Shaun has set us the task of creating a postcard, which has been taken in the future in the Stonehouse area. The image should in someway reflect our ideas on what we want to do with our Stonehouse project.
I am going to take some photographs in the Stonehouse area before I think about what to do with them. I am going to take a set in the day and in the night in the Union Street area, and focus around the area of The Dance Academy. I feel having a contrast between day and night will show how the atmosphere of the area changes between the two times of day.
I want to take pictures of the architecture of the area as this is the main feature we want to change, I am going to try to find buildings which have large flat surfaces as we are looking to make projections onto buildings in the area. I am going to take normal photos of the buildings but try the least amount of other factors in as this makes it easier when I come to Photoshop the images.
Nightshots
As you can see, the night shots came out quite poorly, this is because there was a lot of rain and I had to use a slow shutter and flash, which meant the rain can been seen quite a lot.
The night shots have a lot of neon lights in them, but as you can see the area is also very industrial with very little signs of life other than the odd person and passing traffic.
Everyone in the area seems to be passing though and noone is stopping. Barely anyone even noticed me taking photos in the area. The photos are taken around 8 - 9PM which is too early to see the drunken revelers falling out of clubs, I feel the main people in the area will probably be people associated with the nightlife of Stonehouse (clubs, pubs, late night take-away, strip-clubs, adult book shops etc).
The atmosphere in the area is very unwelcoming, I felt very out of place around Stonehouse, and there isn't anything in the area to make anyone feel any differently.
The lighting is very dull which gives the streets a foreboding feel. I think that our illuminations on the buildings would help combat this a lot. It would also make people stop and look around the area.
We could have small illuminations in harder to find areas which mean people explore Stonehouse. I feel using warm and inviting colours such as orange, reds and yellows will help improve the moods of people in the area too. It will also give the area a warm feel, which it lacks due to its close proximity to the sea.
Dayshots
As you can see from the day shots, the area still has a very untidy look. The feel of the area is slightly different however. People are visiting Stonehouse to shop in the supermarket (Aldi) eating in the fast food restaurant (KFC) and taking their cars to the garage (Kwik Fit). There isn't really anyone in the area just walking around however. Everyone is getting their tasks done then driving off in their cars.
This shows the area does need to be made more pedestrian friendly. Walking around the area, it was clear there was very little appreciation of the history, people had graffiti-ed all over the old dance academy, there was also litter and dog mess around which isn't really seen in the town centre, just a few hundred yards up the street in the Town centre.
I feel that the area needs something different in the day time, as the projections won't be visible in the day.
For my postcard I think I'm going to use the idea I had about the garden in the deserted areas of Stonehouse along with a picture of one of the buildings with a projection on it. I feel this will show the main features we want to add to Stonehouse.
I am going to photoshop both images to look futuristic and generally more tidy.
I have now made both the postcard images, they don't however look very good together, therefore I am making two postcards. I am basing them both on the 2012 olympics, which is when I feel the area will need renovation.
Below are the two postcards I made.
In a 15 minute period:
