Test Shoots New Codes By Luke Owen
WIP
Contents
*Embarrassing Imagery of me in Morph suit coming up in this book, just warning you now...*
The Intention
The intention of this book is to show the progression of my primary work throughout this project, looking at primary shoots and the editing and creating of new assets through this. Throughout this book there will be reference to secondary imagery from films, fashion shows, animations and lookbooks that I think are relevant to the story I’m trying to tell and the narrative I’m trying to create. A lot of my work is based on creating moving image with a digital aspect or an aspect that adds something different to my work, untraditional is a word that comes to mind when describing my work to someone. This uniqueness comes from creating digital work through physical means, creating special effects through analogue techniques and seeing what we can create through this. New Codes is a methodology that can be adapted to different brands at different market levels within streetwear in the fashion industry, the beginnings of this book will consist of general techniques and ideas that are testers for further in the journey, and this techniques will be worked upon and adapted to accommodate the different brands I’ll be contextualising in the metaverse.
My First Shoot My first shoot was done on a mannequin, layering clothing to see how monochromatic colours can be used to tell a story, through texture and shades oppose to colour. This is because I always saw New Codes as a minimalistic and sophisticated platform that focuses on attention to subtle detail and creation of narrative through underlying means. The new consumer absorbs content at a much quicker pace, this can be read about in my consumer profile, so I knew it had to be bold but not too busy so people can digest what the idea and work is, oppose to being too overwhelmed or confused at the amount of things going on within the shot. The idea of using a mannequin gave me freedom to create whatever I wanted in terms of silhouette and shape, experimenting like this, would be similar to that of digital creation, with a lot of freedom to do what I want within the context of New Codes . The ideas behind this photoshoot were to create content that can be turned in to moving image, and into digital assets like NFT’s, animated and non-animated. On the right are some examples of inspirations images I’ve looked at, looking at darker tones and layering. One of my biggest inspirations for this was Yohji Yamamoto, creating something that tells a story through texture and layering. Yamamoto has mastered this storytelling technique, looking at the beauty behind the colour black and how it can tell an emotional and thoughtful story. Some keywords that I took through this photoshoot were silhouette, minimalism, monochromatic and texture. I think this photoshoot did show this in parts, at a basic level in terms of a basic background & more analogue styling. After I shot pictures on the mannequin, I had a model to dress in this similar styling, re-creating a more tangible look that can be imaged in different positions and poses. These images follow the mannequin shots and have more of a context to them, there are a mixture of edits and raw images to show the contrast between the two styles and how I think I can get the most out of the photos I’ve taken.
The images that came from this were along the lines of more conceptual works similar to that of Yohji, like I’ve previously mentioned. One of the aspects I focused on was layering textures and seeing what effects I could add on to the images to make them look varied and different in terms of style and aesthetic. I did this by looking through filters and image adjustments on Photoshop, such as Posterize, Inverted and Overlay, I think this adds a different and more digital element. Moving forward I wanted to focus on the digital elements and looking at how I can make my content different to lookbook and fashion films we see nowadays.
Green Screen Episode I: In the beginning...
Something that I have always been interested in is movie special effects and especially in science fiction or superhero movies when they use green screen effects and edits to create new world or monsters or superpowers that really bend our perception of reality. So with future shots I am to recreate this special effect using green suits and green screens to see how I can mimic digital fashion, the idea behind this is to almost shortcut the digital asset creation like 3D modelling etc as I think I can create something surreal and interesting through physical means. This helps me create a more free flowing and interesting narrative without having to worry about the trials and tribulations of having to 3D model this, because after my previous experience, this would be a heavy and mentally challenging task that could definitely be avoided. So moving forward, green morph all the way… These first experiment was, as you can see by the visuals, a more rough and ready approach, that consisted of a treadmill, a green screen lodged on to a stairway and a super unflattering green morph suit that definitely wasn’t comfortable to be in, in front of studio lights.
The idea behind this shoot was to gauge the technology and how it works not in terms of physical aspects but also the editing on programs like After effects and Premier Pro. Using green screen tech comes with a lot of testing through keying the footage and taking out the green screen and also figuring out what goes on the background. For example, in this first shoot, we shot basic clothing items on top of a green suit and in front of a green background meaning that the clothing was the only tangible subject in the shot after editing and what would this look like in terms of smooth moving image? This effects aren’t too impressive when done in still imagery because with the likes of Photoshop and lightroom, we can cerate edits like this already. This is why my moving image was my USP if you like, creating moving images without the model present, as I think the next step is creating this moving image and broadcasting it on multiple platforms like Instagram and Tiktok, making tangible content that can be used for advertising, catwalk shows and lookbook campaigns. As you can see from the development images, I’ve included the raw images, showing the process of what one of these shoots looks like in terms of setup and the behind the scenes if you would. I think these initial test shoot really helped me reaffirm my ideas and gave me chance for trial and error throughout my work. The main thing I learnt was how best to edit the green screen, then how to style my models to help with this in terms of colours that would work well against it.
Green Screen Episode II Now we up the ante so to speak… Something I wanted to look at doing was contextualise these effects more, create something that has a proper background or in this instance, a studio background, so I can see how the images would work in a real-time environment. This shoot comprised of a black sheet background as I didn’t want to overcomplicate it for a test shoot, like I say, just to figure out how it’ll actually work as well. To go with this, the key to making green screening effective is good lighting to level out the greens so they match and all key out at the same rate. One of the aspects I have to think about is location and how I’ll have to think about lighting and what this’ll look like, if I’m shooting indoors, then how will this work. Portable or hand held lighting would be needed for a location shoot in the future for sure. As you can see from the images on the right hand side, they’re done with a full outfit and hat accessory, this is to give the silhouette more form in terms of the viewer or consumer understanding what they’re actually looking at. This outfit was from Palace Skateboards as they’re a brand I am looking at closely during this project as I believe I can tell their unique branding narrative really well through the lense of this project.
With this footage, I attempted to make some animated videos, including transitions like having disappearing body parts and trying to give the content more of a narrative or storyline. This is because having the footage is all well and good, but it needs to be practiced and optimized for Tiktok platforms and Instagram stories. This the video frames across the top of the pages are showing a short “ad” for an invisibility cap from Palace, and I thought I’d add a bit of Palace humour I suppose to the ad to show a bit more personality in the video itself. One of the takes from this shoot is trying more humanistic movements and seeing the results of this and how feasible filming longer and more complex actions is. For my final film, I want to look at filming in locations in public, so this would require looking at places where the colours don’t clash with the styling and the green suit in particular. For example, filming in a park would cause some of the nature/ foliage to disappear with the suit itself so this has been something to think about especially.
Green Screen Episode III After the second green screen shoot, I felt more inspired to see the different shapes and silhouettes I could setup and create through all of this. Including using different materials and textures. The inspiration for this shoot was more towards Yohji Yamamoto and his storytelling through shape instead of bright or vibrant colours. Like I’ve said, the ideas within these shots are to create something new and test the expendability of the green screen technology and see how I can push this as far as it can go. Something I’ve noticed looking at digital fashion and what it looks like in terms of end results, it seems very unobtainable for most people in terms of technology and the 3D model creation itself. So making a tangible way of creating the illusion of 3D clothing in real life or having it in a location/ reality just via some clever styling, photography and having the patience for Adobe After Effects is what I want to achieve as well within this project. I think this will give people who are on the fence or against digital fashion more of a digestible look at digital fashion and how it can be really, dare I say it, cool… Back to test shoot number 3, this was mainly video content which is frustrating because well this is a book and we can’t show video in this but we move. There are stills of the pre-edited imagery and the set to give an idea of what my setup was. Something I had changed from the 2nd shoot was the size of the background as I tried to make it as big and encompassing as possible. Instead of a flat sheet, I had a curved background so I could film a big further away and the shot itself needed less editing and the background just looked cleaner in general.
I think this my favourite work so far, I really liked the images and work that this created after the fact. This had more of a polished finish in my opinion and I think the slightly more experimental styling did make it a lot more interesting in terms of how the video’s look at the end. Moving on from this, I’m going to look at creating more exaggerated styling that challenges this technology even further. I think my final product will look, so far, more similar to something like this than my previous work. This work had a strong appearance and more of a signature on it than some of the other imagery. I think using different objects and perhaps introducing logos and fashion items in to this might add more character and sarcasm that would lend towards the Palace esque marketing and communication.
Mannequin Styling As the green screen shoots when on, I got the basics of the technology and how it all worked down, so alongside this shoots I wanted to explore more styling and see what I could do with more common streetwear items. This was easier to initially start on a mannequin and just play with the possibilities of this. This more lent towards bringing Palace into a more conceptual space as you’ll see from the images to come. I also used to as a chance to catch some BTS (behind the scenes) footage and show my process of creating and how I think. Styling is something that I’ve come to enjoy more and more each time I do it.
Green Screen Episode IV
Moving on from the mannequin shoot, I wanted to apply this styling on to a model and the convenient person to do this was me, as I could apply the styling and clothing to myself and preview it as I went. This shoot I tried again, some more advanced filming techniques, that are shown best on my Instagram (follow @LukeOwenFashion for more). These filming techniques involved moving the camera and doing more cinematic shots as I went forward. I did this to experiment with how we were going to film it all on a prepared and planned shoot with multiple models and frames/ shots. During this shoot I captured a good mixed of imagery and film to boost my primary image bank moving forward, to create more conceptual and different angles to any production going forward. Like I’ve previously mentioned, my inspiration for this was my styling previously, with the puffer jackets around my waist as I think this creates something that looks like a streetwear look, just mixed up and different. The netting I’ve used was inspired from the likes of Tron and other computer/ sci-fi films that involve this square formatting on digital assets loading into a game for example. I think this gives it another level of texture and feel to the image.
These end products are some of my favourite so far as I believe they represent the closest image to my final product that I’ve made so far. The combination of the hat, coats and harness is something that I think provides a good and unique silhouette which I am going to replicate going forward I think.
Preparations for my final shoot
Through experimentation and an accumulation of primary research, I feel ready to conduct a final shoot, comprising of multiple models in a real world environment that adds to the effectiveness of the green screen technology. The main points I’ve learnt from this process is: Lighting, this is one of the key elements and something I’m going to plan and work on making sure this is correct during shooting. This is for the post production, as the keying effect for the green screen works so much better when all of the colours are level and there is only one main shade of green. Poses and shot direction, whilst I’ve been my own model throughout this process, I understand the importance of creative direction and how during the shoot I will need to create moodboards and references for my models to follow and use as direction. Styling, moving forward, with the activeness of my shoot and with my models doing more than just standing around, I plan to create outfits that allow for movement and each have different aspects that make them unique and different from each other, but still part of the same group/ idea. One of the last but most important points is how we film this video/ lookbook, and keeping it as human and organic as possible. This leans back to the obtainable and relatable side of digital fashion I want to create. What I mean by this is that of creating something that people can watch and understand because it’s important to help people make the transition of understanding and appreciating digital fashion.