About Me
My name is Mason Mayfly, an amateur filmmaker and photographer.
The theme and style of my film work has varied over the years. Whilst I am in search of my style, I let each project guide me in the design and production process. I believe that the BRITs School can help me to find myself and my unique style. On the other hand, I feel that my photography work does have a clear theme and style running through it, which has evolved over the years. A lot of my photography work focuses on nature and man-made subjects that are surrounded by nature. My photos tend to have abstract ideas attached to them and often have a lot of hidden meaning behind them. I like that the viewer has to put in the effort and really take in the picture to understand how they relate to it.
The main reason why I want to go into this industry is because I grew up watching British and American film and TV and I am fascinated with the idea of trying to address some of its many flaws. Through my work, I would like to support minority communities and to promote more Asian and trans representation in British TV and film. I think a lot of my work will grow to be political, but will still be presented in an abstract or fantastical manner as I think this is one of the easiest ways to get access to someone's opinions and alter them.
In this picture, I found the shapes and lighting interesting. I wanted to make it seem as though the camera was going through the poles and I wanted to capture an element of motion. I think the parallel lines of the poles help to draw you into the image and helps carry that sense of motion. I quite like the industrial and construction themes that come through in this picture. The distinct green tinge of the poles contrasts with the prominently brown colour palette of the picture. However, the green tinge also helps to carry that sense of motion as it blends well with the greenery found at the back of the photo. This is an example of how my photography focuses on the interconnection between the themes of nature and a man-made structures.
This scene reminded me a lot of Christmas and makes me feel quite nostalgic. It doesn't remind me of a typical festive Christmas where you are surrounded by people you love, more like a bittersweet romance where the characters are lonely and longing. The addition of the empty bench adds to that emotion of loneliness. I adjusted the lighting to make the sky seem like a white sheet of snow in order to carry that theme of Christmas.
Another aspect of the photo that I'm drawn to is the sharpness of the leaves, which contrasts with the smooth path. It's as though the viewer is forced to take the bending path into the unknown or be faced with the sharp leaves.
This is a short film I produced for a charity called Birmingham PHAB Camps. This is a charity that attempts to integrate young people from Birmingham of all abilities and backgrounds by taking them on holidays, and is run solely by volunteers. The film's goal was to raise money for the charity. I wanted it to provide sufficient information for the parents to be motivated to donate, while also ensuring it was engaging for the children.
Picture 1: I took this picture as it seemed quite like a rare opportunity to find a butterfly that will stay still for a few moments. The picture is quite simple, but I like its simplicity because it creates quite a peaceful and bliss atmosphere. The brown and orange butterfly stands out against the green backdrop, which intrigued me as butterflies are meant to be camouflaged. The white and pink of the flowers blends well with the white spots on the butterfly.
Picture 2: The bright red of the canoes contrasts greatly against the green and brown colour palette surrounding them, which caught my eye. I found it an interesting place for someone to store their canoes, as it's quite out in the open and unprotected. I found that it's as though the tree beside the canoes is hiding them. It looks like the tree branch hangs over the canoes in an almost protective fashion.
Picture 3: This image represents the themes of life and death. The tree is marked with an orange cross indicating it must've been diseased or simply in the way and so it was chopped down. Contrastingly, the green all around it represents life. The ivy, which is snaking its way up the stump, demonstrates that, even around death, life prospers. It shows new life taking the place of lost ones. The angle of the shot makes it so you can't tell how big the stump is and the brown of the tree stands out against all the green, focusing you on the felled tree. Furthermore, the orange stands out against the brown, focusing you on the human mark that ultimately led to the tree's demise.
I took this picture last year during the pandemic on a Saturday, when the mall would typically be quite busy. It intrigued me how empty it was. The scene looked quite lonely and desolate.
It reminded me of a ghost town and the few people in the shot are the ghosts stuck in it. The people in the image all look quite emotionless; none of them are laughing or playing. They just look like impassive, empty vessels captured frozen in time. The lights from the shop windows are eerily white, adding to the ghost-like effect.
The shot is angled because it made the world seem on a tilt, as though our world is being turned upside down, which it sometimes feels like it has been.
This place was once a grand cinema in Verona, Italy. In its time, it was the place everyone went to, but now, with time, it has been neglected and left rotting.
I found it ironic how the building has gone through the two meanings of decadent: once a place of luxury and self-indulgence and then left to become a place of decay and decline. The graffiti shows how the place went from somewhere everyone would want to go, to somewhere that is unappreciated and left defiled.
The angle of the shot made the sign look larger, exaggerating the once grandeur of the building. The colour palette of the photo is quite dull with a lot of beige, white and brown. The black of the mould and graffiti and the dull blue of the sign are the only colours that really stand out.
This is an album cover that I designed using Photoshop. The concept of the album focuses on the year of 2020 and all the big events that happened, like the pandemic and the sudden uproar of people speaking out about discrimination. My aim was to carry this theme through in the cover.
I wanted the viewer to briefly look at the picture and have the initial assumption that the photo was 'normal'. So, on the surface of it the picture looks 'normal', but when you take a little longer to look at it you can see that it's not completely as it should be. This aspect of the cover is meant to represent the light that has been shone on racial abuse during 2020. I think a lot of people before 2020 looked at discrimination only briefly, leaving them thinking all was relatively okay. However, during 2020, more and more people took their time to research, to listen to people's stories and to provide support.
The person in the picture is sat in a curled-up position, almost imitating that of a foetal position, while the world around them is swirling around, becoming misshapen and not as it should be. This aspect of the cover is meant to show the way the pandemic affected many of us. We essentially had to sit there while the world around us changed and we had no control over that. Furthermore, the mask covering the person's facial expression not only shows the pandemic more directly but also shows how the pandemic has affected mental health, with many people hiding their emotions and pretending to be fine for the sake of others.
Picture 1: This shot combines man-made elements with nature. Though it is clearly in a human environment, there aren't many people; making the image seem desolate. However, at same time, the pastel colours of the beautiful sunset give the picture a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere. I took the photo because it looks like there are parallel worlds, as though the world is flipped into the swimming pool. If you look at the world below, you can see the world is tinted slightly darker and there are tiny ripples running through it, making it seem like a portal to the other world.
Picture 2: I originally took this picture in colour; however, I felt like the colours distracted from the elegance of the tree. The tree's branches take up the top half of the shot and are cut off, which allows the viewer to imagine how far the branches stretch and extend up into the sky. The oak tree creates a sense of wisdom, strength and resilience, creating spiritual connotations within the image. Similarly to the picture next to it, this photo creates a sense of tranquillity.
Credits:
Created with an image by Pexels - "filmstrip negatives photography"