#melissamorrell

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Contact sheets

These screen shots below show my photo shoot for my final images for digital on location. I used my dad and my uncle to dress up like the blues brothers with the suite, hat, tie, glasses and side burns. I then tried photographing different poses with them around the car- some at the front, around the side, shooting through the window into the car and with the door opened.

Throughout this shoot the weather was not good, so i had to increase my ISO and Sometimes had to use my camera flash. 

From this photo shoot i found my best poses and shot them on film as well. 

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The Blues Brothers

The movie's plot is that the brothers visit their old orphanage, to learn that its future is in jeopardy because of five thousand dollars due in back taxes.  They are determine to raise the money by getting their old band together and putting on a show. Their odyssey takes them to several sleazy Chicago locations, including a Van Buren flophouse, Maxwell Street, and lower Wacker Drive. They find their old friends in unlikely places, like a restaurant run by Aretha Franklin, a music shop run by Ray Charles, and a gospel church run by James Brown.

Their adventures include run-ins with suburban cops, good boys, and Nazis who are trying to stage a demonstration. One of the intriguing things about this movie is the way it borrows so freely and literally from news events. The plot develops into a sort of musical Mad Mad World, with the Blues Brothers being pursued at the same time by avenging cops, Nazis, and an enraged country and western band led by Charles Napier, that character actor with the smile like Jaws. The chase is interrupted from time to time for musical numbers, which are mostly very good and filled with high-powered energy.

There can rarely have been a movie that made so free with its locations as this one. There are incredible, sensational chase sequences under the elevated train tracks, on overpasses, in subway tunnels under the Loop, and literally through Daley Center. One crash in particular, a pileup involving maybe a dozen police cars, has to be seen to be believed: I've never seen stunt coordination like this before.

The reason why I choose the Blues Brothers for this assignment is because of their ionic clothes as they both wear a black suit, tie, hat and glasses all the time. This will make it easier for me to generate ideas and do some experimental techniques when photographing their character. One of the reasons I think that they stay in their black suits is because Jake comes out of jail at the beginning of the film and the only pair of clothes that he owns is his black suit because he doesn’t have a suitcase and I think this because he probably wore it in court before he was to prison.

I will be taking 3 film stills from this movie ‘the blues brothers’ to talk about the lighting, costumes, props, music, setting and the colours. The scenes I will be choosing are: when the brothers are at the orphanage sitting on school chairs; when the blues brothers & band are singing in the club and the last scene where Jake and Elwood are surrounded by cops.

I will also be using 2 male models dressed in black suites, black hat, tie and glasses and photographing them in the studio. Before this I will be photographing some still life photographs using a black hat, tie and glasses to photograph a character from the movie while doing some experimenting techniques.

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Children Photography 

- Studio Set-up; white backdrop, flash lights, white umbrellas.

Here are my best final studio photographs of children. 

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Here are my final Still life photographs that i took from each photo shoot. I took images of several products i.e. lipstick, eye liner,mascara, nail varnish, a glass and a watch. 

These product were photographed in a light tent or on a piece of white paper. 

My favourite images are the ones i took of the watch and the lipstick. This is because i like the colour, contrast and compositions. Some of the techniques that i used for these images are; shallow & large depth of field, macro filters, colour and contrast.  

I would like to take this further and develop my skills with still life photography. Maybe changing the background colour instead of keeping it white and adding more props to help advertise the product. However i am not confident enough to choose to do still life photograph for my FMP as i don’t think i am as strong as in other genres. 

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Watch advertisements - Influence

New Rolex Sky-Dweller Watch Commercial (2012)

OMEGA Globemaster

Watching these to videos have inspired me and givens me ideas for my own video. There are two things that I want to achieve in my video from watching these videos are: the sound track in (omega globemaster) this is because it has a suspense and dramatic feeling to the music and secondly in both clips there are close ups of the watch, which was achieved when using either a macro lens or a macro filters. This is what i really want to achieve because it will help me gain my photographic techniques using macro filters and it will be really good when filming as it will make an effective commercial. 

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Test Poses

Here are some test poses before i carried out my main photo shoot. I went to the LRC and looked through fashion magazines to look at how the models where posing. With the photos I found in the books, I photocopied them so I could recreate the poses with my models. From looking at those poses of what i liked and got my models to achieve them, so i knew that i could achieve it in the future and they would be effective. 

From there I also got my models to pose to how i would like them to pose because I thought of some poses that would look good in my main photo shoot, so I wanted to see if they would be effect before my main shoot. 

I like this pose for a lady because it makes her look elegant and the way she isn't looking at the camera is effective because it comes across that she doesn't care what others think and that she likes how she is. If i were to use this pose another time, I would use this when my photographing an women’s fashion shoot wearing elegant dresses.   

I got this photo from another photo that i have - this photo is a cropped version of another image. From looking at other images online and photographers, this idea came to me to crop around the watch and I caught this interesting pose and composition which i find interesting.   

To get this pose that i captured i was using a small prop black chair which I liked and took a few poses with him shitting down. I wanted to experiment with a chair because not all models and clients stand up so its good practice to know some poses of models sitting on different sized chairs.

 I liked this pose because he seems friendly and relaxed but also in control. Remembering this pose can lead to other poses that can make the model look dominate to the camera and in the photo. I also like the composition of the image .i.e. rule of thirds because you have got his head and shoulders in the 1st/3 and his body is in the 2nd/3 and then his legs and feet in the finally bottom 3rd of the image. However what i like most about this pose and image is that you can leave enough space around the model which i find good as it doesn't fill the image up. 

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Paris November 2015 

Photographed by: Melissa Morrell

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Christmas Project

This christmas project will be purposeful because i will be aiming for ideas for my final major project. 

Over christmas i will hopefully be shooting two of my concepts in not i will be shooting and developing my first concept. My concepts are to 1. photograph children/babies and my 2nd concept is to photograph commercial still life photography. 

Personal brief - children/babies:

Concept: My idea is to photograph children into a studio environment where i can control the lighting and use window lighting when photographing in certain rooms.. this is for me to gain practice working with younger subjects for my future work . 

location: Home studio/ life style. 

lighting: Soft lighting - white umbrellas or soft boxes (x2) and window light (home life style. 

equipment: digital camera, white background, background stand, 2 lights. 

models: my two nephews (7 months & 1 1/2 years old). 

props: Towels, blankets, knitted hats, toys etc. 

influences: Mood boards & photographers i.e. Angela G, Jess Morgan. 

Personal brief - commercial still life:

Concept: appealing commercial still life products that i could use for my portfolio and gain clients in the future. 

location: Home studio

lighting: soft and hard lighting - using spill skills or soft boxes. 

equipment: tripod, camera, reflectors, black and white backdrops, 2 - 3 light sources. 

props: product, i.e. shoes, body care location, make-up, technology.  

influences: mood board and photographer Michael Molloy.