vma

So here are just a few videos from the VMA side story promo that we were helping shoot in New York for work experience. 

VMA Side Story

Backstage 

More backstage 

Ne-yo

I enjoyed this set the most! We had a few days to build this scrap yard from scratch in a warehouse in deepest darkest brooklyn. I'm afraid it doesn't really come across well in the photos the size and amount of detail in this set. The big shipping containers were stacked to make a sort of house, then truck loads of junk and burned out cars were moved in and rearranged to look like an authentic scrap yard. We had to go out and get weeds from an industrial estate to dress the set a bit more, and then the whole thing was painted and graffiti artists came in to finish the place off. Andrea did the big Michael Jackson mural and as a tribute we built a mini shrine around it. 

Then came the filming. This was perhaps the longest shoot because there was a lot of choreography. I can't tell you how much fun it was to watch! It's a shame it doesn't get more airtime in the final cut.

We also got to work on the Cobra Starship shoot, which took place in an old subway station that was turned into the New York museum of transport. There wasn't all that much for us to do in terms of set building, seeing as it was already a real location. But Claire and Millie got to design some pretty cool posters for the inside of the subway car, which was rather exciting. Because of the confined space on that last shoot, I didn't really get any decent photos. 

Ne-yo and cobra starship 

The end result

Katy Perry

This was the second set we were working on. It was meant to be a roof garden in the city but had to be completely built in a studio space in about 24 hours. It looked so different on film to how it did in real life. We spent a whole day watering plants and rearranging things which you don't even see in the final cut! We had a lot of fun goofing around on that set too, but I wont go into that because it's a bit unprofessional. It was just mad that in literally 48 hours the set was built, filming done and then cleared away. 

Here's how it looks on film 

The final result

Russell Brand

So it's probably about time that I posted about the work experience I did in NY over the summer.

We were originally working for the lovely Andrea Purcigliotti, but we also ended up assisting art director David Skinner and his team to shoot the ads and opening sequence for the MTV VMA music video awards. It mostly included a lot of DIY, getting our hands dirty, eating free food, and last minute jobs. Also a lot of standing around and hanging out with some of the coolest people I've ever met. I'm not normally one for giving great compliments but the team of people we were working with were 'totally awesome', really great fun to work with and even better to hang out with. 

SO  This was the first shoot we did for the MTV VMA promo, which was a spin on the west side story musical. Basically Russell Brand is in this alleyway singing and doing his crazy dancing. Our jobs included rubbish disposal, keeping tourists out of the way, helping to construct a set in the next door building and, very excitingly, helping to make the little purple MTV cane he's carrying. It was great fun, and really interesting to see the mad amounts of time, money and hard work that go into only 30 seconds of footage. 
The end result 

The final cut

Found type in London

Me and Claire went to London the other day to the London Design Festival and for a little mooch round London town. It was a good day for found type, as you can see. 

Top: Gorgeous shop sign. How much would I give to be able to write like that?

Middle: Sign near Kemistry Gallery.

Bottom: Someone had a lot of time to spare writing this sign! We met the man that did it and he said he had to rub it out and update it every few hours. Dedication.

Matt Wingfield Studios

I occasionally help out at Matt's studio since doing work experience there in my first year. He's had a lot of really cool projects on recently which is good. The other week I was helping him with a job for Gap to celebrate their 40th birthday they made a pop up shop in London and in Paris selling limited edition clothes and these prints (top) were handed out for free. I spent a week helping odd jobs and sewing the denim changing rooms and table tops. It's amazing how much work he gets done so quick! There were also some limited edition colour screen prints which were amazing, will get a photo up when I can. Sorry for the rubbish picture quality, camera phones were the order of the day. mattwingfieldstudio.com

London Design Festival

I went up to London on Thursday to see the London Design Festival. I think we were being a bit over ambitious with how many things we wanted to see, but we still got a lot done. And we bumped into Will Hudson, one half of itsnicethat.com and a former Brighton student. He gave us some valuable advice about our degree show. All in all it was a good show, definately worth popping into whatever you can, although I doubt anyone has the time to do it all. The fox scarf above is by Donna Wilson. I've been wanting to get my hands on some of her little creatures for ages! Xmas presents anyone?

Even more lovely disposables

Fun times in Spain

I <3 Disposable

More lovely prints came back today. I am loving the disposable camera at the moment.

Summer Project

For my summer project I've been looking at image sharing (or theft) on the internet, and the line between inspiration and imitation. I'm also thinking a lot about putting images in the public domain and what it means. Obviously there's the plus sides of allowing anyone to see your work, and hopefully get work or build a reputation out of it. I'm focusing on the idea that once an image is in the public domain, the original owner loses their rights over it in a way and have no control over who sees it or uses it. In a way it cheapens the original, in the way that it is can now be copied an unlimited number of times onto desktops all over the world, and in the way that those copies will never compare to the original. What I've done is made something original, of which there is only one copy, and I'm putting it into the public domain (here) and seeing what happens to it. I used a polaroid because there can only ever be one copy, other film has a negative which can be printed and will look the same as the original. Under the photo I've letterpressed a disclaimer which is common on most sites, but mostly ignored. I'm making a book of all the forms that this image might now take, so if anyone can spare a minute of their time I'd like you to copy it to your desktop, take a screen grab of it open on your computer, print the image and either send it to me, or just send me the screen grab. Change the format of the image if you like, anything really, just send me the result. Cheers then, ta. 

A little bit of work

This is just a little something that I did in letterpress just before the end of term with Toby. It was originally a 1st year project that I did in InDesign but I'd always been meaning to letterpress it. It's an extract from a forum for people with Dementia, written by a woman in her 40s who had recently been diagnosed. I loved the writing, it was so immediate and free, she obviously hadn't corrected it or changed it before posting, it was just very honest. It took many many hours and a lot of frustration and (almost) tears to set in 8pt Baskerville. These are just some photos of one of the poster runs we did, there is also a book that still needs to be bound. The book comprises of a print run of the posters that we did until the ink ran dry, with a blank page at the end of just the indentation of the type. We also did a print run of close cropped versions which are also pretty cool. Incidentally, there are copies for sale (funds desperately needed until the loan comes in) so just drop me an email/comment. Mates rates do apply of course!

Medium format

I got my medium format photos back from this summer. Very exciting, although a whole film was ruined by an idiot at JFK security who opened it : ( But I still have some pretty cool images. This is the first photo I took on my Diana, it's a pinhole photo of some poppies growing on a building site near my parents' house.

Daily Miscellany

I've been neglecting this blog a bit in favour of my other one, bronwyn-miscellany.blogspot.com partly because I have so much extra ephemera to document after this summer and partly because I haven't got round to doing any work to post on this one. 

Doggies

So I'm back in Brighton, in a new house with no internet, which I have really enjoyed. So no blog posts : ( I'm developing all my photos slowly so there will be millions more posts to come. These are just a couple of my best photos of my favourite New York phenomenon: handbag sized dogs.
Posts will probaby follow in drips and drabs until I get internet.
I'm also participating in a D&AD lecture tomorrow with Ian Wright and the rest of the Transatlantic Design team. http://www.transatlantic-design.blogspot.com So I'm busy getting ready for that and trying not to think about the fact that I'm going to have to talk to hundreds of people from the design industry at the same time.