For this unit I was asked to produce a piece of work that tells a story. In response to this brief I made a short documentary called aspirations and goals featuring  professional dressage rider Chelsea Tolhurst. I wanted to make a piece of work that highlighted individuals following a different career path. My aim was to capture all the hard work and dedication a person has to put in, to become successful in a career that differs from the norm. Before making the documentary on Chelsea, I completed a series of test shots following the hard work of semi professional boxer Ben Reed. I wanted to make this test film, so I had a practice run directing and filming  (as I’m relatively new to film making). Shooting the first shoot with Ben gave me a clear idea on what went well and things that I needed to improve on.

I wanted to make sure I got the results I was looking for before I when to Buckinghamshire to stay with Chelsea for a week whilst I filmed at her work. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to shoot and re-shoot if I needed to, so I decided to live on the yard for a week to get as much footage as I could. After conducting interviews and shadowing the subject for the week I finally got the footage I needed. I brought most of the footage into premiere pro whilst in Buckinghamshire, I did this to make sure I had enough content. Editing the footage while I was on the yard was useful because it enabled me to re-shoot certain elements of the documentary. Overall I am happy with the end result, I am confident that this story telling film piece is an improvement on my last moving image work from the previous unit.

I believe I have taken on board the feedback from the last unit and made the improvements needed to produce a stronger moving image piece. If I could go back and improve anything from my story telling final piece, I would have liked to make the documentary longer. Although the piece is over four minutes, had I known there would have been an extension on the duration of the project, I would have liked to stay with the subject for an extra couple of weeks. I would have liked to cover more topics such as; how the subjects family feel about Chelseas career choices, competitions and other employees on the yard.

In conclusion I am happy with the work I have produced for this unit. I really enjoyed making the body of work for this unit, I would as like to carry on documenting both subjects to follow their career paths. I believe my work shows a clear narrative and overall I am confident that this moving image piece is an improvement on my last.

DIY magazine is a publication specialising in latest music releases and musicians in general. I have chosen to look at DIY Magazine as part of my story telling project because of the magazines appearance and layout. The magazine was first published in 2002, as an online article it wasn’t till 2011 till the first hardcopy of the Magazine was widely produced. The magazine’s routes developed from the creative directors (Emma Swann and Stephen Ackroyd) love of alternative and indie music. The magazine soon became a success among readers leading the magazine to have over 50,000 reader subscriptions every month.

I chose to research this particular magazine because of its creative layouts and eye-catching appearance. Each page of this publication is always visual interesting, grabbing the readers attention to each page. My attention is particularly drawn to the interviews the magazine conducts. The pages aren’t laid-out in a traditional newspaper style, instead the pages always include; contrasting colours, a range of typography, clean and interesting layouts and engaging interview questions and information about the musician in question. These components are a vital part of why the magazine is so well-known amongst music fans. A key part of why the magazine is so successful is because the publication hires a range of freelance writers and photographers, keeping the magazines appearance fresh and appealing to readers.

I want to take inspiration from this magazine for my own final piece. As I plan to conduct interviews and produce a range a photographs some what similar, to the process a photographer would go through whilst working for a magazine. I plan to take inspiration from this magazine when considering the way I chose to layout my final piece. whether that be as an online resource or as a printed out magazine. I will be taking into consideration the magazines bold and interesting ways of laying out it’s pages and the information produced from interviews. DIY is a great example of the level of work I aspire to create in the future and for this story telling project.

Today we had a guest lecture Ione Gamble. Gamble is the founder of polyester magazine, an online publication as well as a hardcopy zine that is released every few months. Polyester also has a podcast section that accompanies the release of the next publication. Polyester magazine is a publication is a politically charged zine that expresses themes such as; support for the arts, body confidence and self love. Gamble created Polyester during her second year of university. Polyester now has a huge following with over 900,000 readers. Ione studied fashion journalism at university, so it was a natural step to move into the media business. The magazine does not use models on shoot days. The subjects Polyester uses are often scouted on social media. Ione explained that the magazine likes to show realness, and by using someone not from a modelling background makes for a more exciting shoot.

She quotes “people from a non modelling background are so much more excited and chatty on shoot days. They are much more involved in the shooting proses than a model would be. They really let the photograph know what their boundaries are and let us known what they are comfortable with” Gamble’s point about not using model made a lot of sense. The publication likes to promote body confidence in the right way, not necessarily exploiting  the model but allowing them to feel confutable on the shoot, to convey the right message to readers.

The layout however was thing thing that drew me to the magazine the most. Every page looks as though it could be a poster on a bedroom wall. The bright, bold and contrasting colours bring out every detail of the pages. This inattentive design made me really consider the importance of layout and colour schemes. The combination of image, text and illustration, emphasises the appearance on each page. Looking through the zines Ione brought in, made me consider what makes a layout effective. It made me consider what other publications I find appealing and perhaps would take inspiration for my own work. Seeing these zines has made me think about the way I want to layout my work whether that be an online publication or printed magazine.

Claudia Leisinger is a British documentary photographer who has worked all over the world photographing many different types of people. The particular piece of Leisinger’s work I am looking at is her audio visual series, featuring the fish porters of the east end of London. Her audio visual series called ‘The Last Of The Fish Porters’ told the story the men that worked as fish porters, a dying industry that was still kept alive by a few individuals carrying on their fathers and grandfathers work. Leisinger documented the men at work for around a year, right up till that day the men were made redundant. This photo series features audio from the men as they talk about their lives and jobs. The audio is layered over a slideshow of stills taken by Leisinger.

The audio accompanies the photographs of the fish porters really well. It helps tell their story to the audience. The idea of layering audio over still images is a concept I would consider for my own project. The audio includes the voices of the fish porters Leisinger has photographs. By having the person talking over there own photographs gives a life like encounter of the person in the photograph. This makes the audience really engage with the person in the photograph. Leisinger spend over a year with the fish porters, by spending time with the subject allowed the subjects to become more open to having their photographs taken and giving honest answers in the questions Leisinger was asking them.

This stunning photo series is one I take inspiration from for this story telling unit. In response to this photo series I plan to conduct a shoot that included audio from the subject I am photographing. Leisinger has also mace me consider having still images and overlaying them with audio. The first shoot I have planned is one using my brother. An advantage of this is the subject will feel more at ease with me as a photographer, therefore be able to assert confidence when i’m taking photographs of him. Leisinger stands as one of my inspirations for this project. Her work with the fish porters is a really good starting point of research for my own project. Her ability to tell the fish porters story through the use of audio and photographs is certainly a piece of work I can look up to for this project.