Author: Huining Lai

The task in this class was to shoot a 30 second short film, firstly I was shown some examples of short films and introduced to a website, show studio, where I looked at a lot of shot film work to give me some inspiration.

The atmosphere of my zine is blurred, with a heavy shadow feel. I observed that the doors of the school had a kind of grainy glass and I thought that I could achieve a blurred look by shooting through this glass. I chose to shoot in a darker classroom and it was fun to video through my glasses because they are concave lenses so I could capture the magic of the distortion. As well as using myself as a model for some of the films of what it was like to watch the world, I also shot my eyes through my myopic glasses to achieve the atmosphere I wanted.

Because of the time constraints, I think I could have shot more film footage after the class, as well as multiple angles, or different camera languages to express my ideas, such as pushing the camera forward, or trying different angles, or some different lighting, I need to experiment more.

In this adobe class I learned about a website that converts pdfs into a zine-like format that can be flipped through.
We then watched some films and analysed some of the shots and the music in the background. The films were edited to the soundtrack, e.g. the shots would switch quickly as the music changed tempo, or the music would rise and fall to match the content of the film. I was able to borrow and use these editing techniques in my short films. Next we learnt how to use premie to edit several images into one film. I started by drawing a few shapes in ai and sketching out how it was going to go and then using pr to put them together to make a film. I didn’t know how to do this at first, it was a bit difficult for me but after I asked my teacher and my classmates I got it and learnt to use some effects which I think will help me to edit my own short films.

On this session we have one to one feedback and review by carlyn. I showed carlyn my work for Spring holiday. Carlyn suggested that I could use glasses to give it a fantasy feel. As I chose to specialise in styling and production, carlyn advised me to think about the whole body, such as accessories and shoes, as I hadn’t focused on this part of the assignment and I had only shot one look carlyn said I could do two more.  

After the class I prepared two more looks, one with a dress and one with trousers. For the first look I used two skirts layered together and a chain with beads for a twist. I noticed that the neck was a little empty and not rich enough so I added an accessory to make the look a little more layered. For the shoes I chose white high heeled boots and wore one over the other to make the look less boring. 

The top of the second look was made from a ping pong ball. I put two pieces on the ping pong ball or painted something to achieve an eye effect and then I put it on a white gauze to create a top. The shoes are also made from ping pong balls. I also strung the ping pong balls with clear thread, which can be used as an accessory to accessorise a look. 

The task of this session I will create 6 images that reflect my Zine content and concept and are promotional images that can be used on social media platforms such as Instagram.I started by going through all the images I had taken to choose which would be more suitable for my promotional images. I wanted something with a strong sense of atmosphere so that it would appeal to my customers and convey my ideas.

The tagline is a very important point. It needs to be short and catchy. Even though it is short, it needs to accurately convey the idea and attitude of my zine and be easily remembered, appealing and special so that it catches the eye of the customer.Because the point I’m trying to make is to get used to myopia instead of being anxious to treat it and maybe have some different visual experiences because of it.So the slogan I was thinking of was spare your eyes.

And when creating promotional images, the choice of font and typography is also important. I can experiment more with abbreviations, or enlarging a certain letter and so on.

Today was an outing to the barbican centre, my task for the session was to explore and take photos of the barbican and choose a location for my zine’s pr event.  

The barbican centre has an industrial feel to it, and the first thing you see when you enter the barbican is the river around which the whole barbican is built.  

I went around the whole barbican and took a lot of photos. I wanted to hold my pr event there, and I wanted to do it at night, because my zine was a blur, so it would be better at night. I want to use holographic projection technology to realise my pr event, using holographic projection technology at night and then building a temporary space on the river with glass where visitors will enter and watch some images etc. This is my initial idea. This is my initial idea. But this idea would cost a lot of money and time and I think it needs further improvement.  

The Barbican centre has an overall industrial feel to the building
The first thing you see is a river and the buildings surround this river.

The task in this session is to practice generating ideas and strategies for PR and communication. We will divide into groups of 3 or 4 people to collaborate and discuss with each other to help with thinking. PR&communication can be a big event, for example LV series3 which was held in a Brutalist office building in London and was an event about the ‘hands’ of the craftsmen and women who produced these pieces. “It was an event about the ‘hands’ of the artisans and women who produced the pieces. So I was able to choose a location in the barbican centre that was associated with my magazine to host a promotional event. From the National Geographic Magazine pr event, I could learn that some unusual and exaggerated objects can be used to draw attention to themselves and get a promotional effect. Prada print installations invite influential people to participate in the event, which gives more exposure and allows people or fans to follow my zine because of these influential people, or something for a good cause, because it’s something that has a meaningful impact on society, and that brings its own conversation and attention. I think I can use these ideas or a combination of them to put together an event for my zine.  The theme of my zine, for example, was myopia-related and had an overall blurred feel, so it was better to hold it in the evening. 

The main task for this session was to create a concept board, using photographs taken during the holiday and using typography and adding text and font choices to show the idea, attitude, atmosphere and creative direction of my zine.
As my theme was the world of myopia, I used a lot of bright photos taken in focus to create a psychedelic feel. I think I should have used more of my own images to create the concept board rather than looking for images on the internet. I should have shot more material to help me create the concept board, and I could have used more layout and editing skills to make the images richer. I could have used more layout and editing skills to make the images richer, for example, by doing some reshadowing, or adjusting transparency, saturation, etc.