Receate

Proposal

Initital Thoughts

Starting in 2007, Recreate has already been around for six years. What interests me is how the programme has developed over the years and the effect it has had on the local artists and creatives. Capturing people who are a part of Recreate is important to see the effect of the whole project and the reasoning behind it. Finding artists who use the studio spaces regularly and talking to them about there work and their thoughts on Recreate will be important in understanding the importance of the project and how much it can help the creative industry.

Locations 

After researching into different locations where Recreate have been working, I found the ones that interested me the most was places that hire there studios out and allow artists to work there. It would be interesting to speak to the different artists and to find out how the project has helped them and what it means to them. The locations I picked below all have studio's that they hire out and host different creative workshops they run for artists and local people. The websites of each location all include information about there current artist residents and what type of work they create which would be useful to find out who the best people will be to talk to.

Location Choices: 

Chatham: 

Sun Pier House, Medway St, Chatham, Kent,  ME4 4HF

Sun Pier House in Chatham stood out to me the most because of the amount of studio spaces they rent out so it would be interesting to speak to all the different artists who have used it. Finding out how transforming Sun Pier House into studios has helped the local community and area would also be very interesting as the town is run- down in some places. 

Hertfordshire:
Berkhamsted Town Hall, 196 High St, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 3AP

The Berkhamsted Town Hall in Hertfordshire stood out to me with how much the project has developed already and how it has extended into other areas. Five artists have spaces at the Town hall so talking to them to find out how the project has helped them and developed there work would be interesting.  On there website it talks about how some artists have gone on to there own projects and have even gone to top art schools, this would be interesting to document as it is evidence that the Recreate project is working.

Brighton: 

New England House , Brighton, BN1 4GH 

The Brighton Location would be a good area to document as they have extended the Recreate project to numerous locations throughout the town. They have named there space in the New England House 'The Fusebox' 

In Brighton Recreate hire out four different spaces for artists under the name 'we are po up'. which are listed below:

The different locations of each pop up spaces means the Recreate project is reaching out to many people and different areas in the community and captures the effect Recreate can have on a town. By Recreate hiring out unused shops and buildings means that the town is getting used to its full potential and creating pop up shops is building up the towns economy.  Photographing an artist or creative using a pop up shop for there work would capture the Recreate project in its most effective, and how other towns can use the same ideas. 

Site History 

Chatham: 

Sun Pier House is founded and managed by Heather Burgess and Edward Gransden who are both residents in Medway. They was both looking for empty buildings which they could house local artists in the location they chose was a former HSBC bank that was run down and  had been empty for over a year. The location was included in the EU Interreg funding bid as part of the councils Recreate project, Sun Pier house became the focus to regenerate the high street between Rochester and Chatham. The two founders wanted to create a space that can be enjoyed by the public, creatives and artists, they have succeeded in this and now have 11 studios spread across two floors. 

They currently have 14 residents at the moment, the seven below are all artists so it would interesting to speak to them bout the spaces they have used and how it has helped and developed them as an artist.

Hertfordshire:

Rose Scarborough is the founder at Berkhamsted Town Hall in Hertfordshire, her vision was to provide the local area with an arts and crafts centre that everyone could use and learn from. The space has developed and expanding after first taking over a pottery workshop in a room at the back to hosting workshops and hiring out the spaces to artists. As the project has expanded so much they hold the classes at the local school called Ashlyns. This project has helped many artists go on to start their own projects and businesses and many of the people have gone on to top art schools. The building was originally used for 80 years by the Mechanics Institute, since then the building has been expanded and the ground floor was made into restaurants  However none succeeded until the space was used as a craft centre, and it has now been renamed to 're:create'. 

Brighton:

In Brighton the council has made a space called 'the fuse box' for the Recreate project at the New England House. The idea for this project is to enhance the city's reputation for supporting creative talent and create learning spaces for creative entrepreneurs. 'The Fuse box' creative idea is to provide flexible and affordable spaces for creatives. The project is also extending to the city centre to hire out empty retail premises so artists can showcase and exhibit their work. Using the unused spaces is under a scheme called 'we are pop up' to make sure the spaces are well used.

Local Amenities

Chatham: University for the creative arts, Historic Dock Yard, Rochester Cathedral and High street, Nuclues Arts Centre

Hertfordshire: Country Parks, Hertfordshire University, Nature Reserves, 

Brighton: Tourism, Beach , Brighton University,

Creative Visuals 

Inspiration

After researching the different locations of Recreate and looking at the different artists who use the studios there I started to think of different ways I could photograph the artists. Capturing the artist in the space created by Recreate is important to show the client and the public how the spaces are being used and what effect is has had on the artist. I was inspired by the pictures below with how artists have been photographed in their own homes or workshops amongst there own work. Having the artists work all around them captures glimpses of their personality, and in my photographs will show how Recreate has helped to produce this. 

'Artists at Home: Artifice and Presence ' 

John Ballantyne, Thomas Faed, 1865    

Horst for Vogue in 1966

Pablo Picasso in his Cannes studio, 1965, Arnold Newman

Lucien Freud

Andy Warhol at The Factory

Ed Bereal in His Studio by Jerry McMillan, 1961

Irving Penn's studio 

Maison Martin Margiela's studio

The pictures that appealed to me is the one's where the artists look very natural and are working on there artwork, as it as if you are getting glimpses in to there lifestyle. 

Text and Image

Capturing the artists thoughts as well as the artists in the space provided by Recreate is important to me in being able to understand the way Recreate has helped them. By looking into artists and photographers who use text and images in there work inspired me with how I can capture the artists own thoughts, the idea of having the artists hand write the way the project has helped them on to a bit of card adds a more personal view to the work and allows the viewer to read and see how the project has helped so many people. 

Dalia Estrada 

Bruno Kurru

Jim Goldberg

Karen Knorr

Lorna Simpson

Research: What artists think of Recreate?

Christopher Thompson : ' Sun Pier House is in a great location, has a wonderful community of people working there and is within easy walking distance from home. Since my projects rely almost exclusively on the effect of light passing through glass, the studio provides near-perfect conditions'

Jocelyn Leigh: Sun Pier House is not only the ideal location for investigating the Medway, but also a wonderful retreat to sit, think and work. It is exciting to be part of a growing creative community with all the benefits that will bring.

Media

Camera: Canon 7D (Digital)

Lens: ?

File: RAW 

Inkjet print mounted on white card with handwritten message at the bottom

Potential Outcomes

Portraits of artists and creatives who use the spaces provided by Recreate to capture the effect the project has had on the local community and on the people who use it's services. Contact past artists who have used the space and how there work has developed since starting at the project and how it has helped them further there career. Capturing the artists shows the client how the project has transformed peoples lives and how Recreate has achieved what it set out to do. By considering the people who are directly involved in Recreate shows other town and city's the effect the project can have on the local community and on the creative industry and by including the artists own words adds a personal feel to the work and makes you understand the project from a personal level. 

Travel & Transport 

Hertfordshire:

By Car

By Train

8 minute walk from train station to the venue

Brighton:

By Car

Contacts

Chatham: 07545 642 581 or email: info@sunpierhouse.co.uk

Hertfordshire: 01442 879 602 or email recreateoffice@gmail.com (The office is open 10am to 12pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)

Brighton: Tel: (01273) 293451, E-mail: mpt@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Plan

Chatham: Look around the open studios, and speak to artists who are currently working there to get ideas on how I could photograph them.

Hertfordshire: Once a week an artist support group gets together to provide advice, support and encouragement attending this would be interesting as I could speak to the artists and see them use the services. 

Brighton:

On Wednesdays and Fridays Brighton runs a collaborative work day for businesses' and entrepreneurs in the creative industry, it allows artists to discuss their projects, experiences and skills with others. This work day event would be interesting to attend to meet artists who are directly involved in Recreate and use it's services. 

Schedule

Thursday 28th- Proposal

Friday 29th- Visit Sun Pier in Chatham to see studio spaces and to take snapshots

Saturday 7th December- Visit Brighton

Equipment List

- Camera

- Lens

- Tripod

- Light meter

- External Flash

- Diffuser

- Memory cards 

- Spare battery

- White Card & Pen

The Commission- Page Orientation

We decided to have our magazine in a landscape page orientation as we felt it represented the theme of our magazine which is helping the landscape with recycling clothing. The landscape orientation represents how we want to protect the landscape by stopping waste in the fashion industry. Digital magazines often come in both portrait and landscape this is what inspired us to create our magazine in landscape. This is some examples of online magazines that come in landscape orientation: 

Risk Management & Budget

Risk Management

Rosie was in charge of the Health & Safety part of our set build , she made sure we was all protected during the set build and made sure everyone was aware of danger. She also had all of our electrical items  pat tested so we could use them in our university and made sure all of the health and safety forms were filled out so we could do the set build. During the set build we made sure there wasn't any risks by making the models aware of the dangers in the studio, using cable covers, placing lights in positions that wasn't in any ones way, made sure all of the walls were stable, wore gloves when building and when moving the lights, we turned the lights of when we wasn't using them and made sure we was looking out for the flashing amber light on the HMI light as it could over heat. During our set build there wasn't any health and safety issues as we all made sure everyone was aware of the risks and we didn't put anyone in danger. 

Budget

When the project began we decided as a group we would split the money each one of us spent at the end of the project, we also decided roughly that we only wanted to spend £50 each.  Samantha was given the role of looking after the budget, so we all knew what the money was being spent on and how much we owe everyone. After we decided on our final idea for our set build and what materials we wanted we realised we would have to spend more money to make sure it looked as good as it could be. The main part of our money was spent on the brick vacuum moulds which we bought from pinewood studios, even though they was very expensive they were a vital part of our set build project. We tried to save money in our set build best as we could by returning items that we hadn't used. This is a list Samantha made of all our expenses during the set build project:

Post- Production

We went through all of our images as group to decided what ones we liked the best. We narrowed our search down by removing any images where there was no smoke , where the model wasn't facing forward and where she didn't have the fur coat on. We felt this left the most strongest ones we then narrowed the search down even more by removing any images where the model wasn't in focus as we wanted a pin sharp image.  This is the final image we choose:

We choose this image based on how the model looked, we thought she looked very strong and powerful which matched our concept. We also liked how the models were lit. The only thing we felt let the image down was how bright the smoke is but we decided we was going to edit it in Photoshop as it could be easily fixed. 

Samantha, Marie and myself came in to edit and print our image, to edit the image we first use Phocus to get the contrast right on the whole of the image. Once we exported the image in to Photoshop we decided what areas we thought needed work on and then masked them of as a new layer so we could edit each section separately and go back to it if we needed to readjust it. We also used the cloning tools to remove any marks that were too distracting on the image.

The areas we edited using the curves tool was:

- The models face and skin to brighten it up and to add contrast

- The coat to add more detail in to it as it was too dark

- The underwear to make it more brighter

- The male models legs so you could them more

- The drain pipe so it stood out more against the darkness

- We selected the smoke to make it less bright as it took your attention away from the model

- We made the front wall lighter so you could see more detail in the brick work

- We also added more contrast to the back wall

This is our final edited images:

After we had edited the images we made a test strip of the image so we could print it. We adjusted four of the images on the test strip so each one was brighter then the other one, we also adjusted another four which were more darker then one another to see how we should print the image. This is our test strip for printing:

Shoot Production & Communications

Shoot Production


On the day of the shoot four of our group including myself went to university to make sure everything was ready for the model for when she arrived. Our two other members were meeting the model at a hairdressers so the model could have her hair styled. Whilst we was waiting for the model we made sure everything was set up such as the lighting, the smoke machine and her clothing. We also set up the camera and had someone hold up a grey card so we could get the tone in our image to natural :

We had the male model and the make up artist arrive at 11am as that was the time the model should be ready from the hairdressers. Once the female model arrived she had her make up done, the male model arrived whilst this was happening so we gave him his clothing to get ready and told him where he would be and what he would be doing. When the female model was ready we told her our ideas for the day and showed her some images of how we wanted her to be posing. We had her pose in various ways  which will make her appear powerful we had her in a pose where she had her hand on her hips,  where she had her hand to her face, looking away from the camera, walking toward and away from the camera and with her back towards the camera. The images were she was walking didn't turn out as well as we thought because we had problems with keeping it in focus.

    

 After we had positions sorted we turned on the smoke machine, we preferred the images when there wasn't much smoke and when the smoke fell all around the model. To get this effect we had one of our group members stand with the smoke machine and hold it in places where we wanted it to be. We also had one of our group fanning the smoke to make sure the smoke kept in the right place. Next we experimented with different ways we could position the coat as we thought it made the shadow look to large, however once we pinned the coat up we didn't like the way it looked. This is a picture with the coat pinned up:

We then tried some images with the model wearing around her shoulders, with it of all together and with her holding it in her hands. As a group we felt they didn't work as well as the images where the model had the coat on.

Communications


In the beginning of the project everyone in our group was given a role so everyone knew what they should focus on so we could get the work done easily.

• Lighting lead: Rebecca Smith
• Building: Sam Shipton
• Budget controller: Sam Shipton
• Props master: Katie Joiner
• Casting lead: Katie Joiner
•  Health and safety representative: Rosie Squires
• Stylist: Marie Hanrahan
• Creative Director: Sophia Chippett

To make sure we all worked well as a team and so everyone had an idea on what work everyone had done work wise we decided to make a group blog on blogger. Our group blog, http://groupthreefashion.blogspot.co.uk/, allowed us to easily see the references we had decided upon and to see what stage we are up to with our work.

We made individual pages for each section of the project such as Casting and Lighting so the blog was easy to navigate through and so everyone knew where to post the work.

We also made a group on a social networking site so we could easily keep in contact with everyone and so we could keep up to date with everyone else. It also allowed us to easily post pictures of references and ideas we had to get everyone else's opinion in the group.

Katie made a Gmail account for our group so we could all log in to it to look at the calendar and to see when we would have to be in for meetings and for workshops.