Joel's NM2208 Blog: Tutorial 4: Assignment 3

For this week's assignment we had to tell a story with not more than 10 photographs and without the use of any words. It should have a plot and a twist at the end. I was at my wits' end as given the constrains of time and resources, I found it hard to come out with something more abstract and far-fetched. Instead, I decided to work with whatever props I have at home and re-enact a scene with relative ease, with my mum helping me take the pictures.

After thinking for a while, I came out with an idea of a 'burglar' apparently ransacking a house with a mask and gloves on. However he turned out to be a traveller packing his luggage and getting ready to leave for a vacation. Below is the storyboard sketch and description:

1. Mysterious pair of legs and a bag
2. 'Burglar' with face mask and gloves on
3. Ransacked bedroom
4. 'Burglar' rummaging through drawers
5. Cash and passport found
6. Putting his 'spoils' into a pouch
7. Posing with umbrellas?
8. Putting a mask and gloves into his bag (with a travel brochure visible)
9. Wearing a cloth hat
10. Traveller getting ready to leave

The next step is getting ready the props and getting ready to act the scene. With my mum's help, I managed to find the relevant props (mask, bag, pouch, passport etc.) since we travel rather frequently. I also messed up the house abit for the 'ransacked bedroom' image. Next, I put on the gear (boy, was it hot wearing the mask and gloves!) while posing in the various positions as depicted in the sketch. My mum was patient enough to give me some tips as to how to pose, where to stand etc. and after a day's hard work, we managed to get the pictures taken. Below are the pictures:

1. Mysterious pair of legs and a bag

2. 'Burglar' with face mask and gloves on

3. Ransacked bedroom

4. 'Burglar' rummaging through drawers

5. Cash and passport found

6. Putting his 'spoils' into a pouch

7. Posing with umbrellas?

8. Putting a mask and gloves into his bag (with a travel brochure visible)

9. Wearing a cloth hat

10. Traveler getting ready to leave

For images 1-6, I used a reddish hue to symbolize a criminal situation (think red light district). For images 7-8, I used a bluish hue to symbolize the shift in storyline to a more wintry setting since the traveller is getting ready for a skiing vacation as shown in Image 7 - Posing with umbrellas (representing skis). From images 9-10 I hardly used any hues and left the images as they are, because they are not directly related to skiing (Image 8 has a ski brochure).

The tutorial session offered some insights for improvement. From classmates' feedback that the hues are not uniform (some shades of red/blue are darker than the others), I decided that I would standardize the hues and include the bluish tint for Images 9-10. Also, as to feedback that the image quality is grainy (I used my home printer and photo paper), I will see what I can do about it because it would be pretty hard to re-take the pictures (and my mum would be fussy if I had to mess up the house/dig out winter clothing again). Furthermore, the finished product had borders of varying widths, as can be seen from above and the portrait shots (such as Image 10 above) was squeezed in a landscape format (because I thought the lecture example had a similar format), so I may have to do some image re-sizing and border eliminating. Other than that, the tutor and classmates thought mine was a good idea for a story.

Latest update: Below are the photographs after I have touched up on them as described above. I have also increased the resolution of the images hence they look less grainy as a whole:

1. Mysterious pair of legs and a bag