To link Tracy Martins work with my chosen novel, whilst also keeping sustainability in mind, I am going to carry out a shoot that uses a homemade projector I put together using recycled materials.
Projector:
I made a projector by hand using things I already had at home, along with the cardboard I have been collecting throughout the duration of this project. The materials I used were cardboard boxes, tape, a magnifying glass, black acrylic paint, a ruler, a craft knife and a pencil. I used a YouTube video and other online sources to direct me on how to make it.
Plan:
I chose the words, ‘creepy’, ‘fantasy’ and ‘unreal’ from my spider diagram to gain inspiration for this shoot. My plan is to do two different shoots in different places, starting off by projecting the shape of a white spiderweb onto a completely black background- so the main colours are black & white like in Martins photos. I will then feature this photo as a background for a second shoot I will need to do in the studio.
In the studio I am going to photograph someone jumping up in the air. My aim is to use a very fast shutter speed to capture the movement of the models hair and clothing while they are in motion to recreate a phenomenon described in the novel where the Other Mother/Beldams hair floats even though she is stood still and there is no stream of air moving around her. I will direct the model to jump in a certain way so that when I edit it together with the spiderweb projection in photoshop, it will look like they are almost ‘trapped’ in the web, like Coraline is in a scene in the novel.
An idea I have, which may challenge me and help me to improve my editing skills, is to not ask the model to wear any specific colours to match what the character of Coraline wears. I want to use photoshop to edit the colour of their clothes as I think this will add a more cartoonish and fantastical aspect to the final image I end up with.
Shoot:
These are the photos I took, while using the projector. I chose to project a picture of a simple spiderweb I found on the internet. I did this in a completely dark room and used a tripod to mount my camera on. Something I found difficult while carrying out this shoot, was positioning what the projector was showing to make sure it was as close to the centre of the frame is possible. This was because the projection wasn’t bright enough to see properly through the viewfinder of my camera. The tripod assisted me a lot throughout this shoot, because it allowed me to use a long exposure time, so the projection could be seen as clearly as possible. I achieved the best results when I used an exposure time of 20-30 seconds with a heightened ISO of 6400.