Studio Problems

Studio Problems is a production class where students gain a variety of skills generally used in commercial photography for use in their own work. The hope is that gaining the diversity of technical knowledge required for that type of work and the confidence that comes with accomplishing oftentimes daunting problems helps the student accomplish better personal and/or conceptual work in other classes. It’s about learning not only what you want say, but how to make it happen.

The semester begins with the class selecting advertising ‘tear sheets’ (usually advertising torn from magazines, or more currently, lifted from the web), whose lighting, propping, set construction, etc. provide a challenge to re-create. There are no rules as to how this is done, only that the Director study the original image, break down what they believe to be the original lighting and propping, and figure out a way to make their shot look as close as possible (or more interesting) to the original. The ubiquity of digital manipulation in all media imagery presents a growing problem for this class in recreating images. Many original images are constructed in computers. Alteration of our images by computer to complete re-creations is NOT allowed, with the exception of global changes to contrast or color balance. No manipulations are allowed. The final image must represent what was created in real time on the set. Everything happens in the studio, not the computer.

The class is broken into working groups with new ‘Directors’ shooting during each class meeting. The groups occupy different shooting spaces, each one different in size and negotiated by the students based on need. Each team must build, prop, light and shoot a complete recreation in a matter of a few hours. Everything was to be done during class. Absolutely zero post production is allowed. The (Art) Director / Photographer in each group assigns the other members of their crew the jobs of Assistant (equipment and lighting), Stylist (propping, makeup, soft and hard good styling), Digital Technician (monitors the computer and work flow, checks focus) and finally, the Model.

Making a perfect recreation is (probably) impossible, but the attempt always provides great problems demanding creative solutions. All shoot had four rotating key roles: director, assistant, stylist, and tech assistant. Directors ran the shoots and were in charge of all pre-shoot prep which included studio and equipment research and rental, prop-making, and model search.

Class was lead by Linda Robbennolt