After listening to all the news reports about Big Brother (The reality TV show) it got me thinking how much I enjoyed, and feared, 1984 the movie based on George Orwell's book. The haunting image of Big Brother staring from monitors as Winston and Julia avoid the thought police, etc is one that as a baby of the sixties I found disturbing.
I came home from work tonight with the idea in my head and set up my camera with a snooted flash aimed at myself and took the Big Brother shot. Then I uploaded that shot into an electronic picture frame which had a video out and plugged it into the plasma screen.
The next bit was the difficult bit; to persuade my five year old daughter to turn off the Channel 5 movie (The Goonies) whilst I set up the shot. I tried without flash first but could not balance the light without setting too high an ISO so instead used a remote snooted flash with wireless trigger. Using my remote control for the camera I stood on a chair and held the flash above her head and fired. A couple of "chimps" later and the aperature and exposure were sorted but Lucy was getting annoyed. I had to plead for "just three more shots". She held me to that and it was the last shot that I used (and a bit of the second last which I used to clone out the flash reflection on the screen).
It has not turned out exactly as I had hoped but is pretty close given the dimensions of the room and the props I had to hand. If Lucy will let me there may be another brighter version where I am a more friendly Big Brother.
I came home from work tonight with the idea in my head and set up my camera with a snooted flash aimed at myself and took the Big Brother shot. Then I uploaded that shot into an electronic picture frame which had a video out and plugged it into the plasma screen.
The next bit was the difficult bit; to persuade my five year old daughter to turn off the Channel 5 movie (The Goonies) whilst I set up the shot. I tried without flash first but could not balance the light without setting too high an ISO so instead used a remote snooted flash with wireless trigger. Using my remote control for the camera I stood on a chair and held the flash above her head and fired. A couple of "chimps" later and the aperature and exposure were sorted but Lucy was getting annoyed. I had to plead for "just three more shots". She held me to that and it was the last shot that I used (and a bit of the second last which I used to clone out the flash reflection on the screen).
It has not turned out exactly as I had hoped but is pretty close given the dimensions of the room and the props I had to hand. If Lucy will let me there may be another brighter version where I am a more friendly Big Brother.
3 comments:
Well I think this is just great! The minimalistic look of your house really portrays the future. Although it is also a little bit of that horror film with the little girl in front of the TV (can't remember the name). I think it is Potergeist... Anyway lovely job. (Great flooring too).
h.r.ford
Cool idea! :) But you shouldn't get in between Lucy and the Goonies! Please buy her the DVD. :D
Hi Gary,
This is a great idea and nicely executed. I'm not so sure about the merger between the girl's head and the TV, though. If you really consider doing another version, then I'd try to go a tad higher.
As a variation I also would consider going B&W. In fact I just tried it and like it even better.
Good work
Andreas
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