Category: Foundation 4D 1 – G6

Hello World!

This is a story of adventure, suffering, and a lot of mosquito bites.

This is a story of how I worked on this assignment. 

Conceptualization

I have always been inspired by the works of Kyle Thompson, by his color tones, concept and editing. I found his photographs almost film-like that evoked a sense of nostalgia and his warm/purple tones evoke a sense of make believe. Though his concepts are much more surreal than I can attempt in this assignment I aimed to capture his storytelling skills through something less surrealistic.

Untitled by Kyle Thompson
Untitled by Kyle Thompson

Another artist I take inspiration from is Wes Anderson

Still from Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson

I always enjoyed his sense of discipline to commit to a visual style and how he creates visual interest through creating depth, color and space. After writing a journal on his visual style, I took inspiration from some of his cinematography and put it into some concepts.

I then started to brainstorm various objects that had meaning to me. I had to keep in mind various elements like – is it doable as a concept, visually interesting and significant to me. I narrowed down on my childhood binoculars because it fits all three criterion and was also a prop I was curious to explore, and also partially because my cat is not a cooperative prop.

My ideation pages

I planned my shot with reference to my visual artists and inspirations and focused to vary three things – shot size, angle and subject size. The shots I’ve planned included close body shots, unusual cropping and a mix of high and low angled shots.

I split the images into three concepts. Play tells the story of childhood exploration, the thrill of discovery and fun. Explore tells the story of fear, reluctance, mystery and adventure. Discover is about amazement for world that I made believe and the destination of the journey. The final concept after shoot was however, much different.

Preparation

The prop: After rummaging through my room to find my binoculars, I noticed that it still retained its brown dusty army look – I thought the colors removed the element of make believe as it appeared toy-ish, so I pestered my senior for his gold spray can and proceed to turn it antique gold, much like a real explorer. I mean, the sense of adventure were real to me as a child and I aimed to capture that, so I thought it was a big element to put in that bit of effort for. I taped some parts so that it was not entirely gold, because according to mister google, the ones explorers used wasn’t entirely gold. Well, okay mister google. 

The world: On the way out of NTU one day, I noticed there was this huge field and nature just outside of campus, filled with towering trees and unobstructed view of the sky. I decided to use this as my backdrop for this project as it captured the imagined world.

Execution

and thus begins my losing battle against prickly grass
and a swarm of thirsty mosquitoes

On a weekend, I set up a tripod, hooked my camera up via bluetooth, and began shooting. It was a LOT of trial and error – getting the focus right, my posture and expression, my body language, framing and all. I made various impromptu shots along the way, but after two tiring hours in the blazing sun I returned with 400 shots to sieve. I rewarded myself with two cups of ice-cold milo that day.

Post Production

I adapted the style of Kyle Thompson with a hint of Wes Anderson. This included slightly warm hues, brightly lit images and earthy tones to evoke a sense of warmth, nostalgia, make believe and a connection to nature.

Six rejected photos from the concept

I edited a total of nine shots from that day and further narrowed it down to three. Through the use of elimination, I settled on three.

In summary, some were not too strong on story, some evoked the wrong mood and some just don’t show my toy well enough.

1. I figured this shot was bland and did not seem to evoke a very strong story. It seemed to emphasize the space more than the prop
2. It didn’t show a sense of joy or wander in this photo – it did not seem to fit any concept as I wasn’t smiling. Why must I look so grumpy in photos. 
3. This was an impromptu shot I did, though I liked the sense of wonder it evoked, it did not seem to convey it as strongly as I hoped.
4. This was a shot I liked initially but after consultation it was brought up that the prop was not very clearly seen.
5. This, to me, was an interesting crop though it show the personality of the prop, it did not convey as strongly the connection to it with me.
6. As I was facing away from the camera, it did not show my emotional state with the prop, though it spoke strongly of a story, it lacked emotion.

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The next day I ventured into one of my secret worlds left alive in search of the same feelings I had as a child. This however, was a more impromptu less planned process. I figured capturing an essence or vibes of a place should be done on location than pre-planned however I had the crux of my image in mind when I was shooting such as.

1. It is visually interesting or unique in framing?

2. Does it show calmness, inspiration and magic in the image?

3. What emotion can I draw from the image?

Visually, the inspirations were much the same – of Kyle Thompson and Wes Anderson. I looked for symmetry, simplicity and a little bit of magic in the frame.

Overall, I really enjoyed documenting the images – it was an interesting look into how some photographers and cinematographers inspired the style I have today, and it’s also a nice #throwback to my childhood days again.

I apologize if I was too rambly. 

Okay bye. 

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

Have you ever looked at an image and wonder, “dang, how did he do that?” That was the very first thought that came to my mind when I looked at the various works of Kyle Thompson.

Kyle Thompson, born in Chicago on January 11th, 1992 is a conceptual/surreal photographer that captures images in abandoned forests, houses and sometimes icy cold rivers. What started out as therapeutic self portraiture works quickly captured the awe and amazement of people around the world for his creativity, surrealistic and magical element in his pictures.

I have always admired this type of photography – they are not too whimsical and have a certain realistic/probable feel to it. Combined with his film-like editing and simplicity, his portraits have shaped and inspired the style I do today.

Here are three stylistic decisions I chose to adapt from his photography.

1. Imaginative 

I have always believed to capture the mind/heart, you must first capture the eyes and interest of the audience. I’m a firm believer that once visual interest is present, people will take a nice long look at it to figure out the story … or they’ll just think ‘which parts are photoshopped’. Hopefully the former.

Kyle Thompson achieved this through making his images, firstly, of course, well shot – it doesn’t appear photojournalistic, blur or abstract. Secondly, he captures the imagination of the viewer through his impossible, yet possible, images.

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

This photo, at first glance, you will wonder – did he really just set himself on fire? Well – no. It’s obviously photoshopped for starters. But the fact that you take intrigue in looking at it, allows you to either spend a few minutes thinking – ‘how did he do it?’ or look into the story of ‘why did he do it?’ The image does not look too impossible as the fire do look realistic, and he the fire is in a way … diegetic, it’s not levitating in the middle of nowhere, it is burning something that can be burnt. This plausible response adds believability to the image.

2. Film-Like Editing

 

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

Another stylistic decision is his film-like editing. Majority, if not all, of his images uses a split-toning look that turns the highlights slightly teal and his shadows purple. This lets his images evoke a sense of antiquity and his slightly purplish hues adds a sense of whimsical magical look to it.

In recent days, the whole vintage camera look have been really in trend for his olden, faded look, and achieving it digitally just adds a sense of nostalgia that people seem to be fond of. Slightly aesthetic than metaphorically, honestly. 

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

Perhaps another reason he chose to adapt the film look is to remove the idea of ‘perhaps this is photoshopped’ so that the viewer is put to believe he really did do those crazy things. 

3. Wide framing

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

Lastly, his choice to frame his subject (majority of times, himself) adds a sense of space and give a sort of meditative-vibes to his images. They’re not particularly suffocating or claustrophobic, and I really appreciate this because it allows me to look at it therapeutically. It also allows him to build a sense of space as his images show the environment, usually abandoned places, and adds the element of magic in the image, almost like a fairy tale scene.

In summary, there are various elements that Kyle Thompson uses to build visual interest and a sense of magic to his images – apart from the core of the image which is a surrealistic and impossible element, there are other stylistic decisions he makes that adds to the visual interest.

Also, if you’re wondering why majority of his images are untitled, it’s because he believes not adding a title lets the viewer draw their own story, not because I couldn’t find the image title – really. 

okay bye.