designer

Rebels of Extinction Collaboration for MIF Festival in My House and Yours 2021 /  by Tracey Gibbs

Sustainability is something very close to my heart in all things, from helping to set up a group for sustainable productions in my time at LIPA where we encouraged fellow students to consider both the material choices and make more from what they could recycle on productions. Through to my own personal life with clothing and fashion, from my earliest days back in Birmingham, where I would visit Birmingham Rag Market which then was full of vintage and second-hand clothes and more to create my individual look as a New Romantic.

Most years I would invest in a few key pieces and mix up with my charity shop finds, to the point now when I treasure my treasures discovered in my favourite secret outlets! From the very warm as new jacket, I wear most days on my walks through to the most amazing Alexander McQueen shoes I tried to make fit lol some results of the hunting trips are better than others.I hadn’t really had much experience or using fast fashion until I went to Uni and began to see the daily parcels being delivered to the reception from all of the known brands and seeing students scrolling through their screens did I begin to grasp the size of this market. Order for the weekend, wear once, bin! The culture and price points offered made it hard for them to refuse as budgets tight, the overt marketing to create this ethos is immense and hard to resist.

Fast forwards to lockdowns, no theatre I have been attending the rather wonderful Artist Drop-Ins hosted by the Manchester International Festival team, a real tonic in dark times. A place to meet and just share where we all are, offer support to each other and share practices. They have developed over the year (can’t quite believe I am typing that statement) to now hosting some great zooms with local, national and international artists and a brilliant concept Matchmakers. A kind of creative speed dating affair, bringing possible collaborators together and forging new working partnerships. Check them out here

https://mif.co.uk/whats-on/mif-matchmakers-february/

From there Rebels of Extinction formed, collaborating with Actor Devisor Simone French, Actor Devisor Visual man Tom Halls and Director/Producer/Writer and brilliant Voiceover artist Rebecca Taylor Sharman.

With our bid sucessful the time to create content was here, so as a newbie to be sure with filming and so far only creating work for projection I hadn’t really given sound and eek editing footage with words in sync! much thought! Big Big learning curve and at times I may have thrown my toys out of the pram had it not been for the calm more experienced Tom stepping in to help re-edit sections .But that is what a creative growth life is about right? going in with naivety perhaps but then also allowing yourself to be helped and supported.

This is one of the big takeaway moments for me on this project, how a team working remotely and under time pressure can come together and make something happen.

I really enjoyed getting my head into After Effects once more and to a more advanced level than I had attempted before, with lights,cameras and action, there is that wonderful moment when you are self learning software when the basics become second nature and free up some more heaspace to push on to learn more.Since entering the doors of LIPA in 2016 I seem to be on a continual route of new software learning and folks it doesn’t get any easier trust me.

With the additional footage from an oustanding documentary about just how destructive the production of clothing around the world is having on our planet from ‘Riverblue the Movie’ a huge boost, and the fabulous images of Salford Mills from my old neighbour and local historian Tony Flynn we had our story. A story crafted by Simone and Tom with their unique satirical approach, the catchiest earworm so far of 2021 all underpinned by Rebecca’s scripting and direction.

A huge big thank you to the team from MIF who looked after us in the production process, we streamed as the second of this years Festival in My House and Yours on January 28th . It is still online and available to view here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH9yiWP3HYw&ab_channel=ManchesterInternationalFestival

Simone and Tom’s theatre of TomYumSim here

https://www.simonefrench.com/tomyumsim.html

http://www.tomhalls.com.au/welcome

River Blue http://riverbluethemovie.eco/

Cherish your clothes,make considered choices,change one thing

2019 What a Year! oh and I won an award /  by Tracey Gibbs

Graduating and Begining of a new Tracey and what winning an award means 

What a year it was finishing my time at the most brilliant LIPA or Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts to give it's an official name with a First ! culminating with my Paul McCartney handshake and beginning life back in the real world once more.

This proved a little more bumpy for me personally than I had bargained for, I guess as an evermore self-employed freelance person the daily structure was a lovely respite in the challenge to find ongoing work. Also the vibrant world of higher education and forging new friendships along the way, a creative and learning playground for the three years.

So the year finished on a high that was never in my mind when I began a study into stage lighting that of video design. My mission was incredibly narrow at first, then fate took part and I was brought in to creating content for what would prove one of my most memorable moments at LIPA. A true piece of collaboration with set designer Kirsty Barlow and Director Will Hammond for the production of Love of the Nightingale. I was sold! two months of self-learning of many adobe platforms including After Effects and Premiere Pro (ongoing) I went on to create content for dance and musical productions in my final two years.

 The annual Association of Lighting Designers awards for recent graduates was fast approaching and I was keen to enter, but which me? The lighting designer or this newer crossover with my photography life that as a video designer? After consulting with my amazing lecturer and lighting designer Sofia Alexidou I made the decision it would be video.

Having entered photography awards with some success pushed me along creating my interactive portfolio. Early December arrived and no news! the waiting is the worst part, then news, what a great email day that was I had won! Attending the lunch in London with Sofia was brilliant and to add that title to the new Tracey took a bit of getting used to, resisting adding it to my website and email signature. A trademark of Tracey has and to a certain extent still here is to play down my achievements and fill that hole with a whole load of self-doubt. But this award given by my professional piers has increased both my confidence and belief which I think is one of the best bi-products from any award, as we are often in the creative industries our harshest critic!

So here I am a recent graduate seeking collaborations and work in the world of theatre and performance, the year has got off with a bang more of soon, with projects in discussion including lighting and video design for a one-woman show. Still learning and working on the skill set I got from my time at LIPA and every now and then a visitor back there as one of their preferred photographers which is great as I get to keep my ties with a place I loved every second of .

So Happy New Decade from me Tracey Gibbs Winner of the I-Blue Media Award for Excellence in Video Design

here is the link to my winning portfolio which gives you an insight into both my work and methods

https://indd.adobe.com/view/443ebaaa-363e-4c3f-9d9f-b9a2677e78ca

Got me a Gimble /  by Tracey Gibbs

So the first few months post university have been interesting and a tad nerve wracking, trying to find oppourtunites with my new found skill sets. By the way I did manage a 1st which was beyond any of my expectations and I am very proud of myself for that one!

Still, I need to try to keep the newly acquired knowledge alive and well, earn money. So my new daily routine now includes searching amongst Art job websites and contacting directors, theatre companies to connect with and hopefully collaborate.

With all things projection in mind my long-time friend and client, the talented James Roberts superstar hairdresser contacted me to help them get there salon projector working properly and create some content featuring the range of work they do along with the rather fabulous Nataya Beauty who operates from the same premises. To get something to test I created a little movie with our 20 odd years of working together on hair shoots for the salon, including some award-winning images for competitions such as the prestigious L’Oreal Colour Trophy. This was a lovely look back over years of collaborations with exceptional makeup artists and stylists we have here in Manchester and some incredible models, some of whom have not been professionals. Also, a chance for me to have a little nostalgic look at past exploits in the realm of analog photography! (yes we go that far back) along with the film I did for him in my second year where I had begun to use the brilliant Sony A7II at Lipa to create content for my projection designs.

So it was back to the salon to film some more content featuring a new inovative colour product from L’oreal .

I had up to this point only filmed hand held with my go to app Filmic Pro, which produces astounding 4k from my iphone , after revisiting their website and looking through some tutorials I knew I had to get a gimble ! just the ability to operate from the unit and experiment with angles etc was too enticing but on a very tight post university budget where to find one? I love e-bay !! previously to film Phaedra as part of the Love of the Nightingale production at LIPA I had sourced a great bit of kit a Moondog anamorphic lens for a great price, now to the gimble.

https://www.filmicpro.com/

https://moondoglabs.com/

And boom result! got me my very own ZHIYUN SMOOTH 4 for a fraction of the price and in mint condition. So having spent the weekend playing and getting to grips with the controls, I headed back to the salon for a morning of filming.

Had a blast with it and learned lots more about approaching shoots with the iPhone, I am on the lookout for a cheeky second hand Sony but until the right one at the right price comes along this is a good answer to getting the footage I need. Also now waiting on some little bids back on my friend e-bay for a portrait lens addition to my iPhone camera set up.

The results are as I type been projected onto a wall here :)

http://www.jamesrobertshairandbeauty.co.uk/

and on the Instagram account here

https://www.instagram.com/jrhairandbeauty/