Interview: Amy

Interview

Name: Amy Bennet

Age: 18

Student at Suffolk New College: Music/Live performance  

Singer: Indie, pop, r&b and rock

Born: Ipswich , Suffolk

Why music?

-Ever since I was young I always wanted to sing, music is something that keeps me going and makes me happy, music and singing is what I love the most and no one will ever take it away from me.

What do you love the most about music?

Music helps me to express myself, by singing i can show my emotions to other people. I think that music is a very important thing in life it brings people together and help understad each other more.   

Who are your favourite artists? And how do they inspire you.

Well my favourite artist is Adele I think that she is very talented, she put herself into her music, and she writes brilliant songs about her life and emotions. Adele is big inspiration to me I always try to put myself into the songs I write. I also really like Beyonce I think that she’s a great performer and song writer. I also like bands like Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and The Kooks etc.

Do you sing in a Band or solo?

I used to sing in a band for 2 years when I was in High School however ever since I started college I wanted to try be a solo singer because I thought that it would help me to develop as a artist and a song writer. Ether way I’m always up for working with other people and develop new ideas together.

What are your plans after leaving college ?  

I applied to few universities, but the one that Im going to is University Campus Suffolk, the coure that i choce is Live Music/ Preformence becaue i want to develop as an artist and i think that this coures will really help me with it. 

Where do you see yourself in ten years time? 

Its hard to say, i hope i will bocome a singers or a song writer and hopefully move to London so i can develop my careea as there is more oportunities in music industry. Becoming a famous singere and song writer is my dream and i will take any chance i get to get where i want to be in the future.  

Some ideas for final layout:

Evaluation

Before I planned the photo shot I did an interview with Amy to find out more information about her and to get to know her more.
Shooting process went well, however it was a little bit awkward at the beginning because Amy felt a little bit uncomfortable and didn’t want to look into the camera or pose differently, however once we got started she felt more comfortable and the shooting went well. I took some photos of Amy standing facing different direction, took some photos of Amy posing with her microphone because it gave a really cool edgy look as she’s a vocalist and it made the shadow look more interesting, I also took some photos of Amy sitting down.

After doing a bit of research about shooting musicians I thought of an idea with a dark shadow of Amy in the background, I thought that it would make the photos look different and more interesting, it would also suit Amy’s gothic/punk style but at the same time it would make her look very natural and feminine.

Lighting looked really good contrasting with Amy’s skin tones and the dark background. I think that it all worked well together and met Amy’s expectations of this photo shot  

I think that the background and the colours and also what Amy was wearing gave the whole shot kind of Gothic dark look. I really liked the shadow effect on the background however I had to make it a little bit darker by using the Photoshop to make it stand out more. I did few sample ideas for the final layout by changing the colours around and playing around with different fonts.  

Amy was really pleased with all the final photos, she really liked the colours and the shadow effect, however if I did this photo shoot again I would suggest to use a lighter background, I also think that studio photos have really limited what I could of done by using the Photoshop, those photos didn't really need any specific corrections or any fancy changes. This task gave me a lot of knowledge about shooting a musician’s or any band. This task also helped me to develop my photography skills using the camera as well as the lighting set up and the studio set up.

Photo Shoot Evaluation

Evaluation

Before I planned the photo shot I did an interview with Amy to find out more information about her and to get to know her more.

Shooting process went well, however it was a little bit awkward at the beginig becasue Amy felt a little bit uncomfortable and didnt want to look into the camera or pose differently

For Example in this photo you can tell that she looks a bit uncomfortable

however once we got started she felt more comfteble and the shooting went well. I took some photos of Amy standing facing diffrent direction, took some photos of Amy posing with her microphone because it gave a really cool edgy look as shes a vocalist

, and it made the shadow look more interesting, I also took some photos of Amy sitting down.

 I think that the background and the colours and also what Amy was wearing gave the whole shoot kind of Gothic dark look. I also really liked the shadow effect on the background however I had to make it more darker by using the photoshop to make it stand out more.  

Amy was really pleased with all the final photos, she really liked the colours and the shadow effect, however if i did this photo shoot again I would suggest to use a lighter background, i also think that studio photos have really limited what i could of done by using the photoshop, those photos didn't really need any specific corrections or any fancy changes. 
  

Photo Shoot and Final 4 magazine images

My final four pictures

Amy Bennett

Music student at Suffolk New college

Vocalist
Interview with Amy.
Name- Amy Bennett

Age- 17

what do you enjoy the most about singing? expressing myself with my own songs and pushing myself!

do you sing in a band? an acoustic duo called A&E

 

what music do you listen to ? Indie, rock, pop...all sorts!

what do you do in your free time? teaching myself guitar and go out to local gigs or just hang out with friends :)

Final Edited Photos.

 

                                                                                

Photography Research

First photographer I am going to lok at is Gered Mankowidz (born 3 august 1946) is a British photograperh of rock music scene over last 40 years. Some of his portraits of rock musicians, such as The rolling Stones, Jimi Hendric and Slade, are now part of the permanent collection of the National Portait Gallery.

After attending several North London progressive schools he left devoid of any academic qualifications aged 15 and served a short but intensive apprenticeship with the legendary photographer Tom Blau at Camera Press Ltd, having been inspired to pursue photography by the actor Peter Sellers.
After two years of assisting in various different fields of photography Gered established his first studio in Masons Yard, in the very heart of 60s swinging London in 1963.
Through working with folk/pop duo Chad & Jeremy he met and photographed Marianne Faithfull who was managed by the mercurial Andrew Loog Oldham, who also managed the Rolling Stones.

Gered started working with the Rolling Stones in 1965; he toured America with them later that year and produced several album covers for the band. He continued working with them on a regular basis until 1967 by which time Gered was established as one of London’s leading rock photographers.
Over the past 45 years Gered has continued to work in the music business as well as supplying many leading magazines with celebrity portraits and also finding time to take prize winning images for the advertising industry.

Currently Gered has been concentrating on books and exhibitions as well as selling prints and producing small editions of large Lenticular prints, trying to satisfy the considerable global interest that has built up in his archive.

In 2009 Gered was one of the panel of judges for the Sony World Photography Awards sharing the role with some of the most famous names in photography including, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson and Sarah Moon. He has recently moved his studio and home to Cornwall and is also a part-time lecturer at University College Falmouth.

Some of Gered's photos

This photo its a great example of what Amy wants in some of her pictures, its colourful but at the same time is not, make it look really interesting becuse the only colourful part on this photo are the clothes he's wearing. I might use this idea for Amy's photo shoot.


Photos of the Rolling Stones by Gered

Gered's role models in photography- The early photographers, the people who really influenced me particularly, were Irving Penn, an American photographer who is absolutely wonderful, Richard Avedon and a portrait photographer called Arnold Newman, a guy called Yousuf Karsh - he was a very inspiring portrait photographer. And then of course older more historical figures - Stieglitz, Man Ray, I was interested in all of these people without really knowing very much about them. Probably the two most influential were Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.

The second photographer I am going to look at is Todd Young  he is an American photographer  specializing in live music photography and bands portraits. He graduated from Washington University in St.Luis. He's work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, SPIN, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Alternative Press, The WallStreet Jurnal, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice and Harper's Bazaar. He's clients include America Express, Wrangle Jeans, Fuse TV, Atlantic Records, Universal Music Group, Live Nation, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, JH audio and Dave Matthews.                    

Specializing  

• Music Photography 
• Band Portraits
• Tour Photography 
• Whoop Ass

 photos by Todd:

   

Photographer Michael Robert Williams grew up in the small town of Congleton, just south of Manchester in North West England. Some time later he moved to London armed with a camera, a photography degree, enough money to live on for a couple of months, and whatever would fit in the back of the car. Still based in London, today Michael is well known for his portraits of musicians, including The Killers, Oasis, Kasabian, La Roux, Ian Brown, Ellie Goulding, Pixie Lott, Biffy Clyro, Kaiser Chiefs, and Portishead to name just a few, and other celebrities from the worlds of sport, film, and music. His portraits have featured in many publications around the world, including Filter, Clash, Uncut, Time, Die Zeit, 944, FMS, and NME. In addition to portraits for magazines Michael has produced artwork and promotional images for record labels and artist management, and commercial clients including adidas, Philips, and American Rag Clothing. Although always shooting, when not on assignment Michael enjoys travel, music, and films. Some of Michael's work.

My clients idea for the photo shoot :


Location- studio


Amy wants to be shoot in the photography studio, she wants a mixture of photos with different lightinig and different colours, she wants some of the photos to be more colourful and bright and some of to be more toned and natural (sepia).

Those photos of Adele are a great examlpe because the colours and the lightning that they use create the atmosphere that Amy is going for, they are not to bright and mainly focused on the natural colour which makea Adeles face stand out more, thoso photos look very natural and thats the kind of thing i want to focus on, i want Amy to look very natural and feminie mainly Im going to focus on her face and eyes.  

Those two are good examples of more bright and colourful photos, I think that I will use white background because it looks more natural and it reflects the lights better (for example when u want to create the shadow effect).  I also think that i will change the lightning during the shot just to get some different photos, it will make it look more interesting     

Domestic- Profesional

Comparing domestic with professional

Comparing domestic with professional productions there is a lot of difference. To create domestic production people normally use digital cameras or webcams which are very low quality compare to the professional standard productions, the colours look very doll and you can’t see their faces clearly, the light quality is normally to light or to dark because they don’t do the white balance, they normally don’t use any microphones they just use the sound that the camera has picked up which is usually to quiet or to loud. However the professional standard productions look more interesting and different because of the number of cameras and shots that are used, the lightning also makes a lot of difference because it makes the faces look more realistic and gives them more of a natural shades, the audio level is usually controlled in the audio room which makes it all sound clear. The professional production is normally edited in Final Cut Pro to make it look as professional as they can, they add titles and funky graphics.   

To create video production you need a lot of different equipment like; cameras, tripods, microphones, lights…, you normally need a TV studio depends what type of production it is. You also need special software like Final Cut Pro to edit the final project.      

Digital world changes.

Different ways of watching TV.

Ten years ago the only way we could watch live TV was only by watching your television at home, now you can watch TV wherever you want. There is a lot of different ways of watching TV in the digital world the first most popular way is to watch TV through internet on your computer or laptop you can either watch live shows, films or other programmes that you enjoy watching. You can also watch online TV on your mobile phone and IPod Touch.   

Advantages of digital camera over vide/film camera.

Digital cameras are more useful because you can take as many images as you want, you can also see and delete the image after you took, in the film cameras you have to wait till your images is developed and dry to see what it looks like. Digital cameras are easier to use, they are also smaller so it’s easier to move them around. Digital cameras take better quality images, the colours are brighter and the shapes and shadows look more visible and sharper. The process of developing the images from the film camera takes long time and can come out over or under exposed, where the digital camera you just have to connect to the computer and you can see if the picture is good or not.     

How has editing improved in the digital world.

One of the main improvements in editing was the programme that was created by Apple Mac, Final Cut Pro which is used by everyone in the media industry, is used to create music videos, adverts…, it is one of the most cleaver computer programmes ever made it allows you to change everything you want in your project, cutting, adding music, sound effects, difference titles, graphics, control audio level, changing speed...

History of TV in the UK and abroad.

John Logie Baird was a Scottish engineer who was famous for being the first person to demonstrate a working television in the UK.  His first apparatus was made of odds and ends, in 1926 he transmitted flickering images across few feet. Two years after in 1926 he gave the world’s the first demonstration of true television. In 1927 his television was demonstrated over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow, his company was called Baird Television Development Company (BTDC).

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was first found in 1920, it was the first ever broadcast centre in the UK placed in central London Westminster.  It is the largest broadcast company in the whole world.

Difference between PAL and NTSC  

PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a television standards invented by Walter Bruch in Germany 1960. It’s used by Europe, Africa, most of Asia, and Australia.  In PAL, 25 frames are transmitted each second, and each frame is made up of 625 individual scan lines.

NTSC (National Television System Committee) is television standards used in North America, South America, some of pacific islands, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Burma. The first NTSC was developed in 1941. In NTSC, 30 frames are transmitted each second and each frame is made up of 525 individual scan lines.

SECAM (Sequential Color with Memory) is a colour standard television which was invented in 1960 in France. This television broadcast can be found in France, Eastern Europe, some parts of Russia, Greece and Africa. SECAM transmits 25 frames each second and each frame is made up of 625 scan lines.  

The differences between those broadcast televisions are that they are use by different countries, PAL uses less frames per second than NTSC but is using more scan lines however NTSC uses more frames per second but uses less scan lines, SCAM uses the same amount as PAL. If you watch one of the channels of those televisions you can really tell the difference between the colour and sound quality.