Laura Aglr

My tutorial with Liam was very helpful and gave me some tips and thoughts to consider for the next steps of development and pre-production.

I showed him the pitch and he gave me very positive feedback on it, he found interesting the video I remotely directed during lockdown (quarantine countrysiders) and thought it really connected with the first ideas I was developing (connection with nature).

Regarding the story, he said it looked like a speculative version of the future showing new ways of life and I really liked that. It’s like a new beginning of time that looks to the past focusing on presenting a new future.

Liam introduced me to the digital Bolex camera, the look of the footage from it is similar to a 16mm film, if I want to film on digital to have a back up this type of camera will be worth to look at.

When talking about the experiments of the biodesigner I will collaborate with (crystalizing sweat), he told me about an experiment he did years ago which consists on leaving a glass with salt and water underneath your bed every night and depending on the dreams and energy the salt will crystalize in a different way each night. I think it’ll be interesting to practice this while I work on the project and keep a visual diary of it.

I need to gather further research and visual references to give Liam a visual idea of exactly what the video is going to look like and bring it to the tutorial next week.

I looked into the MABiodesign (CSM) course’s Instagram account to find students I could talk to. I am interested in understanding more about the techniques, processes, and their thoughts about the future of this relatively new field.

The girls were really helpful and sent me a few different references and resources to continue to educate myself on the practice. When asking them about their thoughts on representation of this way of designing in media, they all agreed there is not enough exposure of it. Being a new field, that hasn’t been completely defined yet, the media hasn’t got into it yet.

I also spoke to Alice Potts, the designer I really wanted to collaborate with. I find her work really innovative and visionary and thought it was the perfect match to my “surrealist, SciFi looking” film. She thought that what I was doing was really neccessary to ensure an understanding of what biodesign is, and its possibilities in the future of fashion. I also shared with her the storyboard and visual references I have for the final piece and she agreed on collaborating with me.

Alice also suggested some ideas for the distribution of it. She’s been featured in ShowStudio before and she’s a good friend with them. I think this collaboration could be beneficial for the exposure of my work as well as hers.

ASK THE EPS. A panel discussion with:

• James Sorton from Pulse Films
• Dom Thomas from Object&Animal
• Sasha Nixon from Forever
• Ore Okonedo from Knuckle Head

SHOOTING ON FILM. Standing out from the creative crowd with CineLab.

• 65MM (high res) / 65mm IMAX (shot horizontal (£10/second of film) / 35mm (works great with 50D stock) / super 16mm / super8
• Panel discussion with:
• Adrian Bull from CineLab https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/cinelab-london/
• Paul Deen. Head of grading at CineLab
• Jake Gabbay (DOP). https://www.jakegabbay.com/
• Harvey Ascott from Dog Eat Dog
• Ben Link producer from Missing Link Films

DIRECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE

DIRECTION OF CONCEPTUAL VIDEO PIECES WITH JIAJIE YU YAN

After my half-breakdown with my project last week, I have been thinking of what is my insight into my research. Using ecofeminism as a starting point was useful to understand that this 70’s theory didn’t last in time for being considered too utopic, and that using utopian and dystopian concepts could be interesting for the tone of my story.

Keeping on using the connection and fusion of body-earth-nature-fashion and how this could mean the future of sustainability, I think the niche of my project is to understand that the future of fashion is in a place where it’s interwoven with biology. Perceiving nature as something we can all learn from, biomimicry is a mix of technology and nature. Biodesign, bio fabricated materials.

I got in contact with the Centre of Sustainability at LCF who redirected me to the MABiodesign course at CSM and &Living Systems Lab Research Group. I have contacted both the course leader of the master’s course (Nancy Diniz) and the research group convenors (Carole Collet and Heather Barnett). I would love to talk to some of the students about their work and processes and potential collaboration.

I have also contacted a multidisciplinary fashion designer who specialises in materials research of nature and the human body, focussing on biomaterials and their applications within the fashion industry. Alice Potts. Her work is fascinating, she creates materials from human sweat and food waste.

I think I’ve finally defined the proposal for my project: ‘Developing a visual narrative to promote a sustainable future; focussing on emerging biomimicry technology in fashion production’

I have spent the weekend after my tutorial with Vicky trying to find out what is my unique POV, what is the story I want to tell and what makes it personal but still relevant to the audience.

I went back through my notes on the Sarabande Session with Amy Jackson, Fiona Lamptey and Olivier Kaempfer and what they were saying about finding your own voice and thinking about what kind of short you should make in terms of developing your style and established yourself as a kind of storyteller. (Genre, story, style)What is your voice?

In order to attempt to organize my research I put my ideas down:

Masterclass with director and choreographer Kosta Karakashian. I found it very useful in order to understand how to explain my concepts to the choreographer I will be working with.

Why dance? It is visceral, evocative in a nonverbal way.

Helpful for dancers and choreographer:

• eyelines
• frames
• angle
• energy distribution

I’ve spent part of my quarantine attending virtual workshops and online masterclasses that I considered useful for my learning. Most of them were related to filmmaking and breaking down different parts of the production of videos. Some others were live Q&A with professionals whose work is a reference for myself, such as Wolfgang Tillmans or Leonn Ward.

BREAKING DOWN A SCENE WITH LUCY FORBES

• Making a film/TV series where you can recognize the show with every frame. Style and creative decisions
• When reading a scrip think of the most important things you come across
• Style helps script
• Directing us a collaborative role
• Phone App: Shot Designer. https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/shot-designer.html
• Platform designed by director Alma Har’el to “Give a voice to women filmmakers in advertising and TV” https://www.freethebid.com
• Websites helpful for pitching:
• http://www.thefilmdesk.com/
• https://film-grab.com/
• https://movie-screencaps.com/
• https://shotdeck.com/

SCRIPT FOR COMMERCIALS WITH ANNA ARNELL Inject your creativity into your scripts.

• Inject your creativity into your scripts.
• Make it make sense for the brand
• How to sell it in? Brand at the heart of the story. Use mood films. Take client on the journey. Allow room for the creativity of others. Bring back to brand/audience to avoid making it too personal.

1 SHOT / 30 WAY FRAME COMPOSITION WITH ROMAN MARTINEZ

CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS WITH ANDREW RODGER

Q&A WITH WOLFGANG TILLMANS

RINA YANG + GEORGIA HUDSON

LEONN WARD

I started an online course from Future Learn called: Fashion’s Future: The Sustainable Development Goals. Will leave some notes and resources in this post. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

• Experts and organizations working to create a socially responsible, fair and ecologically sustainable global fashion industry, including: Greenpeace, CARE International, Clean Clothes Campaign, Fairtrade Foundation, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, UNICEF, Canopy, WRAP, University of Plymouth’s Marine Biology & Ecology Research Centre, scientist and environmental toxicologist Linda Greer, former child garment worker and trade unionist Nazma Akter, Fashion Revolution’s co-founders Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers and several others.
• https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs –set of goals outlining a future scenario for people and planet adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015

Caviar TV is organizing a number of online workshops during lockdown. I took part in today’s with the Head of Production of LS Productions, Jo Coombes.

LS Productions works with both still and moving images. Some of their clients are other production companies (Somesuch, Partizan, Iconoclast, Stink Films) and agencies (ArtPartner).https://lsproductions.com/

Besides her job as Head Producer, Jo Coombes also founded AdGreen. AdGreen is a platform that supports the UK advertising industry’s transition to environmentally sustainable production methods. My interests are not in production but I thought it would give me an interesting insight for my research, and also for future shoots and projects.

https://www.lbbonline.com/news/sustainable-production-in-a-post-covid-world

• Albert (BAFTA) organization. Environmental sustainability for film and TVhttps://wearealbert.org/
• Sustainable production agreement https://www.adgreen-apa.net/sust-prod-agree
• https://carbonneutral.com/
• https://www.naturalcapitalpartners.com/
• Importance on understanding your own carbon footprint
• Notes on location protection