Final Major Project - Initial Ideas and Research
- The life of a bike
One of my first initial ideas I had back at the end of last term was to create a book showing 'the life of a bike'. I envisioned including the manufacturing process, different uses of bikes and how bikes end up.
- Cycling during lockdown
Another idea could be to capture images representing cycling during lockdown. These could include images of people riding on their own in large areas to represent the isolation involved in activities during lockdown.
- Nature + cycling
I am interested in incorporating an element of sustainability into my FMP after writing my dissertation on sustainability. This gave me the idea to shoot cycling with more of a nature focused perspective. This could be done by including more of the environment around where I'm shooting into the images.
- Profession + cycling
Another thing that interests me about cycling is that it brings people from all different backgrounds together. This gave me the idea to capture cyclist's professions using environmental portraits as well as images of them cycling.
- Documenting a journey
I like the idea of documenting some form of journey for this project. I had planned to be on the road travelling as much as possible for the duration of the project but it seems it will not longer be possible to travel to that extent. I started think about ways that photos of a journey could be displayed. This gave me the idea of a flip book style photo book.
- Building a bike
This is an idea that stemmed from the flip book idea. I envision taking photos of a bike coming together part by part then, with a flip book the bike would build itself.
Building a Bike + Documenting a Journey
After noting down my initial ideas, I am considering combining 2 of these ideas - building a bike and documenting a journey.
Building a Bike
The first aspect of this idea is images of a bike being built part by part.
I then put these images together into this video to show how they could come together in a flip book style. This of course is a rough idea as not all the images are the same size but I think even as just a rough example it works quite well.
To create images similar to the ones I used here I would need to shoot in the studio but I think I could also do it by building some form of set such as a workshop style set. The most important aspect would be that everything other than the bike remains the same because if the background also changes then it would take focus away from the bike.
Documenting a Journey
The second aspect of the idea is documenting a journey. This would be taking the complete bike and documenting me riding it. This could be me riding the bike to a particular location or taking the bike and riding it in particular spots, for example where the frame is made.
In terms of capturing this, I could shoot self portraits of me riding. I think this would be a good technical challenge and it also allows me to not have to worry about being unable to meet other people due to Covid-19 restrictions and be more flexible with shooting.
I have some previous experience of shooting self portraits while riding. To get these images I setup the camera on a tripod then set the camera to continuous self timer mode. This meant that I could trigger the camera remotely on my phone and after 10 seconds the camera would take a burst of photos.
The other way of capturing this aspect of could be to use moving image. This would involve creating a video of the riding aspect. In terms of equipment I have my DSLR camera with a tripod and a go pro which would allow me to capture a combination of fixed angles and point of view angles.
Moving image is something I'm keen to improve my ability in so I think this could be a good opportunity to do so.
Still and Moving Image Hybrid
After considering the bike building idea more, I decided that it probably wouldn't be feasible within the time frame of this project as building a bike from scratch requires a lot of tools which I don't currently which would mean having to pay a mechanic to put parts on while still needing to capture the process part by part. This could also lead to me spending even more money on the process.
Scrapping the bike building aspect of the lead me to consider how I could create still images alongside the moving image to meet the requirements of the brief.
One way to do this could be to pick up a previously unfinished idea of mine.
This idea is to recreate the technique in this video in order to create a hybrid between still and moving images.
This would involve having still images of the key moments then having the video move through the images in similar way to this video. The still images would then be curated separately into a book or other form of display.
When I originally had this idea, I planned to shoot footage of someone else riding but I think it could also work for a self-focused video. This could also allow me to get more creative with the angles of the still images using the go pro.
