The Future: Evaluation

In my evaluation for ‘The Future’ I will talk about what I first thought when I was introduced to the new assignment and the two client briefs and how I have felt throughout the whole project. My different research I had to do in order to actually pass this assignment, my overall time management and what could have gone better and what I could do next time to help me with future shoots possibly.

I am currently in my final week of my final assignment before my final major project for this year called ‘The Future’. This project has been all about thinking about what our future will be like in 10 or 20 years’ time if the environmental changes that are damaging our planet now carry on for example global warming and climate change. On the day that I got given the brief I was introduced to Chloe who was from a company called Regen SW and was shown a video from Coral Smith who was from the Devon Wildlife Trust. Chloe had come in to pitch to us what we could potentially do for her in order to promote what is going on environmentally around our planet. On the other hand Coral who works with the Devon Wildlife Trust had videoed her pitch, she was pitching to us about showing in a series of images or a video etc what is happening to marine life around the world but more importantly in Devon. When I was pitched the two briefs I was confused on what Chloe was asking me to produce as she was a very passionate person talking to us about renewable energy but then went on to talk about superheroes which is where she confused me as I didn’t have a clue what a superhero has to do with renewable energy. I read through the Regen SW brief again but I still didn’t understand what she was asking me to do so I decided to read through the Devon Wildlife Trust brief again which I understood a lot more and thought that it was something that I could achieve and succeed in better than Regen SW. This time I didn’t feel like the brief was too open or it was asking me to do too much as it was client based so we had specific things to do in order to impress the client. I did feel like I was a bit under pressure to finish all three units in this project because I hadn’t completed all three units in the last project as I got told it would fit in more with this project, but I was reassured. Once I had been given the two client briefs I started to research into what both of the companies did. I found out that Regen SW is a company that is really passionate about renewable energy and that if we potentially don’t use renewable energy then the planet could be harmed even further. The Devon Wildlife Trust is all about helping to protect marine life and wildlife. Once I had read through both of the briefs I did some research into what I could do for the Devon Wildlife trust client brief as I had decided not to go for the Regen SW brief as I thought I could achieve better on the Devon Wildlife Trust brief. I researched into plastic pollution and found a lot of images just like Andy Hughes’ work on The Dominant wave Theory which inspired me to focus my work on plastic pollution and rubbish that has been washed up by the sea. This term I had to complete the three units that I spoke about in my last assignment. I had to complete the 2D, 3D and 4D units, at the start of this project I was a little bit concerned about what I could do for the 3D and 4D units. When we spoke about it as a class I realized it was nothing to worry about as we were going to cover the units in workshops that we were going to do as a class. I found doing both the 3D and 4D unit’s quite fun and didn’t feel that I didn’t know what to do once. For the 3D unit I created a sculpture on the beach made out of rubbish that had been washed up on the beach. This wasn’t actually a task that we did in a workshop at college, we went out on a daytrip to Whitsands Bay and made the sculpture ourselves. For the 4D unit I was a bit weary of making an iMovie because I had never used the software before but we had a guide to follow but I found that I didn’t actually need to use the guide as it was very simple to find my way around the program.

I researched into different photographers and artists for each of the three units. For 2D I just researched into different pictures that related to plastic pollution and we also looked at artists that are marine and coastal photographers. My 3D research was very similar to my 2D research as I researched a photographer but he also links to 3D artwork as he creates sculptures. I researched Andy Hughes. Hughes is famous for creating a book called the dominant wave theory which included a series of images portraying how much waste human’s chuck away without caring. For my 4D research I researched John Akomfrah who was the artist whose exhibition we went to see in Bristol. I feel like I could have researched into Akomfrah a bit more because I didn’t feel like I knew enough when I went to see his exhibition of Vertigo Sea.

My research of Andy Hughes influenced me quite a lot because I kept going back to look at his work when I was doing my shoot to get an idea of how to place things but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything big enough to make into a sculpture or to place in a position like Hughes but he did influence me a lot.

My images are meant to send out a message to people to show how much rubbish actually ends up on the beach due to human carelessness. I believe my final images do show this because you can clearly see that my images have been taken on a beach and they clearly show some sort of erosion due to being washed up on the shore. I also wanted to include an image or two to show what beaches can look like on a nice summer’s day when they look almost untouched by anyone. I believe that my images link to the brief that The Devon Wildlife Trust have set me.

I didn’t come across any technical issues during my shoot on Whitsands Bay as most of my images came out very well exposed and didn’t need a lot of editing. When I did my Shaldon beach shoot I didn’t have any technical issues the only issues I had was that the sun kept coming in and out of shade so I had to keep changing my white balance and ISO but sometimes didn’t work as the lighting would change so quickly. I realize that this is the trouble with shooting in natural lighting but I prefer working in natural lighting than I do in studio lighting as you get a better source of light.

Overall, I think that I have managed my time well as I feel that this assignment hasn’t been as rushed as the previous assignments so I have had more time to think about what I want to do in order to complete every part of the brief. All of my blog posts are in chronological order and include every bit of detail that I can think of and include nearly everything to do with this project.

I think this assignment has gone really well and I have had a lot more time to think about what I want to do instead of feeling really rushed. I feel that I have completed everything successfully and more on time than the previous projects as in the last projects I have had work to do right up to the last day whereas this time I only have little bits of work to do. Everyone has had to produce at least one image individually but it has been about working in a team to create 3D sculptures. Everyone has contributed into the same lectures and similar research. I believe that I have been very good at managing my time because all of my images are edited to the best of my ability and my blog is all up to date. I have enjoyed shooting for this assignment as it was outside so I haven’t had to worry about using any lighting which I have found nice. I think overall, my project has been very successful as I have been able to take photos that link to the brief but that also have a message behind them as well. I have also been able to have a good shoot outside of the studio or outside of my house which I have really liked because it has meant that I could use natural lighting to get different effects on my photos. If I was to do this assignment again I would go to lots of other different beaches and see whether there is a variety of things that get washed up onto the beach.

These are my final images that I have decided to use for Coral, my client: