henry

Here are some random snaps I took on the set of Henry; a third year student film production @ York University 2009 written and directed by Howard Shefman.

scene crop, originally uploaded by avalilly.

crew powwow, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I was called in pretty last minute (which I don't think I'll be doing in the future) to do set dressing for the apartment scenes. It was fun, I pretty much just had to make an eclectic apartment appear more sophisticated with what was available in front of me. I enjoy playing around with stuff like that. It was a bit of a tight space to work in, but the final product looked quite nice. My production stills aren't that great - I didn't want to get in the way too much while everyone was moving lights and pondering the frame so I just sort of captured what I could from the corners.

results

So these are a couple of the results of my Janieta Eyre inspired photo project. I didn't get nearly as many good shots as I wanted, as it's super awkward to model for yourself. I had to get a roommate to operate the shutter for me, since I don't have a remote yet. The first one doesn't work as well for her style as I had hoped. I might need to make it black and white to do so, but the ridiculous dresses are my favourite part so I'd like to keep them in all their glorious colourfulness.

The second one I feel works well for her style. I wish I had a better idea of what the frame looked like though, I wanted the stuff on the wall to stand out. Ah well, 'twas a good learning experience; both photography and planning-wise. I'll have to remember not to rely too much on other people unfortunately. I couldn't do this project on my own without a remote and the people who were supposed to help me bailed. Thank god my roommate was home to help though!

I may still try a few more if I have time. I think I'll be printing the second image to be handed in though. It works the best and all the me's are in focus, which is always nice haha. Now all I have to do is figure out how to talk about the original photographer for 10 minutes. Always fun being a student, I guess.

janieta eyre

I'm in a digital photography course this semester and we're heading in on the third project now. The theme this time around is to shoot a series of images in a sort of homage to a contemporary Canadian photographer. We were given a list of names to choose from and I searched out a few and came across the work of Janieta Eyre. She's got a really interesting body of work that you can check out on her website:

http://www.janietaeyre.com/index2.htm

I especially love her Incarnations series. The dual self portrait will be what I try to explore in this third project. 'Tis a shame my friend moved out of her apartment. It would have been perfect to shoot in, but I've found a way to make my own place work, so I'll be working on that all weekend! Hopefully it won't be too awkward doing a bunch of portraits of myself around the house.

Super excited for it though! I hope I can translate my ideas well enough into photos. They look so good in my head. :(

Check back soon for the results of this shoot! I'll try and post them as soon as I'm done editting~

starstruck

Yesterday, I helped out my friend on a film. She was in charge of make-up and needed someone to help do hair. It was quite a bit of fun, actually. Normally I help with the art direction and set dec, but I got to curl a bunch of hair and style it so it could atleast pass for the 1930's which is probably one of my favourite style eras, so I enjoyed it muchly.

Some snaps:

You can find more in my starstruck set on Flickr!

I'm looking into getting an EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. Found one on amazon for pretty cheap, so I may just have to pick one up. From what I've seen, it takes beautiful photos of people and is a generally great lens for multipurpose photography. Shame it feels so flimsy though. Ah well, it's not like I can afford anything too fancy! Yet, anyways. ;)

material goods

The other day I got bored and decided it was time for a trip to Yorkdale and the general Orfus Road area near by (awesome outlet stores, holla). As I was passing by the Blacks Photography store near the subway entrance of the mall, I noticed they had a spring sale sign in their window and figured I'd go in and see if any cool lenses were on for less.

I didn't find any good sale lenses, but I found myself a lovely Soligor T170 heavy duty tripod for $29.99! It was marked down from $80, so I was quite happy about my discovery.

Afterwards, I ventured over to Fabricland on Orfus Road and found some amazingly cheap fabric for backdrops ($2/meter!), so I am now fairly well equipped for doing headshots and portrait type things. I picked up a nice light grey/off-white and a good deep/dark grey. Can't wait to try them out!

I'm going to meet up with a girl I met through Frosh Week soon to set something up. She's trying to raise money for her Up With People (http://www.upwithpeople.org/) trip, so I offered to do headshots for people and the money collected can go towards her fundraising. This way, I'll get some experience and she'll have more funds for her trip. Everybody wins!

I imagine I should probably get my business card printed soon. May indeed come in handy! Just need to find a place that'll do it for cheap.

special projects gallery

I'm in a fourth year drawing class, since the third year class of essentially the exact same design was full. We were given the opportunity to showcase some of our work in one of the university's galleries. I had three pieces shown. It ran from March 2nd-6th.

jaded
Originally uploaded by avalilly

girl with a swirl earring
Originally uploaded by avalilly

bikini of venus
Originally uploaded by avalilly

It's just a small space to show in, but any experience for the CV is good, right? I'm sure it's nicer for the work to be hanging in a gallery than rotting away in my $5 cardboard portfolio anyways.

I'm looking into getting a couple solo shows going. I want to expand on my modernized famous portraits series enough so I can atleast pair up with one or two other artists. Basically, I want to take famous portraits from way back when and apply modern day beauty/fashion trends to them as a lighthearted comment upon the frivolousness of our many ideas of feminin beauty ideals. Or something like that. Also, I have a thing for crazy squiggly light photos, so I'll probably give that a try as well. I'll elaborate on that another day...

play/pause

PLAY/PAUSE was a York University Undergraduate Visual Arts Students Association (VASA) juried art show. We ran it at Whippersnapper gallery in downtown Toronto from March 2nd-13th, 2009. My piece, "Untitled" (hands) made it in. The reception was held on March 6th, 2009 to much succcess. The place was packed! Here's some photos from the exhibition:

Overall, it was a wonderful show and a really good experience. I'm looking forward to doing this more often (talent and opportunities permitted)!

For more photos from this event, check out my Flickr set: Play/Pause!