Working with G4

I have completely enjoyed working in a group. It has made me think outside the box by making me learn about other peoples practice and skills. I have learnt from every one of my teammates and feel we collaborated exceptional well. The use of people’s diverse strengths and skills made it possible to create our vision and solve the problem of Community Couture. We came together, exchanged work and knowledge to fashion simulating concepts and final outcomes. We listen to one another and allowed our imaginations to run away with us. We did all this still managing to produce our own work alongside, which interlinked with our group project. The mixture of our own cultures and backgrounds made it exciting to work together and make people aware of what we were doing, as well as retro futurism.  I think group 4 is a perfect example of Community Couture; we started out as strangers but came together to form a family.

End of Unit X

Unit X has given me an exciting chance to collaborate with others and embrace a whole load of ideas. For the project we worked in groups giving us important experience for our later careers. Along with six other fellow textile students, we made up Wearing it- group 4 or as we like to call ourselves G4! As a group we worked brilliantly; contributing our ideas to each other, going on group trips; holding group drawing and pin up sessions and putting together a final exhibition we worked great as a group for the duration of our project. Unit X has taught me all about collaboration and teamwork skills of which I feel I will greatly benefit from in my future. Although I do feel we planned our time well I do also think there could be room for improvement as I found myself not having enough time to produce everything I had intend to. I feel our final exhibition was a huge success and I’m very proud that we managed to put it together ourselves. Perhaps we should had spent more time on our final video with the editing process however I feel this was down to us underestimating how long this would take us, as well as us simply not having enough video time to allow us to get everything we wanted into our five minute slot.

Becca- Final piece

This is my final outcome I've have tried to combine both my own personal project into the group project. I  used a donated corset top and skirt from our campaign clothing collection i attached the two together to make a dress and then embellished a black bin liner into the material. I used a black bin liner as my research on make do ad mend era showed that women in those days would try make use of anything and so thats where my initial idea came form to combine the two. I also used the black bin liner to make ruffled edges at the top and bottom of the dress. I think that this has worked really well and the embellishment of the bin liner into the fabric gives a kind of leather effect. 

G4

So for Unit X we got put into groups, and along with 6 others we made wearing it group 4. I feel this was a great idea although maybe would have been better earlier in the year as a way of getting to know people on the course. As a group i think we have worked really well together communicating well and meeting up frequently. We shared ideas and helped each other out with individual projects as well as combining personal projects to create a final group exhibition.

The final film

I took control of the filmmaking and with the help of Jess we edited the whole film. We went to the editing suite and converted all the clips into the correct format, this was a long process that left me and David waited 2 hours for them all to convert. Once they were in the correct format we watched them all and select the ones with good footage. There was over 3 hours worth of footage to sort through, so we had to be very strict on what we kept and what we cut.

The next job was to create a storyboard and to pick which clips went where. I experimented with different ways of blending the clips together. We used cross dissolve in parts when people were walking, so that the new clip of movement would slowly blend and over lap. Almost inventing an effect which looked like people are walking into the clip its self. I went through all the cut off point and made sure they had smooth effective transitions. Jess and me then wanted to created slow and more still moments in the film around stop motions. We thought it would be a nice idea if we fast forward parts of the event. We did this so the clips would kept up with the fast pace music and make it more interesting and upbeat for the audience, it also expressed the fast pace city we live in. We went through the film speeding sections up to create contrasts, as well as adding in the stop motions. We inserted the opening pages, poster, credits and thank you note, and then finally added in the music. I cut and faded in 3 of the tracks made for us, I matched up the speed and tempo with the speed of the video. Although in the middle of the film we had a slower part of my sample floating and we decided it would be thought provoking and contrasting if we added a more upbeat contemporary track to this section. It completely contrasts with my sample and the clip, just how my sample contrasts in the busy city. Over all I think the film has been a huge success and has made me keen to learn about film editing as well as the options and software the university has to offer.

Thankyou Message

Film ideas

Ideas...Shooting...Editing...
In our film we really want a range of footage that explains and shows our journey. We also want to experiment with lighting and use the music along side the film creating collaborations and contrasts.
I think it would be really interesting if we experimented with speed in our film to show the busy city we live in and maybe slow key parts down. I feel when we filmed we caught some exciting lighting and it would be nice if we used that and played around with different effects.

The Community Event

The event was a huge success because it was so nice to share what we had been doing with Manchester and  it was such an exciting way to get the community together. We hand a great turn out and everyone was really interested in what we had to say and the ideas of retro futurism. The filming went smoothly and I tried to capture the whole night on my camera and from a range of angles. We used the equipment in a really exciting way and created some lovely shadows and light effects.

 

The plan for the event

We have decided to host an event to bring the Manchester community together and make them aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it. We hope our samples and ideas will be thought provoking and interesting as well as creating reactions.

The Plan:

Group 4s plan is to set up at Hotspur House in the day. I'm going to photograph and hang our work, as well as starting to experiment and test the equipment. David got all the equipment from the AV store and collected manikins for the event. We have bought jars for the lights and lots of fish wire to hand the work. We plan on draping white fabric from the roof to create back drops for us to project and shine lights on for shadows.

We all plan on bringing food and drink to the event for the community and to use the blackboard as a comment board for feed back from the people of Manchester. If we set up too cameras it will allow us to have film from 2 different angles.

Finally It would be a great idea to capture the story and journey of the whole event so we should photograph and film from the minute we start setting up to the minute we leave.

Group 4 final outcomes at the event

Fantastic outcomes guys :D

A Great Turn Out

Final Outcomes

Jess's Final Outfit

David's  Final Piece

Becca's Final Dress

April's Final Top

My Final Dress

Laura's Final Piece's

Beth's Final Piece

G 4 THE FUTURE FASHION EXHIBITION

Our group fashion exhibition we arranged went just to plan, with everyone’s finished pieces looking fantastic and a great turn out from friends and fellow students the night itself was a brilliant success. We filmed the whole thing ; from us clearing out the cluttered space to us setting up, draping clean white fabric over dusty rotting poles and equally distributing  the lighting  and video cameras, to the quest coming and admiring our work. 

Model: Zubia Willmann

Photographer: Alexander Wareing

I decided the best place to shot my final dress would be to use Hotspur House, as it’s an interesting building I was sure I would easily achieve some great shot’s although I did  come across a problem with lighting. My favourite shots are the ones with natural light shining through the window on to my French knots.

Applying Colour

From my samples I found the my use of colour worked best when applied to a more sutel layer of fabric, therefore my brown earthy shade of the body to my dress should be a successful place to inject with colourful French knots.

Film Editing

Bethany 'editor in chief'

The film editing for me, was the most stressful area of the whole project. I don't know why it was as I was less than useless and just sat and watched!. The group are indebted to Bethany who strong armed into the position of editor in chief. Along with Jessica's assistance, Bethany took charge and set to editing together all of the footage from the presentation at Hotspur House. Jan, the technician from the film editing suite was deputised as a member of G4 and was an invaluable member of the team over the last 48 hours. I would also like to thank my friend Richard, for mixing together the tracks for our film presentation. 
What the last 48 hours have highlighted, are how technophobic I still am. All things digital are areas that I will have to embrace moving forward, as I feel if not addressed it will become a barrier to my progress.