Handmaids Tale Experimentation
As this is a ballet adaptation, I thought perhaps I could use ballet shoes as a motif. I'm going to try to avoid making this look cliché. If this doesn't work, I may play around with the additional photograph that Dean provided us with.
I purchased a pair of used old pointe shoes on a reselling app named, 'Depop' and once arrived asked my boyfriend to hold the ribbons of the ballet shoes in different positions. At first I noticed that the natural lighting was extremely dark and dull. Being a complete amateur at photography, logically I needed another light source so decided to use a smartphone camera flashlight to provide this.
We tried the lighting from different angles until we had the flashlight almost face-on to the ballet shoes. This reminded me of being in front of a spotlight at the theatre and created some amazing natural shadows. I thought the introduction of the male hand/arm was synonymous with the controlling men in the Handmaid's Tale.
The main theme I wanted to portray was about control. Although the ballet shoes appear to be hanging feely, their actions they are being controlled by a man.
I decided to remove the ballet shoes background and added the shadow as a separate layer in Adobe Photoshop. The addition of the suit sleeve, was added as this is the consume design commonly worn. Adding a subtle red overlay and recolouring the shadow to appear darker added a sense of eeriness and reference the main red colour theme in the Handmaid's Tale.
