WW1 Storyboard
Seeing on how with this photo-story I’m creating a story. I’ve decided to plan this like a film. So I’ve assembled a storyboard of shots I’d like to use if I was going to do my story about the Christmas truce of 1914. I started by creating a shot list.
Below is the storyboard:
I think that the Christmas truce would be a very compelling story about WW1 because when people think of war, they vision humanity at it’s worst. However this was a moment where humanity prevailed. People are still skeptical about it over 100 years after it occurred. Which is why I feel this would be a good storyline.
There is one image that I am very proud of from this test shoot. I feel this image is very good as emphasiting the conditions of no mans lands. The rocky landscape, the barbed wire the destroyed buildings.
It’s 1918, the Meuse-Argonne offensive is in full swing. The War is just over a month from the end. However 575 American soldiers were trapped in the Forest. Around 150 of them were captured, 197 were killed. Loads were friendly fire from there own artillery. They had very little chance of ever making it out.
However the battalion were saved by a pigeon. A carrier pigeon by the name of Cher Ami it was awarded the Croix De Guerre. She delivered the following message despite being shot down and regaining flight.
My peers liked all of my ideas, I first discussed my photo-stories. The particular idea that stood out the most was my Airfix idea. It was felt that this was the strongest idea simply because no one was trying something like this. I did think some of my peers would view this as a cop-out, shooting an idea where I don’t have the look for the story. However I’m doing something different by creating the photo-story, it is at my mercy. I control what I’m trying to say with my story.
As regards to peoples portraits. All three ideas were liked aswell. The one that stood out was peoples uniforms. Celine felt I could do some really creative shots around the clothes that people wear, does it show a correlation with where they work?.
For the 2nd talk I narrowed down on the ideas that I want to do, the ones I feel most confident about. We started about talking about my WW1 idea. I started by showing my test shoot and my peers really liked my use of free-lensing to create shots similar to the one on the left. Molly felt it would be good if I did the story about one soldier on the front.
Another form of research I could undertake is looking at imagery from the Great War. I have a photo-book of images shot during the great war. I want to shoot this in B&W, but I could also possibly look at images that have been put through programmes and converted into colour. Like this shot on the right taken in the muddy no mans land of Flanders.
Next we spoke about my portrait idea. I reflected on the work of August Sander who is well known for his environmental portraits. This was the impetus for me to develop my idea slightly. I mentioned tat these were shot in the late 20s and early 30s. During and after the great depression. So these were jobs that were seriously under threat. Maybe I could repeat it now, shooting people in jobs that are under threat. Celine put it as “endangered crafts“. People who work at cashiers, taxi drivers, train drivers, driving instructors. There are loads of jobs that will be extinct in years. I can be capturing something before it’s gone.
On the left is my lighting diagram from the shot. I decided to use a 24-70 because I wanted to get as much in the frame as possible. A 50mm would’ve been too tight, not only would the location be lost, but also the sky would’ve been lost as well.
It involved recreating the iconic plot twist at the end of Planet Of The Apes. I was thinking of having a portrait of someone from the waist upwards striking a very similar pose to the Statue of Liberty. He looks dark and rusty, to which he’s holding a bright and vibrant Lavazza coffee cup as a feeling of hope.
Maybe I just have the Lavazza coffee cup in place of the Statue Of Liberty. Which is a spoof that the Simpsons did of the ending.
Ben Peters Digital Photography 