Evaluation

I chose to work on the Painting for Inspiration route for my SDP project and I am very pleased that I did as I have really enjoyed the whole process. The project has been a challenge in more than one way; I have found the time management side of it quite difficult to organise and I have entered into a new environment; working in film sets.

For the first part of the project, I really enjoyed being able to experiment with textile techniques and use my imagination when it came to how I wanted to recreate the painting. It took on a lot of work recreating this painting as I used only sourced fabric, different samples of hand dyed and machine embroidered fabric and hand embroidered beading. The set up for the photograph took several days, which was really time consuming, but overall I am quite pleased with how it has turned out. There are certain areas of it that I would like to redo but I feel that it is a very successful recreation. It is not exactly the same as the painting, but then again, a lot of the recreations I researched at the beginning of the project are not either. I am pleased I used Photoshop to touch up certain areas and to make the background look more swirly and painterly- exactly the look I was going for. It was a challenge using Photoshop again as it has been a while since I last used it and having to recap on the tools took a while to do. I have created a strong sketchbook to support this project, showing all of my research and my design process, which I am really happy with. I would like to have spent more time on this sketchbook but overall I am pleased with it. My time management was not great for this part of the project; I had not completed it whilst working on the second part of the project, so after the filming I have had to cram a lot of work and time consuming tasks into under two weeks which has been a real challenge.

The second part of the project, I found the most exciting. I assisted for two films and designed for one. Just being part of the film team was a new experience and I felt it is really going to help me, as it has been a nice introduction into this world. I will be embarking on work experience in the summer in New York (the placements are yet to be confirmed) and may be working on a film set, so it was really helpful to have gained at least a little but of knowledge before embarking on such a daunting venture. I loved designing for Fair Belles; I also enjoyed sourcing and adapting/ breaking down the costumes. I had to not only go to high street shops but also to charity shops and also the costume store at Uni. The film department, despite the fact we were warned of their often negative attitude towards the costume department, were really fun to work with and very much respected my design decisions and my role as the costume designer. Just being on the different sets showed me how differently shoots can go and the different styles directors like to shoot with. Despite these differences, time management on all films were very much the same: ‘running late’! With Bunny’s permission, I have created a strong film file/ sketchbook collaboration (as opposed to two separate books) in which I have evidenced all of the paperwork, my research, design process (including sourcing and adaptations) and photographic evidence of working on all of the different films. I feel this film file/ sketchbook is very thorough, clearly laid out and informative and I have spent a lot of time ensuring I included every aspect of my journey through this part of the project.

Overall, I am really happy with how both parts of the project have gone; I feel I have gained new, really useful skills which I will be able to translate into a work experience and hopefully eventually a work environment. This, surely, is one of the most important aspects of this course; gaining experiences which you can eventually use in a work environment. I have gained contacts and connections with people on the film course, some of whom have asked me to work with them next year on their Grad films, which is a really exciting thing to look forward to.