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The Photobooth Character Study

As an act of creativity and community, every fall, the Cinema, Video + Communication profile inaugurates the new school year with an exhibition of art works by incoming students, to be held in Dawson’s Warren Flowers Gallery.  New students in the profile are given instructions to follow a set format in the production of the work and asked to create a visual work that references the world of Cinema, Video and Communications.

This year, we are asking students in your group to produce a Photobooth Character Study, employing the photobooth found at most metro stations in the production of a portrait of yourself, viewed as a character in a film of your own design.  You can use black + white or color, employ props and be as creative as you wish. The only restriction is that you do no cutting or pasting, or digital manipulation, presenting the four frames as they were shot.

In film, a character comes to life through context, clothing and bodily expressions in addition to what he or she says and does. Your character will unfold visually, through time and with text, if you choose to add it.

The photo booth offers a number of challenges that you should keep in mind. It is clearly very restricted in space. The lens is a wide angle and lighting is limited. Once the money drops in the slot, the four exposures occur quickly with little time in between. These restraints are issues you have to deal with so think about the action, moves, props, sequence etc. before you drop your coin. Additionally, there are two different types of photobooths.  One produces a traditional, 4 image, vertical strip and costs $4.  The other, “Digital” booth offers variations of image groupings on the horizontal axis.  It costs $5.  (Best bring exact change in both cases.) Alexis Nihon has both types of machines on the basement level.  If choosing the digital model, choose the option that allows four DIFFERENT poses.

Return your four-photo strip carefully mounted, on the vertical axis of the card stock included in this package.  Write your name and any text that you would like to accompany the images on the card stock. This could be a quote, some monologue, random thoughts etc. Deliver the final product to Simon’s office 3B.9 or Cheryl’s 3B.5 no later than noon on Friday Aug.27, 2010. The strips will be hung in the Warren Flowers Gallery, just inside the de Maisonneuve entrance, the following week and we will have an opening on Thursday Sept. 2 nd. at 5:30 which you will be expected to attend. The show will run until Sept. 10.

Start the term and your Profile on the right foot. Do this exercise with reflection, care and thought.

To a productive and engaging term,

Simon and Cheryl