Reversing the camera

I figured out that optics seem to be very interchangable - I created a projector using a camera and part of the assembly from an enlarger.  This had a few good points; The assembly was lighter and with more of a structure so I could use just one lighting stand, so much more portable.  I could shoot on 35mm and after developing, roll the film back in to the camera, and use its controls to move the frames - meaning i would have to make or carry around slides.
The idea of reversing the camera was attractive to me - shooting light back through the negative and lighting an area with it's image?  I've thought before about taking an image from a related place and projecting it in another - what about using the same viewpoint, and projecting that viewpoint, for example in the daytime in to the night scene?

Using the 35mm wasn't flawless - the mechanism was more a chore than a blessing, and often wouldn't align well (a slide is slightly smaller than a negative, whereas the opening on a camera is the same).  Therefore, for now I'll go back to use a setup that can take a slide - but still using a camera lens on the front with some kind of aperture control.

Other notes:
- Print on to acetate to get the dynamic range in the projected negatives.
- Start creating workbook properly after this friday!  As this has been recorded mainly here so far :/

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I came across the film 'Sullivan's Travels' for the synopsis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan's_Travels

As my current ideas are based around a light playful comedy, I was worried that there might not be enough depth to it - but this film has a lesson in it - just to make something for amusement  isn't of any less value.

I think again (and again) of Gilliams statement - " I think it's more important to be educated, to read, to learn things, because if you're gonna be in the media and if you'll have to say things, you have to know things. If you only know about cameras and 'the media"

Brainstorm

As a kind of pictorial graffiti I want to find places that are usually off limits, I've started this with the statues and monuments.  The projection should still have a self aware interpretive comedy about it :D 

I like the Gilliam style; absurd combinations, hallucinatory effects etc..

People - I think it'd be important for the subject to be unsuspecting, not neccesarily of the camera but of what I'm projectiong.
I can't think of a way to capture moving people, so would have to be still, either approach people in public (this is me, not going to happen) or a sat portrait.

Face masks - Clown make-up, stiches (like a teddy or horror), zombie, mime

Urban locations -  A bit hard as quite is quite a graffiti's place, would need to find some places that arn't normally graffiti'd.

Already thought of interacting with statues

Car's (a dirty one? maybe be a bit shiny to work well) -

Pavement - trapdoors, or a pun on the 3-drain superstition

Churches - a mocking religious symbol, maybe a devil banging at the door, or climbing from the floor.

Nature - Bit tricky to find a good surface though

Tree - something cartoony, a small door and windows and a little man.  Or spiritual, fairies

Broadening

Refining my ideas to statues and monuments with their historical context has caused me to hit a wall - The few images I created were not as interesting as I imagined; The idea's behind them lacked something substantial.

I've been falling in to the same traps as I have before - becoming obsessed with the technical process.  In this way my idea's work better when broader - when the process is the subject of the images.

A line of thought I'm currently persuing is the idea that what I'm doing is like graffiti - I'd mentioned before how my process isn't visible while I'm making it, only on the final image - the photo record. 
Graffiti obviously can be put anywhere, but there legal and other issues which just don't apply to what I'm doing - I could get away with projecting anywhere, like the Gail Porter projection I mentioned previously.

I have a few limitations on non-static subjects, mostly the amount of light I can produce in one flash - so daytime shooting as I explored yesterday; is very hard.  I would have to flash the same subject multiple times to build up exposure of the projection, whilst not over exposing the image.  At about 2s recycle time this means I'd have to use multiple exposures, which I havn't the equipment meter how many times i'd have flash - I need a remote flash trigger.

My aim at the moment is to brain storm ideas of subjects and projections to go with them, opposing my previous method of finding a location and researching and finding a subject - this made a long working process longer.

First Negs

I havn't learnt from the past it seems, initial negatives have come out way to light - So I'm gonna try some extreme push processing to see if I can improve things - the illusion would be destroyed if not good enough!

Julian Beever

As I make the images ready for projection, I'm considering the distortion needed for the perspective to look right.  A good example of how this is used is Julian Beever's 3D pavement art, the farther away from the viewing point the longer and wide the image has to be -

Fortunately Photoshop makes this easy with the perspective in free transform - basically distortion in a trapezoid shape.  It will still be a little trial and error though, although I can estimate it using the 3D Postcard tool, for a preview of what angles the perspective shift will look right from.

And I still need to consider the distortion from the projector!

The simulated final image, the perspective transformation, and 45' view above.

Descending into fantasy

The influence of Terry Gilliam is becoming more pronounced..