Ideas for Visual Communication project.

IDEA ONE - MEAT IS MURDER.

For this idea I plan to base my shoot around the song 'Meat Is Murder' by The Smiths. As I have chosen PETA as the charity I'm representing, I felt that this would be quite a fitting tribute.

The start of my idea came from PETA themselves. A while back, I saw some images from a demonstration PETA did in celebration of World Vegetarian Week in Memphis. Two interns working for PETA were shrink-wrapped, covered in blood and laid out in polystyrene in the style of two flank steaks to protest about eating meat.

Seeing this demonstration inspired my first location shoot for the Visual Communication project. All I needed was a model, some red paint, clingfilm and a bath. I covered my model in red paint which had been mixed with ketchup, laid her in a bath and sellotaped clingfilm across the top of the bath. I took my images with a range of angles and viewpoints. Some shots were close-ups, and other were half body shots. All my lighting was natural, from the bathroom window.

I am very happy with how the shoot turned out because it was just like my idea and initial sketch for the shoot. Regarding manipulation, I plan to use a range of techniques to achieve the outcome I want. I plan to create 3 "final images", which I shall then whittle down to one.

1. An angled headshot - bring out the saturation slightly to increase the real colours. Burn and dodge specific areas of the image to give it a smoother overall image. Add an appropriate font using the slogan 'Meat Is Murder'.
2. An angled head/shoulder shot, with minor retouching and the lyrics to the song 'Meat Is Murder' by The Smiths over the top and reduced to an opacity of around 10-15%. Text in black except for the word 'MURDER' which is in red capital letters.
3. Half body shot with minor retouches to the face and a grain filter over the top. A few lyrics from the song 'Meat Is Murder' by The Smiths in some of the neutral space around the bottom.

The image I will probably choose for my final one is number 2. Photographically, I think it is the best and I think the manipulation is the strongest of the three.