#boozehounddev

Went wandering around Melbourne the other day, taking photos of random things to create a colour study for my visual essay - since the ‘bartenders and their dogs’ idea fell through.

So. This week the focus is on getting everything completed for print. I need to finish my editorial. Finish my art for my feature article. But my main concern right now is my visual essay, it was supposed to be a feature of 10 bartenders and their dogs, but it is so hard to organize times to suit everyone...so I am thinking of last minute changing the idea (which our team leader Mitch suggested yesterday) to something else. I was thinking something along the lines of ‘a colour study of Melbourne’ or maybe like macro shots of stuff and then on the page beside it a full sized image of whatever I’m macro-ing (is that even a word). Idk, I love artsy photography so it would be nice to do something where I can just grab my camera, go wander around Melbourne, take a bunch of shots and then put them together into a beautiful photoset. I know we also need to work on the interactive pdf, so I was thinking of maybe putting them together into a slideshow type thing...I asked around and I might even have lined up a little backing track from a local Aussie talent to go along with it, but that depends on how much work I get done with the photos.

Week 7

A selection of images from our cocktail photoshoot with alexandramatsoukas

This was not only my first time using a Canon camera, but also my first time using a 50mm lens. It took a lot of adjusting and we rigged up a really quick and gritty lighting setup due to other plans that we were relying on, falling through. But all in all I think we got some really great shots, and I’m happy with the end results. It was a learning experience for sure but that is what we are here for.

I feel like our lighting/camera workshops with guest lecturer Andy helped immensely. Getting the right shot is one of those fickle things, especially when you throw lighting into the mix, and I feel like that is what his lectures showed me. That trial and error is always going to occur in photography, even when you know what you’re doing, if you want to get that perfect shot. As you get more advanced in your knowledge and skill set the time it takes you to achieve that shot will be cut down, and you’ll have a better understanding of exactly where to position everything to get the shot you want from the beginning, but there is still an element of tweaking and guesswork involved lol. At least that is a bit reassuring for a beginner like me.

I’d love to get my own lens like this for my Nikon at home, or at least get to play around with this one (and the 100mm lens which Sheri originally suggested that I use, but could not attain since the camera shop had none left for hire) a bit more. 

Week 5 was a big one. We had a meeting on Thursday and caught up on a lot of work. We got back on schedule with our Gannt sheet and I finished off a masthead.

Masthead Version 1

Bringing the masthead to the group I got some excellent feedback. We came to the conclusion that although it was an interesting masthead, it did not reflect the brand essence. In conclusion, it looked like an Australian surf brand. We put the masthead back on the drawing board, getting some good sketches happening within the class and assigning the project to Mitch (as we were happiest with his sketches).

Week 6 I got in contact with the lovely people from Melbourne Bartender Exchange for superlunary-distraction‘s visual essay project of bartenders and their dogs. The support we have gotten is amazing. We collected a group of keen people who we will contact once we have finalised some dates. I also pitched my recipe how-to short video for the interactive PDF to a group of film students. I have secured the location, and the dates which we are going to film. I had a couple of keen people who have emailed me, but I have not heard back. I have a mental Plan B incase they don’t pull through. Filming is on Tuesday. It will be nice to get one of the many of our articles finalised. 

Before Monday

Finalise recipes for the magazine

Breakdown of each article content

Complete personal KPI form

Email person for Editorial interview

Those long Monday morning classes stuck in a windowless, pale snot yellow, uninspiring classroom, with terrible lighting - left me migraine ridden and antsy. I feel like classroom 8 is counter-productive to much of our creative drive.

This week we worked more on our masthead, marked off our team contract, put up the layout on the wall to get a good visual map of where we were headed, we finalized all of our content/ideas for content. What was perhaps the most fruitful of the things accomplished this week was that we got a guest lecture from Tim Dalton about writing and interviewing. I personally didn’t feel like I needed to be spoken to about writing (having a lot of prior experience both as a writer, studying it in previous uni courses, and doing a load of academic writing) but his lecture was good as a refresher and to give me the inspiration to get started on my articles this week. 

My to do list is kind of up in the air at the moment, things have been crossed off, rearranged, or all together scrapped. I kind of expected that to happen, but it doesn’t make things very tidy. We’re definitely feeling the stress, what with 4 weeks left until we’re due to send things off to print. I’m trying to stay positive, break things down into manageable, bite sized tasks, but it is difficult to take things one step at a time and not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task at hand. Some interviews, brewery visits and such are being organised so I can take photos at those for content as the opportunities arise, although I can’t help but wish we had more time for this project. 

Before the week is out I need to: - put out a call on the SAE Melbourne crew facebook to see if we can find a film student interested in filming/editing the short videos of cocktail making next Tuesday for our PDF - create a publicity kit/press release to be sent out to potential sponsors/interviewees/places we want to sell the magazines/etc - write my editorial (or at least the first draft/plan for it) - create my sketches, watercolours, etc for feature article/events page and Alex’s tax editorial. - do some research on cocktail/product photography - maybe I should shoot some alcohol we have at home to begin with...as practice