The meetings took place at Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, London. Spanning the whole day, the meetings were arranged for 11am with the director for Tender, at 2pm with the director for La Ronde and at 4pm with the director for Mary Barton. I had prepared visual references for all the meetings.
For Tender I produced an 8 page PDF presentation. This consisted of 1 concept board which had inspirational images from artists and photographers and 7 character mood boards. The pages consisted of collaged images and scanned hand rendered line drawings collated in Photoshop and saved as a PDF presentation.
For La Ronde I also prepared a PDF presentation. This consisted of 4 pages mainly containing historical reference material and influences from artist. At this early stage I chose not to create mood boards for each character but generate general discussion about the production.
Mary Barton’s preparation was very different. Only receiving the script a few days before the meeting I had already informed the director that I would not have many images for the meeting. Because of time restrictions I was unable to present the images I had researched in a PDF presentation format and used hand held images spread on the table. Though I had planned to have a similar style of presentation for all the director/ designer meetings I decided this different approach would be interesting to record and monitor.
I chose not to digitally record the meetings as I felt it inappropriate at this early stage in the research and wanted to develop as relationship with the directors as a designer apposed to a researcher. Also with each meeting lasting 2 hours I felt it more feasible to record the meetings in note form
Responding to my research question I observed the following:
Tender: The first part of the meeting consisted of a discussion about the set design. The director’s interest and enthusiasm to keep the concept hyper contemporary was made clear. When presenting the costume mood boards I asked the designer whether he minded seeing the images on screen. I had prepared printed images in case the location or response from the director did not enabled me to show my ideas on screen. With a positive response to this suggestion I started the presentation. Moving through each page I felt nervous and initially I was unable to read his reactions. The computer images did support my verbal presentation and I felt more confident as I moved through each page. The director did not say much throughout the presentation taking the time, I think, to consider my ideas. Once the discussion started to unfold I was able to flip back through the pages to discuss the individual character in more detail. His comments varied from ‘I like that image’ and ‘that goes will together’ to ‘that’s exactly what she should wear’. I was please with these comments as it has always been my hope that by using this photo/realistic technique the director would easily be able to visualise the costume on the actor. I felt a success in the functionality of the PDF presentation. I felt it added a professionalism to the meeting as the director seemed impressed with what I had prepared and an air of confidence seemed to develop between us. At the end of the meeting I was able to give the director print-outs of our discussion. This again, I think, added to a professional relationship that has started to be formed.
La Ronde
The meeting unfolded in a similar way and the set was discussed before the costumes. Again I asked the director if she minded seeing the visual images I had prepared on screen. She was elated with this thought and I felt instant respect from her. This filled me with confidence and helped me adopt a confident tone when presenting my ideas. Though I only resented 4 pages she responded well to the mood boards and was able to quickly understand my thoughts. The last page showed an image of a corset which I had overlaid with a Klimt design to suggest fabric decoration which may be developed. She did not want to further develop this idea which I fully respected as that is the role of a director, to direct the overall vision of the production. As I knew the idea was rather radical I was pleased that it took little effort to create the image. I was able to visually demonstrate an idea which, is as in this case was dismissed, I did not feel a great deal of time had been wasted but an ideas was aired.
During the meeting the conversation moved away from the presentation and focused on individual characters in the production. I had not taken any hard copy references with me but was able to quickly find an image to support the conversation in my research files stored on my computer. Throughout this presentation I felt confident and very prepared. I gave the printed image pages to the director to take away for her further consideration however after the discussion about the Klimt influenced fabric I chose to remove the ideas page supporting this.
I felt the simple layout of the pages and the Art Nouveau boarder gave a suggestion of style without to much visual clutter. I felt that this suited the director well.
Mary Barton
As I had not prepared a screen presentation for the meeting I relied on photocopies and images from books. The director was very open to creative input by both myself and the set designer. My personal response to this meeting was not as positive to the last two. Though the meeting went well and the outcome was constructive I felt my personal participation was less dynamic. Not preparing a presentation meant that I did not feel as confident or as focused on what I wanted to talk about as I had done in the last 2 presentations. I did observe that the costumes were discussed alongside the set rather than reserved for the second part of the meeting. It is unclear if this was the nature of the design concept which relies heavily of textiles and draped clothes or the fact that the costume reference material was spread out on the table but the combined discussion in this instance was a more holistic approach. As I had not prepared a presentation I was unable to leave the director with any images to go away with. Though this seem perfectly expectable I felt, some how that the director would not be able to reflect on the discussion and have visual references outside of the meeting. He did seem however pleased with the developments and quiet assured that the ideas generated by both myself and the set designer was going in the right direction.
In conclusion: Observing my personal response to the 3 meetings I have noted that for me the screen presentations help me feel more prepared and present a more professional persona. I did not feel the results of the discussions were skewed by whether a presentation was presented on screen but my personal confidence and sense of preparation was affected. As a competent computer user the photocopies felt messy laid out of the table, not very clear and I was a little unsure what they showed, when. As teacher I often use screen presentation to formulise my thinking and communicate a coherent thought process. As a costume designer the mood boards collated ideas and vision in an accessible way. The first 2 directors were able to take away the presentation for them to further reflect on my thoughts and ideas. I hope this will support the design development process and will in time reduce any surprises later in the production process.
For Tender I produced an 8 page PDF presentation. This consisted of 1 concept board which had inspirational images from artists and photographers and 7 character mood boards. The pages consisted of collaged images and scanned hand rendered line drawings collated in Photoshop and saved as a PDF presentation.
For La Ronde I also prepared a PDF presentation. This consisted of 4 pages mainly containing historical reference material and influences from artist. At this early stage I chose not to create mood boards for each character but generate general discussion about the production.Mary Barton’s preparation was very different. Only receiving the script a few days before the meeting I had already informed the director that I would not have many images for the meeting. Because of time restrictions I was unable to present the images I had researched in a PDF presentation format and used hand held images spread on the table. Though I had planned to have a similar style of presentation for all the director/ designer meetings I decided this different approach would be interesting to record and monitor.
I chose not to digitally record the meetings as I felt it inappropriate at this early stage in the research and wanted to develop as relationship with the directors as a designer apposed to a researcher. Also with each meeting lasting 2 hours I felt it more feasible to record the meetings in note form
Responding to my research question I observed the following:
Tender: The first part of the meeting consisted of a discussion about the set design. The director’s interest and enthusiasm to keep the concept hyper contemporary was made clear. When presenting the costume mood boards I asked the designer whether he minded seeing the images on screen. I had prepared printed images in case the location or response from the director did not enabled me to show my ideas on screen. With a positive response to this suggestion I started the presentation. Moving through each page I felt nervous and initially I was unable to read his reactions. The computer images did support my verbal presentation and I felt more confident as I moved through each page. The director did not say much throughout the presentation taking the time, I think, to consider my ideas. Once the discussion started to unfold I was able to flip back through the pages to discuss the individual character in more detail. His comments varied from ‘I like that image’ and ‘that goes will together’ to ‘that’s exactly what she should wear’. I was please with these comments as it has always been my hope that by using this photo/realistic technique the director would easily be able to visualise the costume on the actor. I felt a success in the functionality of the PDF presentation. I felt it added a professionalism to the meeting as the director seemed impressed with what I had prepared and an air of confidence seemed to develop between us. At the end of the meeting I was able to give the director print-outs of our discussion. This again, I think, added to a professional relationship that has started to be formed.
La Ronde
The meeting unfolded in a similar way and the set was discussed before the costumes. Again I asked the director if she minded seeing the visual images I had prepared on screen. She was elated with this thought and I felt instant respect from her. This filled me with confidence and helped me adopt a confident tone when presenting my ideas. Though I only resented 4 pages she responded well to the mood boards and was able to quickly understand my thoughts. The last page showed an image of a corset which I had overlaid with a Klimt design to suggest fabric decoration which may be developed. She did not want to further develop this idea which I fully respected as that is the role of a director, to direct the overall vision of the production. As I knew the idea was rather radical I was pleased that it took little effort to create the image. I was able to visually demonstrate an idea which, is as in this case was dismissed, I did not feel a great deal of time had been wasted but an ideas was aired.
During the meeting the conversation moved away from the presentation and focused on individual characters in the production. I had not taken any hard copy references with me but was able to quickly find an image to support the conversation in my research files stored on my computer. Throughout this presentation I felt confident and very prepared. I gave the printed image pages to the director to take away for her further consideration however after the discussion about the Klimt influenced fabric I chose to remove the ideas page supporting this.
I felt the simple layout of the pages and the Art Nouveau boarder gave a suggestion of style without to much visual clutter. I felt that this suited the director well.
Mary Barton
As I had not prepared a screen presentation for the meeting I relied on photocopies and images from books. The director was very open to creative input by both myself and the set designer. My personal response to this meeting was not as positive to the last two. Though the meeting went well and the outcome was constructive I felt my personal participation was less dynamic. Not preparing a presentation meant that I did not feel as confident or as focused on what I wanted to talk about as I had done in the last 2 presentations. I did observe that the costumes were discussed alongside the set rather than reserved for the second part of the meeting. It is unclear if this was the nature of the design concept which relies heavily of textiles and draped clothes or the fact that the costume reference material was spread out on the table but the combined discussion in this instance was a more holistic approach. As I had not prepared a presentation I was unable to leave the director with any images to go away with. Though this seem perfectly expectable I felt, some how that the director would not be able to reflect on the discussion and have visual references outside of the meeting. He did seem however pleased with the developments and quiet assured that the ideas generated by both myself and the set designer was going in the right direction.
In conclusion: Observing my personal response to the 3 meetings I have noted that for me the screen presentations help me feel more prepared and present a more professional persona. I did not feel the results of the discussions were skewed by whether a presentation was presented on screen but my personal confidence and sense of preparation was affected. As a competent computer user the photocopies felt messy laid out of the table, not very clear and I was a little unsure what they showed, when. As teacher I often use screen presentation to formulise my thinking and communicate a coherent thought process. As a costume designer the mood boards collated ideas and vision in an accessible way. The first 2 directors were able to take away the presentation for them to further reflect on my thoughts and ideas. I hope this will support the design development process and will in time reduce any surprises later in the production process.
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