Are pictures worth a thousand words?

10/7/2010

Well...time for a little science fiction tonight. Above was the photo I shot for GL's last photo contest, featuring my Stormtroopers in an "action" scene. I didn't place in the contest, but that really wasn't my goal as much as trying something different. I spent a lot of time working up my Mandalorian Stormtroopers, but never really had any plans for them in terms of featuring them in a story or series of stories. Sci Fi is just hard to do if you ask me; coming up with sets and locations, etc. The contest though was a chance to experiment with an idea that had been lurking in the back of my mind...that of doing a series of comic book covers with different figures...kind of "what might have been" story ideas (that is if I had more time for that sort of thing). A concept I am calling "THE PHOTO VIGNETTE". Right now, at this particular time in my life, I don't really have time or the space to build physical vignettes for my figures, but I can create photographic vignettes because they don't take up any space, except for megs on my hard drive.
So...the discussion for this UPDATE is how would you define a Photo Vignette. If this a topic that interests you, tell me what you think the definition of a photo vignette would be and flesh out the concept. My own idea is something like what you see above, figures featured on magazine covers, but that is just one concept. I am sure that there are a whole lot more ideas out there.
Unrelated to that discussion, here are a few pictures of my Stormtroopers. These were just some table top shots done without any Point Man magic, but they have never been seen before...so maybe someone will enjoy seeing them.

And that's it for this week. We start back up on Sunday evening, so until next time, have a good one!

10 Comments

Hammer Six

10/7/2010 12:50:09 pm

Now that is just too cool!

PM I think that is a great idea. It's difficult if you don't have the right space for dios. My room is to narrow and filled with too many figures to make vignettes and I really like them.

You can pose single figures but they then all look like rows of posed figures (which is what I have) whereby vignettes make the figures come alive and add a sense of realism.

Question: What does the "PC" logo stand for (personal computor?). Think about making them "PM" comics for Point Man Comics

okimbored

10/7/2010 01:17:45 pm

I think I'm beyond the vignette lol, a pic is worth a thousand words unless I'm behind the camera, I always seem to get caught in the film mentality, where every line needs a new camera angle. I agree that a pic could tell an entire story but my brain just doesn't work that way. Interesting idea though, if I get some time Sunday I might try setting up some "silent" scenes just to see what I come up with

Point Man

10/7/2010 09:14:00 pm

It is interesting that when Hogie first started doing his thing, it was all about the pictures and though I think they are weird, he managed to get his stories across with just pictures. Somewhere along the line he started adding text, I don't know if that was because he was having trouble getting along without it (an artistic change), or if he just finally figured out what to do (a technical change). I think that sometimes the picture conveys everything we want it to say in our minds, but other folk take something completely different away from it (that's my marketing/advertising experience talking there - sounded good though didn't it?). I would love to have room to make vignettes for every figure I have, I don't see it happening in my lifetime, I have often thought of creating a book of my figures and placing most of them in scenes for the photos. Sort of a fancy permanent record.

Panzercommander (HOH)

10/8/2010 02:58:17 am

I think the idea of photo vignettes are pretty cool - especially if you don't want to get caught up in a huge set up. Prime example is your comic book cover - which (sidebar) made me think of a really cool idea: A Signal style propaganda magazine for the Empire. After all - the Empire is based off the Germans in WWII anyway! I think it would be awesome - especially if you used the old Signal font and cover setup! But that's for you to decide Mike.

Anyway - vignettes are cool because if done well they capture a moment in time perfectly - something that a photo story might not capture because you focus everything into one scene as opposed to many scenes in a photo shoot.

I'd probably do more of them if I was better at background and base modeling but I'm not.

My technique when shooting photo stories usually involves getting a photo to cover a line or two of dialogue. I like shot/countershot for dialogue - something I picked up on in a film class in school and close ups (if I can make them work) since I don't have Photoshop to cut out oversized things. Basically I need Photoshop to get any better with my photo stories...

I was wondering if anyone was going to mention Hogie's stuff - I haven't looked at anything recently but some of his last work that I looked at seemed like it had a ton of photos for what was going on in the shoot. Maybe there were subtleties that I didn't pick up on? Who knows...

Good topic Point Man!

Point Man

10/8/2010 05:54:56 am

If there are subtleties, I haven't found them. I think he just shoots a lot of pictures and apparently uses them all. On the average, if I am doing a story that is going to use about 60 to 75 frames to tell the story I will shoot anywhere from 200 to 300 pictures. I just shoot a lot of crappy stuff in with the good stuff, so it is a good idea to get way more than I need. I always have been a terrible photographer, but if you take enough stuff, sometimes you get lucky.

I like your idea about Signal. I actually did that when I put my first Stormtrooper primer together and posted it on GL's. I have type faces for the various Star Wars languages and I just typed the word Signal in Empire Basic and then stylized so it would look more like the Signal font. I can't upload the picture from here, but I will email it to you. I have thought about doing a whole series of covers actually. Time, time, time....

Panzercommander (HOH)

10/8/2010 07:15:12 am

I was thinking the same thing Point Man but wasn't sure... It seemed like he just used all of the photos to me as well.

I don't shoot as many as you do but I do shoot a hell of a lot more than I post - that's for sure!

I received the e-mail with the Stormtrooper Signal and have to say it is pretty cool! I'm glad you were thinking the same thing I was!

okimbored

10/8/2010 09:17:39 am

Hogie tells the story at the beginning then follows it with the pics of what happened. Really I think teh outline is more for guys like me who don't follow the story very well without dialog.

As for number of pics, I hate to admit it but unless a pic is blurry I normally shoot one of each, for example the current post at GLs is 28 pics long and took me 29 pics to do it lmao. When I really get the story rolling I don't plan to be quite so forgiving with my pics though.

Panzercommander (HOH)

10/8/2010 11:51:19 am

29 photos aren’t bad though OK - five or six pages (50 plus photos) of the same thing in each shot requires a little editing in my opinion...

At least make it noticeably different - though there are other things in the photos that usually throw my concentration from the story line.

Hammer Six

10/8/2010 09:41:29 pm

I really like that idea of a Signal type Stormtrooper magazine.....amazing that the two of you were on the same wave length. PM have never seen your primer......can you post it and make it one of the daily updates?

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Are pictures worth a thousand words?

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