No, not the kind that's good for the body, but good for the brain. These are two exercises I shot for my production class with Ed Bowes this semester. While we may grunt and groan when he assigns projects like these, what he really intends is for us to get as many possibilities to shoot as we can, and therefore are able to hone our craft. Most of my production classes have been maybe 4 or 5 people doing the same job all the time on the same sets over and over again, and it's really easy to lose inspiration and motivation that way. Some people wonder why I wander in and out of lighting class, but how many times can you light the same bar set and the same alley way set differently after three years? It's a challenge, certainly, but not the kind that you'll look back on in ten years and think, 'Man, I'm glad I had the opportunity to do that...' Ed's challenges make you look and make you think and don't limit you to one particular space. Everyone gets to shoot. And the end product is nothing short of inspiring --- you were inspired by your own discoveries in your shooting, you were inspired in your editing, and you become inspired by the work of your classmates, because everyone thinks and sees a lot differently than you do.
Anyway, I can't believe I just wrote all of that so early in the morning, but I was, well, inspired --- so I just went with it...
Here is my portrait exercise on my good buddy Kevin Bacon:
Intimacy Exercise:
