#openb

Overall I think that this project turned out well. At the beginning I was struggling to think of an idea, I knew I wanted to do food but I didn’t know how to do food cinemgraphs well. 

I first thought of doing slow-motion adverts similar to how M&S do their adverts but as I researched further I liked how some images on Pinterest used a brightly coloured rather than a black one. I wanted to inject a bit of fun into my project as I don’t think this is done enough within the industry. 

When showing other people my ideas it was clear that I was more interested in the more “indulgent” foods, which happen to be the foods which are “forbidden” to me as I am lactose intolerant. This is when I was influenced to play on this and all the images I shot are foods which I cannot eat myself. I then thought of different ways that the GIFs could be applied to something as I don’t think they would work as an advert. 

I came to the conclusion that the GIFs would be applied to an online magazine article. I think the slight movement in each image would make an online magazine article more pleasing on the eye and interesting than normal stills. 

I chose to do 4 sweet and 4 savoury foods to give me some more direction when choosing things to shoot, by doing an even amount of sweet and savoury it adds a good balance to the shoot. For the background I have used 4 different colours - 4 for the sweet, the same 4 for the savoury. 

I am glad I have used the coloured backgrounds as I think it stands out well, I tried to use foods that stand out against the colour in the background however that was difficult for some of the shoots. For example, the mozzarella dipper shoot was shot on a yellow background, I think it would have been better on the pink but the pizza did not look right on the yellow. 

I chose to have the images going forwards and then in reverse to keep the “fun” aspect of the shoot going. By doing this it adds something more than a constant movement or it snapping back to the start. The GIFs run through very smoothly and again make them very easy on the eye. 

One improvement I think would have to be the lighting in some of the images. I think I need to practise a lot more with lighting when recording a video as this is very different to when doing a still. I think if I had managed to book out the Diva lights from CLR the lighting would have been much more professional but in the first shoot I had issues with my risk assessment and the second shoot they would have been too heavy to carry home with me. 

I did this shoot in my home, by doing so I could use my kitchen for the cooked food. I think this was a great help as if I did this in the uni studio I would only have been able to use the microwave. I don’t think I would have got the images I have using the microwave. 

The only problem I faced was getting the lighting correct, I think some of them appear a little dark - I used natural light with the help of a modelling light from a flash. 

In this shoot I need to shoot one more savoury food: ICECREAM

I am going to do this by letting an icecream melt and hopefully catching the drip. 

SAVOURY IDEAS:

- Pizza

- Mozzarella sticks 

- Sour cream & chive dip 

- Cheese being grated 

Keeping with the “forbidden foods” theme I am still using foods which I am unable to digest, this making a lot of the savoury foods cheese based. To ensure the shots are not too similar I am going to ensure I shoot them as varied as possible. (Using different coloured backgrounds will do this sufficiently I think). 

As I am going this shot in my own home it will be easier to melt the cheese etc as I am will have a full kitchen to hand - if I did this in uni it would be more difficult to keep the cheese melted. 

The shots I am going to do: 

- Ice cream melting

- Pizza being pulled up

- Mozzarella sticks being pulled apart

- Potato wedges being dipped into Sour Cream 

- Cheese being grated 

Shopping List: 

- Ice cream cones

- Ice cream

- Margherita pizza 

- Extra cheese for the pizza

- Mozzarella sticks

- Potato wedges 

- Sour cream 

- Chives 

- Cheddar cheese 

Props: 

- Coloured card

- Pots for dips

- Bowl

- Ice cream scoop

For this shoot I had equipment from CLR booked out however they “never received my risk assessment” so I had to use the lights from the cupboard - only being able to use the modelling light. I think by using the diva lights the shoot would have been a lot more successful but I did my best with what I had.

I was unable to get an icecream for the shoot so I couldn’t do that shot. 

During the shoot on the 15th May I hope to shoot 4 of the 8 videos to create the GIF. 

The shots I am going to shoot are:

Chocolate drizzled over chocolate cake

Strawberries, meringue and cream 

Icecream melt

Grating chocolate over milkshake

The foods I am going to buy for this shoot are:

- Cupcakes

- Chocolate icing (preferably in a tube)

- Fresh strawberries

- Meringues

- Fresh double cream 

- Ice cream on a cone

- Chocolate milkshake

- Whipped cream 

- Chocolate

Props I need: 

- Coloured card

- Bowl 

- Plate

- Spoons 

- Grater