In the second assignment, we were tasked to come up with a story entirely out of pictures without any dialogues or captions. On top of that, we had to tell a story using only 6-9 pictures. These constraints made the assignment challenging but at the same time, fun, because it compels us to think out of the box (i.e. be creative!).
Thus, I had to ensure that all constraints and criteria were met during the brainstorming session. This meant that I had to first brainstorm the mise-en-scene, subject and plot meticulously to ensure that the story remains cohesive and compelling. Next, I would have to explore the ways in which I can let the story unfold by playing around with compositions, angles and shot sizes.
The Idea & Storyboard
Taking these aspects into consideration, I thought of 2 stories that would not need to rely on dialogues to complete them. My initial idea was a story I named "Gelled Together" and my second story was named "Mirror Mirror".
Gelled Together
In "Gelled Together", my overall theme was about love or teenage romance. It was a stereotypical love story between a boy and a girl who meet at a public library. The guy notices the girl and tries to catch her attention. He even borrows the exact same books so as to subtly catch her eye. However, all his plans failed because he was being too shy and subtle. He was ultimately ignored until he realizes that it was his lack of confidence that was blocking him from capturing his crush's attention. Thus, he uses a hair gel, which symbolises not only a superficial change in his appearance but also in his innate confidence, and goes back to the library. This time, he sneezes and smiles at the girl. The girl finally notices him and laughs. He finally catches her attention and she moves to his seat to talk to him.
I came up with the following storyboard:
Storyboard 1: "Gelled Together"
The pink subject represents the girl and the blue subject represents the boy. In each frame, I tried to frame the subject according to the rule of thirds. I also made it a deliberate choice to photograph only 1 subject per frame except for the last picture, where the two subjects are both in the frame. This was to symbolize how the two subjects were disconnected at first but they came together in the end.
In each frame, I also wanted to ensure that the eye lines matched up between the subjects so that when I pieced together the storyboard for submission, the photographs will seem more coherent. For example, the first and second frames shot each subject individually, but when placed together on the board, it should appear to be one big picture that shows the boy looking at the girl. As the assignment restricted dialogues and I deliberately chose to photograph the subjects in different frames, I came up with the idea of matching eye lines to make the story more sequential and comprehensible.
However, after brainstorming and taking some test shots with my friends as the two subjects, I decided not to use this story mainly due to time constraints as my friends were sadly unavailable 😞 ...
Mirror Mirror
In "Mirror Mirror", my overall theme was about beauty and the pressures of appearing beautiful by society's standards. The story is set in a fictional world and was inspired by the fairytale, Snow White. However, unlike the storyline of Snow White which villanizes the "evil" queen (i.e. Snow White's stepmother), this story humanizes her character. It takes a spin on the classic fairytale.
Set in the 21st century, the story follows a girl as the protagonist/subject of the story as she slowly loses herself and her happiness as she compares herself to society's standard of beauty. Although the story is dramatized, I felt that the story was one that most people can relate to as it is a common struggle between society and self. I came up with the following storyboard to portray the story:
Storyboard 2: "Mirror Mirror"
Then, she chances upon a picture of a beautiful model, which represents the ideal standard of beauty. In this shot, I would take the photo through a worm's eye view to reflect the gaze of the girl and focus on the photo of the model. The reason for using a worm's eyes view is to subtly symbolize the power status between the model and the girl. The framing is used to make the girl almost appear to be worshipping the model. This is achieved through framing the picture of the model to be angled higher than the girl. symbolically represents the inferiority complex the girl has when she sees the model.
Upon looking at the mirror after seeing the model, words like "ugly" appear in the mirror. The girl then begins to put makeup on to achieve her ideals. However, the mirror tells her that she still looks ugly. In the end, she resorts to doing plastic surgery but the feeling of inadequacy remains. The story ends with the character losing her sense of self, confidence and happiness as she wallows in her room, haunted by the ever-so unattainable standard of beauty.
As seen in the storyboard, I made the deliberate artistic choice to have all my pictures taken through the reflection of a mirror. The mirror symbolizes the character's reflection of self as well as the inner thoughts that she "hears". The mirror can also be a reflection of society's demand for people to constantly internalize and chase after the current (or trending) beauty standards. I leave this up to the interpretation of the audience.
The Images & Photography Process
During the actual photography itself, I asked my sister to be my subject and shot frames 1 - 6 from the mirror of my room. However, this was my first challenge as I had to ensure that I had the right angles to prevent myself from appearing in the shot. I also had to ensure that both the subject and the reflection of the subject are positioned and angled correctly in the shot.
Ensuring that I am not in the frame; the subject and reflection are positioned correctly
The main challenge of the photography process was actually racing against time as lighting played a big part in the composition of my photos. I had to ensure that frames 1-6 had similar brightness so that the storyline flows and that the audience would not sense a discontinuity in time. This meant that I had to ensure that I quickly took my shots in the morning/afternoon period where there would be natural and bright lighting.
Playing around with light and shadows were also a huge part of taking the last photograph. In the last photograph, I wanted to embody the psychology of the character through the lighting. I played around with the light from the window and the shadows cast into the room to show how the subject is unable to reach out to the light. All hope is lost and the character remains in the darkness (which is also a symbol of her internal turmoil and feelings of inferiority).
Playing around with lighting, angles and shot framing
Additionally, I shot the photograph through a bird's eye view (and full shot) to further illustrate the inferiority and smallness of the character. However, this was especially difficult due to the physical constraints of the room (I realized my chairs were all too low 😥 so I had to resort to taking several photographs before achieving what I wanted)...
Failed angle and lighting for the last frame
However, despite these challenges, I had a fun time taking the photographs, comparing and selecting them for the final submission based on superior lighting, angles, and composition.
Adobe Suites & Editing
After selecting the pictures, I used Adobe Photoshop to finetune the overall colours and the contrast of the pictures. Then, Indesign was used to create the final layout as shown below:
Using Indesign's guide function to align the photos and layout the pictures
Critique
During the tutorial, I received feedback that my initial chosen image to represent plastic surgery was unclear as the image was too zoomed out to see the minute plastic surgery lines on the subject's face.
As I was unsure of how to solve that, my classmates kindly chipped in that I could have a separate frame to show a close-up shot of the subject herself with the plastic surgery lines. Aaron also suggested I could simply just take another photo but this time, focusing on only the reflection itself (i.e. the photo should be more closed-up and the subject should not be in the shot; only the reflection of the subject should be in the frame).
Between the two suggestions, I was more compelled to follow the latter because I wanted to retain the symbolism behind using reflections as a medium of the story. I felt that having a photograph without the character's reflection would break away from the overall deeper meaning of the story.
Thus, I worked on retaking the photograph to emphasize the plastic surgery marks. Personally, I also felt that the second frame (where the subject holds the photo of the model) was quite jarring due to the unexpected fan blade in the reflection of the mirror. Hence, I also retook this photograph.
Then, I also ensured that the lighting follows that of the previous photos although the picture was taken on a different day from the rest. This is to ensure that all the photos, and thus the mise-en-scene, appear cohesive. I also used photoshop once again to finetune the overall brightness and contrast to ensure that all the images are uniform.
Using Photoshop to finetune the brightness and contrast
Final Results
After
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