DRINK RESPONSIBLY

In making this project, the largest problem I encountered was acquiring a camera from a friend. After getting the camera, I staged all of the pictures in my apartment with the help of my roommate. I had plenty of left over “supplies” from the weekend to use in the pictures. The entire operations actually took very little time after I was finally able to find a friend whose camera I could borrow.

As for taking the pictures themselves, the main thing I tried to focus on was slight variations in the quality of picture. I would try and make a picture shaky and have one crooked and have some with flash and some without flash. This was actually a success. The intentional flaws in these pictures helps show the progressive stages of inebriation the drinkers encounter. The most significant change came in the final four pictures of the montage. The forth to last picture of the man throwing up in the toilet was extremely difficult to stage, as I wanted to get a picture that was extremely shaky to show that point of inebriation. Then in the third to last and penultimate pictures of the two drinkers passed out and in the final picture of the clock, the pictures are extremely still and clean as if taken by a third party surveying the damage. The final picture also helps add humor and contribute to the message by showing it was still very early in the evening.

I paid close attention to every aspect of the pictures. The background of most pictures is just plain white walls, in fact the only decorations noticeable in any pictures are the sides of beer boxes taped to the wall. This helped show the simplicity of what most college apartments look like and also added a one-dimensional feel to the drinkers. The extra items on the coffee table also helped capture the college male persona (as a completely empty coffee table is usually covered in junk and never completely empty). Adding the Maxim, tv remote, and Chuck Klosterman book on the table and video game on the floor helped give off the idea that these were the universal “every-man” college binge-drinker.

I also realized I needed to use mostly close up shots to get the idea I was going for across. With close up shots of the drinks and drinking games, it is impossible to tell how many drinkers are present. Besides the two people toasting in the first picture, the only other indication would be the two shot glasses, but it is possible only two of a large group were drinking shots. Eventually, in the last shots taken from farther back, the audience realizes that it was only two people drinking a significant amount of alcohol.

The actual amount of alcohol consumed is a complete exaggeration purely for comedic purposes, as it would be impossible for two people to drink roughly 60 beers in addition to several tequila shots and (presumably) the rest of a bottle of triple sec. The pictures taken with the triple sec and the empty bottles of liquor shows the desperation of severely inebriated drinkers who feel they need to consume more alcohol.