Intentions –

For this exam, I want to make cinematic photographs. Photos that have the aesthetics and quality of a movie. The things I want to take pictures of will mostly involve a person or people, so portraits, and also of many views, so landscapes. Most locations would be beaches, streets, pubs, clubs, busses, cars, pathways and more. I want to have a variety of different times of day too, some taken during daylight hours and some at night. With the evenings in between, which gives me the chance to include sunset shots. I can take pictures of the moon and sun too. The main category for this project will be Observe, because the photos are of people and landscapes, like the viewer is watching these locations and these people. The main inspiration for these images is from Godfrey Reggio, with his shots of cities in his movie, Koyaanisqatsi. I like his shots of the many buildings in the big cities, they appear very deadpan and still, compared to his shots of the busy streets and roads which I also like and will try to replicate too. The movie captures a few natural structures too, like mountains and geysers. Jersey has no geysers but plenty of hills and cliff faces to capture. I also want to go to the sand dunes and capture some images there.

Technical + Visuals –

I want to use colours that blend and contrast with the subject and surroundings. I want to feature all kinds of camera angles; down shots, portraits, medium shots, extreme close-ups, wide shots, back-facing shots etc.. In terms of misc-en-scene, I want to make some photos look grainy, like it was shot on an old movie camera, I can make some photos have an orange-yellow tint to them too, or any other colour can be used – done through Lightroom, to make it look more cinematic and photogenic. For night photography, I can make streetlights in the background look either blurry or more radiant, same for car lights, which gives me another idea of slowing the shutter speed and capturing the streams of light from the cars going past. Photographs of the city at night always look nice too. Similar to Rut Blees Luxemburg’s night photographs, but with a more vibrant and cinematic twist. Day photos I can have the beams of light from the sun shine on the lens or on a person, or add a lens flare to the image. A general edit I can make is blurring the background to make anything in the foreground stand out and be highlighted, this can be easily done by changing aperture sizes. If needed, I can add cinematic bars to make the photographs more dramatic and serious.