MyX film production course!

During the summer of 2010, I applied to and was accepted onto the 4 week MyX film production course based in Northamptonshire. The Northampton based film production company Wildfire studios ran the course with help from Northampton museum. During the 4 weeks, I met some of the greatest people which are now lifelong friends. The film course really did allow me to explore the world of film and gave me the greatest team bonding skills there are. Waking up at 7am for 4 weeks and taking a 90 minute bus to Northampton during the summer holidays wasn't really the way I had planned to spend my summer but I believe that without attending the course, I wouldn't be where I am today. There were 7 people accepted to the course and I had never met any of them before. We all experienced working independently aswell as working in groups and with our two course leaders. After the first week of basic team bonding challenges and general film production, we were given our assignment of making a film based on artefact which inspired us. Northampton museum and art gallery allowed us to enter the museum storage where the public aren't allowed. There were thousands of things to choose from. From paintings to shoes, we were all amazed at the oppurtunity which we had been given. When I came across an old wedding dress, I knew straight away that I wanted to use it as my artefact. I decided to go for a 'Corpse Bride, zombie, revenge' theme. I worked with two girls from the course on the film. One of the girls chose a weapon and the other chose a mask, we incorporated all 3 of our chosen artefacts into our film. We were given another fantastic oppurtunity of going above the Northampton library where they had a copy of every Newspaper of the last 100 years. With the two girls I worked with, we visited local charity shops where we bought a dress really similar to my artefact. We could not use our original artefact because they were hundreds of years old. We found replacements for the weapon 'stake' and the mask. My friend who was in our group had a real love for maskmaking, She made a purple mask especially for the film. We were all given the oppurtunity to gain an arts award during the course. As everyone was working on their bronze art award, I had already completed it in year 10. I began doing lots of work towards my silver art award but never actually got to complete it(something I want to achieve this year..) We were each asked to come up with a short workshop. There were all different workshops which people had to offer, from learning to speak Japanese, mask making, photoshop tutorials, drama improvisations, jewellery making and my own, specialising in costume design from rubbish.

With each of us speicialising in different areas of the arts, we found how we could bounce ideas off of eachother in order to create something with each of our own input. We filmed The Vampire Strikes back over 2 days in Northamptonshire. On the first day of filming, we shot in a graveyard. I played the vampire bride and our course leader Daniel played the vampire groom. We got most of our filming done on the second day. The second day was really good as we came our of the museum in our costumes and shot infront of a large crowd of people in Abington park. One little girl even appeared in our film as the bridesmaid. On the final day of the production course, parents and friends were invited along to join the VIP screening of the Vampire strikes back aswell as the two other films that the two groups had made. We even had a visit from Katherine Prescott, who played Emily in series 3 and 4 of Skins.

Over the 4 weeks, I found myself the happiest that I had been before. I found that working with people who wanted to see my work and get involved with it were the perfect motivation for myself. Although I was working with these people, I formed the greatest of bonds with them which made me think a lot about the career path which I want to take. If I actually loved getting up at 7am every week day to travel to Northampton by bus to work from 10-3 each day was what I loved to do then film production was definitely for me. I haven't looked back since :)  

Walking around the museum as The vampire bride.

Second day of filming, yes that's me in the pink wearing a wig...

We all won cameras and were given certificates for completing the course! With Katherine Prescott.

First post

:)

Alice in Wonderland

When watching the 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland, I have always loved the costumes and animation. I decided to do a Alice in Wonderland photoshoot using the characters Alice, The white rabbit, The red queen and The mad hatter. My models did an amazing job and I don't think that the shoot could of went any better. I really enjoyed gathering the costumes and props. I used a pink table cloth, cups, saucers and a cake stand to make the tea party look more realistic. I set the shoot in my friends back garden, it was alot of fun. I made sandwiches and cakes. I also bought lots of biscuits to make the table look more colourful. 

For costumes, I didn't go for the original costumes seen in the film. I made the costumes up of a lot of different clothes. The Mad Hatter costume was made up of a blazer, my headband, black trousers, a white shirt and a hat that my friend had made. The makeup for the Mad Hatter was one blue eye and one green eye.

Daniel was so good at playing the character to the camera and even started a food fight with the White rabbit which resulted with food being chucked everywhere.

Daniel (The Mad Hatter) got on top of the table and walked over to Yvonne who was my Alice. They both done such a fantastic job. Yvonne used her own Alice in Wonderland costume for her character. The costume was so pretty and looked very similar to the original costume.

After the tea party scene, I had each model do a single photoshoot to focus on their character. Yvonnes photographs really well and didn't let me down as Alice. All 4 of the models just laughed the whole way through the shoot. I use Yvonne in the majority of my photoshoots and She did such a great job as Alice. 

Molly was the Red Queen for my shoot! We used the makeup that Helena Bonham Carter wore when She played the Red Queen in the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland.

I liked the blue makeup with the red love heart lips which is why I used the makeup on Molly. There is a massive difference between the Red Queen/Queen of Hearts in the 2010 and 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland. 

I tried to combine the two characters into one for Mollys costume, I did want to use a gold crown on Molly but I didn't in the end as I couldn't find one anywhere :-( Either way, Molly really did do a perfect job.

My friend Hannah played the white rabbit in my shoot. The white rabbit in both films are also a little different. They both have clocks, I went for the large clock in the 1951 film.

Hannahs costume was my personal favourite because we made it up of my jumper, waistcoat and hat. Hannah brought her own ears, shorts and shoes and the outcome of the outfit was awesome. I painted a nose and whiskers on Hannahs face. 

After the shoot, I decided to photograph Alice and the White rabbit together as He brings Alice to Wonderland.

This is one of my favourite photos of the day! I think my models were absolutely amazing and created such a great atmosphere. I loved the day!

Portraiture

On April 8th, I had the great pleasure of photographing three girls, Yvonne Waterfield, Fionnuala McGrory and Rylea O'Neill. The theme for my photoshoot was crazy hair and makeup. I used photos of celebrities such as Eleanor Jackson and Lady Gaga as inspiration for the makeup. I did the photoshoot in my house in the corner of a room which I have converted into my own 'mini studio'. 

As I did Yvonnes makeup for the shoot, I mainly focused on her makeup. I used purple eyeshadow as I knew it would contrast with Yvonnes dark hair, eyebrows and eyes. 

I had all of my models wear boob tubes as I find wearing tops with logos or writing on them takes the focus off of the model and onto the top. For Ryleas makeup, I used an orange and green colour theme. I liked Ryleas look in the shoot because She suited her hair being pushed back. I used Eleanor Jacksons makeup in 'Bulletproof' as help for Ryleas makeup.

I had previously seen pictures of models on Americas next top model, doing a crazy hair and makeup shoot with paint on them. I liked the shoot so much that I created this shoot without the paint as I thought it could end a little messy. 

This photo was my absolute favourite! The contrast between the girls blue eyes, dark eyebrows and the red and green paint was beautiful.

Fionnuala looked absolutely amazing for the shoot. I think that her look worked the best. Her blue eyes and brown hair definitely worked well with the blue and red makeup. The close ups of Fionnuala worked the best for me.