There was this period during the MA course at Manchester School of Art called testing times and it was a period of, I think, a fortnight, where it was basically your job to experiment and collaborate.
It's so easy to get out of the habit of 'play' in your creative discipline. Test shoots are a way to get back to this.
So what is a test shoot?
In photography a test shoot can be a number of things, from film photographers working to choose their film to pre-vis work on bigger projects. The context that I'm specifically talking about though is setting your own brief and experimenting. It's personal work in a pure sense.
In film (video) it's the same idea. Create the brief and execute using your own time and money. If an assistant or stylist is needed you pay them. Catering, you pay for it.
Why am I talking about this now?
I'm interested in producing more documentary films. Well, any documentary films to be more precise. I have begun to send out invitations to be involved to businesses and people I know of who have done interesting things. So that's a start. The difficult step for me is getting on top of that and organising it, making sure that the ting actually happens.
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