Project Introduction

My final major project will be a collaboration with Alice Birchmore, a make-up artist currently in her final year at Bradford University. She is also currently working towards her final major project, so we're collaborating; Alice is in charge of hair and make-up and i will be in charge of photography, set design and post production. I have worked with Alice many times over the past couple of years, and I think we make a great team.

Our main theme for this project draws inspiration from Tim Burton; we plan to re-create and photograph some of his most prominent characters, but with our own twist. Here are the characters we have chosen; Corpse Bride & Victor (Corpse Bride (2005)), Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice (1988)), Sally (The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd (2007)), Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands (1990)) and, as a possible extra shoot, dependent of how everything goes; Miss Argentina (Beetlejuice (1988))

I will be building two different sets, using the workshop at Blackburn Museum as a base, therefore we will have a space to keep the sets up for convenience and easier access to props from the Museum if we require them. Whilst designing the sets i will be taking inspiration from German Expressionism as well as Tim Burton films, i feel that Tim Burton himself was inspired by German Expressionist film. My personal favourite expressionist film is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). The first set i plan to build will be a forest scene, with distorted trees, and the second will be an indoor scene with a window and painted on shadows.

As far as lighting goes i want to experiment with using coloured gels, the sets will be a half-box shape, which might make lighting a little awkward with lighting bouncing off the "walls". I will use my Canon EOS 350d and my sigma 10-20mm, and 24mm lenses.

I feel this project will be a good way to finish this two year course, everything i have learned so far will be put to use, and collaborating with another student and working with teams will demonstrate my communication skills.