Assignment 3: U C What I C

This assignment sounded simple enough – use 8 photos to tell a story without the use of any words. The story can contain a twist, or not, and photo manipulation is allowed. It all sounded incredibly easy – after all, how much time would one need to just take 8 photographs?

More ignorant words have never been spoken.

But more on that later. The very moment I read the assignment outline, I knew, I just knew, that I had to do a ghost-related story. In the spirit of classic Asian horror movies, the (often foolhardy) protagonist would be minding his or her own business, thinking that they were all alone in the room, but of course, it wouldn’t be a horror movie if there wasn’t a ghost standing behind you watching your every move.

Even if you’re answering nature’s call.

Man, that’s some dedication.

So I quickly developed a storyboard, starting with a shot of what would appear to be a deserted and dark corridor (and it makes one wonder just what it is about such corridors that draws movie characters to it like moths to a flame)

And then came the difficult part of this assignment – actually getting the photos taken. Much easier said than done, really. My friend and I spent close to 3 hours in this single room just taking photos over and over again, trying to get the camera angle to look right, and also because I’m a horrible actor, as can be seen in the photos below of me trying to look startled/disturbed and failing spectacularly.

We finally managed to get 8 shots taken, and I set about to editing them to set the mood. I immediately changed all the photos to black and white, and adjusted the colour balance to create a very dark, crisp sort of atmosphere. As for the photos themselves, we tried as much as possible to follow the Rule of Thirds so as to create a more visually pleasing photo, but on occasion we decided to forego the rule for the sake of dramatic impact.

No, that hand in the last photograph isn’t photoshopped, it really is that long, partially also due to the camera angle.

Once again, a very enjoyable assignment to do. This assignment taught me how to analyze photographs taken in sequence, and how to put them together to form a coherent story. A picture speaks a thousand words, and these thousand words can differ for each member of the audience. It’s the onus of us, the creators, to ensure that everyone reads the same story.