CINEMATIC WORLDS

An Aesthetic Voice

Through 20+ years of creating art, I’ve realized that the most important thing to me is creating a recognizable “aesthetic voice”. That is, when people see my work, they instantly know it was created by me.

It was a long road (and lots of failure) to achieve this, and I hope to help others in finding this in themselves.

“I want my photos to portray a story, but I want the story to be different and personal to each person who looks at it. There’s no right or wrong way to read my photos.”— Karen, in The Pulse, 2014

The Idea

How Do We Get Ideas?

My favorite quote about ideas:

• Don’t think too hard. I believe this causes creative blocks. Allow yourself to experiment and use ideas that just come to you, even if they don’t make sense. Go with what feels right.
• Always document/write down what comes to mind. Keep a notebook or anything to document your ideas near you at all times (I usually keep a notebook near my bed). Never let those fragments of ideas get away; you may lose them forever. Sometimes those fragments are part of a bigger picture.
• Go through your notes and piece the fragments together like puzzles.

Great Sources Of Inspiration

Literature

Inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Your Own Take On Classics

My rendition of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World”

Music

Dreams“I also have pretty gnarly dreams and draw a lot of my ideas from those.”

Current EventsGlobally, or in your own life.

Movies, Movies, Movies!There’s no better way to achieve a cinematic aesthetic with your work than “studying” movies. Watch movies and take notes. Even if you find it boring, or it’s not your style, there’s still much to be learned and absorbed.

• Study the color grading, etc.
• Watch movies that, if you were to pause them at almost any time, the still frame would make a beautiful photo in and of itself.
• Even if you don’t have time to watch all these movies, keyword search them on YouTube to find clips.
• Pay attention to Oscar-nominated full-length films and short films. Try to watch as many as possible. Study them. Take notes.

Your Own Personal EnvironmentAlways be curious and pay attention. Study people. Other people can be documented, made into characters, made into caricatures of themselves, etc.

“Books are the best because you can have a hundred people read the same passage… each person will visually portray what they read in a completely different way.”— Karen, in The Pulse, 2014

Being prepared is great, but being able to work under pressure and on the fly is also equally as great.

• DO NOT LET LACK OF RESOURCES (FINANCING, ETC.) DISCOURAGE YOU. THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY. The process of creating imagery is hard. It’s work. Expect to work hard. Expect long nights figuring out how to work within your budget, how to build things, how to make it work in general.

“There was a period of time where I contemplated using a studio, but I didn’t have the money for that, which, in hindsight, was a blessing. I decided to use natural light and to find my own locations.”— Karen, in The Pulse, 2014

HitRecord: Ideas And Collaboration

HitRecord is an online creative community started by actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Artists from all over the world post their work, and anyone can build on it: someone writes a few lines, someone else illustrates them, someone else sets them to music or turns them into a short film. It’s an amazing place to find collaborators, spark ideas, and practice creating with no budget and no pressure.

The Concept / Piecing It Together

• Create your subject/character. Whether it’s still life or a person, the main subject has to exude something: an ideal, a characteristic, a feeling, etc. It’s almost like a totem, if you will. What do you want the totem you have chosen to say to your audience? Sometimes an inanimate object can be a character, or used for something unexpected (irony).
• Irony: I love irony in photos. It adds more of that psychological/uncomfortable feel. I like to put lots of dirt and leaves in inside spaces, for example. Things that make people question what is going on in the image. If they have to question, you’ve gotten their attention.

“I like it when an image seems darkly ironic, or psychologically displeasing.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

• How will your subject(s), character(s), etc. fluidly present themselves within the entire scene? What will the scene be? What will it look like? Where will it be?
• Storytelling: where the subject is looking, the poses, the environment, etc.
• How to photograph the subject in the environment.
• STORYBOARD YOUR PHOTO. This is SO important, especially if the photo is very in-depth with props. It helps to visualize everything, and to not forget key elements. Even if you can only draw stick figures, you MUST storyboard your concepts. I cannot stress this enough. It also helps to send it to the other parties involved to illustrate the idea, so that you are all on the same page; sometimes a verbal explanation of a concept isn’t enough.
• THERE ARE NO RULES. I don’t base my ideas off rules. I don’t think to myself “my subject has to be in the middle bottom third of the frame, because a photo blog said that’s the only ‘right’ way to take a portrait”. I am not a technical photographer. I break rules all the time (see: blown-out windows). Create the image as you see it in your mind, and don’t let the background noise of technical rules get to you.
• Avoid clichés.
• What do you want to say/feel, and is everything in line to execute the image properly?
• PAY ATTENTION TO EVERY DETAIL. From a huge piece of furniture to the way the model’s fingers are positioned. Don’t be afraid to perfect what you want to “say”.

“Every little thing has to be in place.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

Sometimes I have something to say with my images, sometimes I don’t. Allow yourself to just do things without guidelines or production. Just grab a bag of props and shoot. Doing both and everything in between is a good practice.

The Character

Something To Think About

Sometimes, the location can be a secondary character. I sometimes like having my “main character” interacting with the location as a secondary character (looking back at the location, etc.). The way you frame inanimate objects can sometimes make them read as a living thing, or as something with a soul.

Questions To Ask

Remember, the character doesn’t necessarily have to be a person.

Masks: Obscure The Face?

What will you make the mask out of? Masks can be made out of all sorts of things, so don’t limit yourself. This is also a good opportunity to do self portraits if you don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera. You can do something as ridiculous as cereal boxes on someone’s head.

I’ve been making cardboard heads (I haven’t started shooting the series yet), and as easy and crude as it sounds, I can’t wait to start shooting it.

If This Character Is Part Of A Series

What is their (its) purpose in the series? Where are they going? What are they doing? What is the end game?

The Wardrobe

Glue And Scissors

Glue and scissors have always worked wonders for me. You don’t have to be a master seamstress; the wardrobe just has to last for the shoot. Thrift. Cut stuff up. Piece it together. Don’t be afraid to experiment. I use a lot of hot glue, safety pins, and heavy-duty glue that works on metal/wood.

Look For Collaborations

Maybe there’s someone local to you who’s a wardrobe designer and would like to collaborate on a shoot.

Remember, wardrobe has personality. What you choose says a lot about the character.

The Location / Set Building

This is my favorite part.

People don’t realize the magic (or destruction) that’s all around us. I often get asked “Is that real?” “Where is this place?!?”. It’s incredible to me how much people don’t see what exists in the world around us.

Additionally, creating worlds is also one of my favorite things to do. I guess it doesn’t matter at all to the outcome of the work, but it means a lot to me when people come to my studio and/or come to an installation I’ve done, and I get to see their reaction. People always say “you could have just photoshopped all that,” but people’s reactions are always part of the reward of creating for me. I’m an artist and the whole experience is important to me.

“Environment is everything.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

• Keep organized folders of locations, even if you never plan on visiting that area. You never know if you’ll find yourself there.

“To me, it’s important to do justice to these locations.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

• Look at the “behind the scenes” of filmmakers/directors. My absolute favorite is this clip of The Grand Budapest Hotel:

“I typically try to learn the history of who lived there, and pair it with my own ideas.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

• Cardboard, cardboard, cardboard! Great when working on little to no budget.
• Forced perspective: another great route when working with little to no budget. You can create ridiculous scenes out of almost anything. This is where you have to think like a magician/master of illusion.
  
• Theater/stage builders and haunted house builders are amazing sources of information.

“Just throwing together furniture and not understanding why, makes the image less believable.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

The Props

Where To Find Props

• Make it known in your circles what you typically look for. You’d be surprised what people get rid of.
• There are a plethora of apps that will notify you/show you addresses and dates of yard sales and estate sales in your area.
• Wardrobe: look in the same places as above. Designing and constructing wardrobe.
• Resources for where to build sets, wardrobe and characters and how to build them, materials, etc. Keep folders and bookmarks, YouTube, pay attention on all social media, gather tools for your craft and gain knowledge.
• Stumped? Let the prop drive the series. If you are in a creative slump, letting an object (prop) guide the idea can sometimes be very helpful. Choose an object and build the concept off that object.

Don’t be too proud. I’m not. Garbage day is your best friend. Don’t be afraid to slam on the brakes and grab that free chair that’s put out to the curb.

The Shoot

• Ask yourself: how does your character fit into the environment they’re in?
• What is the character’s relationship with the environment?
• What is the mood? This can sometimes change where the character is looking. Are they looking at the camera, or always away from the camera?

Looking Away

I tend to have my characters looking away from the camera because it creates more of a story. It tends to make the viewer question where the character is looking, why they are looking away, what is at the end of their gaze, etc. Looking directly at the camera sometimes adds too much finality to the image.

I always try to make my images look like a still from a movie.

“I started shooting horizontally; getting the entire scene I set up and giving my photos a more cinematic feel.”— Karen, in The Pulse, 2014

I want my images to have movement. That is, I want the image to seem as if there was something happening right before it was captured, and that there is something about to happen right after it.

Look At Every Angle

Take your time to look at all angles of your environment. Take it all in. Can you shoot at different angles and viewpoints? Is there something you haven’t thought of? Nothing is worse than going home and regretting not getting a shot that you thought about after the fact (especially if you can’t go back, the location is far, etc.).

“I typically do all my effects at the site of the shoot.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

Before You Wrap

• Always take the time to do more than what you need. Take a few extra shots just in case. ALWAYS make sure you take a “base photo” (called a “plate”), to have a clean slate to work with (for subtracting out any people, wires, etc. used in creating a certain illusion).
• If working with a model, give them the direction they need to fulfill the aesthetic you were looking for. Don’t be shy. Do not think you’re inconveniencing anyone by giving direction.
• Do all the lines match up? If lines are crooked, are they meant to be crooked?
• Are any limbs, props or furniture being “cut off” in an aesthetically unpleasing way? Is everything falling in the frame as it should?
• Are there any unnecessary distractions, or layering/overlapping of objects/props/subjects? For example, is there half of a clock behind the left side of someone’s head? Something peeking out like this could be a distraction, and derail the viewer’s immersion in the image.
• Have you looked over your notes and completed all the steps/images/etc. that needed to be completed? Before the model changes, the scene is torn down, you move your camera, etc., MAKE SURE YOU’VE COVERED ALL YOUR BASES!

The Aftermath / Other Takeaways

Never pass up the opportunity to take the shot. If you see the moment, take it. Don’t keep driving. Don’t keep walking by.

“When I first started doing portraits, I had no direction… my composition was atrocious and my locations were boring.”— Karen, in The Pulse, 2014

ALLOW YOURSELF TO FAIL

SERIES. SERIES. SERIES.

Do series. Mostly series. Personally, I think a sweet spot is 10–30 photos. I’ve gone overboard and have done hundreds in a series (see: my astronaut photos). Doing series allows you to have a cohesive body of work centered around an idea, a theme, a prop, a character, a location, etc. Galleries, publications, etc. love this. It’s a cohesive set of images that can tell a bold story.

You Don’t Need Professional Models

You don’t have to photograph professional models to come up with incredible images. Sometimes your awkward friend or family member is an amazing subject. Sometimes YOU are. Allow yourself to explore different personalities, body shapes and types, demographics, etc. with your work. Don’t get caught in the “I have to shoot professional models” rut.

Critiquing Yourself

• Be a realist. Be harsh on yourself (but not TOO harsh).
• If you can’t find fault in any of your work (especially older work), there’s something wrong. If you think what you’re currently doing is “fine” or perfect, you’re accepting that there is nothing else to be learned, and you will never grow past where you’re at now.
• Seek honest, constructive criticism.

Try This

Practice creating different scenes within the same space.

“Definitely creating different scenes within the same space. It’s a good brain exercise, if anything.”— Karen, in Arts Illustrated

Some Of My Favorite Directors