Brief

Today we were given our briefs for our SDP. I have chosen the Painting For Inspiration Film and Styling Project route.

I think this route is the best for me as it includes, in Part 2, collaboration with the 2nd year Film department. As I am strongly considering a career in Film after I have finished the course I think it will be extremely useful for me to have experience working on set and collaborating with other people.

Part 1 - Styling

You are to visit the National Gallery or National Portrait Gallery in the first week of the project and select and painting which you would like to interpret. The painting can be from any period and can have just one character in or a number of characters.  

Once you have selected a painting you should decide whether you would like to interpret the painting in the period portrayed whether you would like to place it in a contemporary context.

The outcome of the Part 1 should be presented in a photograph (taken by you or by a photography student if you can arrange it yourself). The project has £0 budget so you will have to be resourceful and inventive in your creations. You will have access to the costumes in the costume store and can contribute a small amount of your own money if you wish to purchase items from charity shops ect.  The skill in creating this piece will be in the styling of the costume ready for camera. 

Here I have underlined the important key information in the first half of the brief. I must find a painting that I would like to interpret; I does not have to be an exact copy, it can even be set in a modern context.

Part 2 – Designing for Film

You will work closely with a film crew from the BA (Hons) Film course to costume a film inspired from a painting from the National Gallery. Students from the film course will chose a painting and pitch their ideas to the tutors. 9 ideas will be chosen and you will be assigned a film each to design and source costumes for. The actors in the films are students on the BA (Hons) Acting course.

The turn around for the project is very tight and forces you to be creative with time management and work to a tight budget. Each film has £50 -£70 for ALL costs including costume so the budget for costume will be minimal but you must negotiate this with your crew.  

Each shoot will last 1 day and you will be required to work on set. It is advised that you buddy up with another film designer to assist each other on the day of shooting. 

Part 2 of the brief is about collaborating with the Film department; the students will pick their own painting from the National Gallery (Adele mentioned that we will be able to give our opinion on their choice of painting but at the time of the gallery trip we will not know which student we will be assigned to). I am looking forward to this part of the project, however I think it will be more challenging than Part 1.

Before I go to the gallery I will research into other recreations or adaptations of paintings for inspiration.

I am pleased with the brief we have been given, I think it sounds interesting, like it will be a lot of work and like it will be fantastic for me as I will hopefully form relationships with film students. I am excited to work on this project as working on films is something I have never done before and looks like I will produce lifelong skills in working on film.