My friend Katie agreed to do this test shoot with me. 

FIRST TEST SHOOT

The intention of this shoot wasn't necessarily to convey my intended narrative, but to experiment with my camera settings to find what suited my style best. My extended narrative is to give an insight into student life, therefore I felt it necessary to include more lighthearted images to mitigate the shots communicating women feeling unsafe. Initially, I didn’t intend to use any of these images in the final publication,  however they came out better than expected so I am going to find a place for them. 

I did my first test shoot in my kitchen, with my friend to get comfortable with using a camera again, and experiment with different poses, angles, lighting etc.. From this shoot I was able to figure out how best to convey emotion through facial expressions and poses, and the model I intend to use became more comfortable on camera. 

It portrays Ellie, a friend who is also a student, doing stereotypical student-esque things in my kitchen. I particularly liked the shot of her looking through my kitchen window, which had been egged on the previous week during a frivolous street party, of which I did not attend, so I couldn't defend my house against the nasty eggs. The shot of Ellie has her cast in angelic light, emphasising her features and docile facial expression, she’s at peace despite her surroundings. Other shots have Ellie cutting food, drinking vodka, lounging around the kitchen, all very candid and student-y!

PROJECT CONCEPT

I took inspiration from a photographer I came across via Instagram, (Zachshotit), who depicted a chase between a woman and a man through a city environment to represent how, “living in this world as a woman, is not safe or easy”. Even in places that are supposed to provide safety, she is hunted and everyone around her just watches.” I applied this concept to my personal life, and the fear many girls are familiar with when walking home, whether alone or not, through student areas. Notoriously recognised as areas governing high crime rates, Leeds student areas such as Hyde Park, and Woodhouse are the perfect locations to shoot in. Following the journey of a woman walking alone from the chaos of Leeds city centre to the quiet backstreets, I want to portray the paranoia and anxiety felt from walking home alone, constantly looking over your shoulder, convincing yourself that somewhere in the blackness there’s a pair of eyes watching you ready to pounce. I’ll realise this concept using depth of field, and playing with placing the ‘chaser’ in the background, creating dramatic irony as the reader can see the chaser in the background but the subject in the foreground can’t. In regards to technology I intend to use a fisheye lens to create surrealism and drama as the central focus in the image will both symbolise that of an animal ‘hunting’, and the warped focus of how the subject is making sense of their reality as tension builds.