Sheridan and I decided early on that one of the main things we needed to do was actually stay in a hotel. It was integral to building our own research and story and we realised that If we were ever going to accurately portray the right feel, we were going to need to live it.

Luckily, Birmingham has a fantastic array of hotels, whether they be completely average, or strange, beautiful and weird. Although we are not yet sure of the project's ultimate direction, I am hoping we only need to stay in one or two places before finding our voice. To do this, we need to be smart about where we are spending our time.

It didn't take long for us to decide that The Labrooke was our first port of call. Why? Well, firstly, it's in a fairly undesirable spot …and that's putting it lightly. The location, coupled with its very low price for an over night stay, means it's fair to say that you're likely to attract some 'characters'.

When researching the hotel, we came across these reviews on booking.com which made for interesting reading!

"doors/walls too thin so you could hear what's happening on the corridor/ other rooms - they were doing work so the next floor was blocked with a double mattress - bathroom way too small - carpets were smelly."

"The area does feel somewhat derelict and abandoned at night though I did not encounter any issues. It's good to check out clear routes if travelling alone and don't know where you're going. The corridors and stairwells gave a somewhat dilapidated feel though room was better kitted out and cared for. On this basis, as business traveller seeking to save money I would happily stay here again."

Source material is key, so once we had confirmed our stay and got it all cleared with management, it was time to ramp our research up a level and get some photography done! A good friend of mine, Jack Spicer Adams, was very excited about being apart of the project. Having recently been on holiday to Hong Kong with him, and also having worked on bits and pieces with him before, I knew that he has a similar eye to mine. Jack knew exactly the sort of feel we were going for when photographing the hotel, which was very important. It is easy to simply take photographs of a building / rooms for documentation, it is another to be able to capture a certain vibe so that you can refer back to that and feel that same feeling - I can be transported back there when visiting the photos at a later date, probably when I'm sat at my desk thinking of image ideas. Getting this wrong could make it a mostly wasted trip.

As soon as we walked into the lobby we knew we’d made the right decision. It was quiet, with only one person on reception and no one behind the - actually quite impressive - bar. The two areas joined each other, making a rather grand front entrance and lobby. The large open space had a classic black and white chequer board tiled floor, and a (badly) hand-painted mural, featuring 1920's character, decorated the wall nearest the desk. The omission of people made it feel a bit creepy. The corners of the room were also very dark, even though the room itself was well lit. The manager handed us a master key and a piece of paper showing us which rooms were empty and he didn't bother us again! I have to say, I don’t think we’d have been given this freedom at a large chain hotel like Premier Inn or Travel-lodge!

We stepped into the classic, office block style lift and ascended. It rattled its way to the destination of the second floor, pausing for eternity, before the doors juddered open. In front of us was a long, dark hallway with an outdated red carpet stretching off into the gloom. We found our way to the first room and were really surprised at how nice the room actually was. From all the reviews we’d read, we half expected an absolute nightmare, but the room was everything we’d hoped for.

We weren't entirely sure what we were looking for yet, but we knew we were looking for any hints or items to suggest a story. Once we moved a bit of the furniture around, opening up the room, we were able to create a setting the was very much a nod to Hoppers paintings. After all my initial image tests, we knew a lot of the photographs emotions were going to come down to the light within the room. Interestingly, the room has a classic hotel room layout, very similar to that of the first image I created, which was pulled directly from my own memories of hotels. By having the bathroom light on, closing the curtains and turning off the main room light, we were instantly able to create a dark, suspenseful feeling. There were no figures present, but the very act of having the light on hints towards a central character.

We found we were quickly creating all the right conditions and settings for stories to start to come alive. As we moved through the hotel, finding interesting corners or hallways, I definitely felt a sense that we had found the right location and that if our project wasn’t going to take shape here it wasn’t going to happen anywhere. Armed with my favourite and most inspiring photos that Jack had taken, it was time to barricade myself with sheridan, some snacks and some beer and see what we could turn this into.

I'm sure in the old days people would have done this kind of thing with some mind bending drugs, gone on a long trip, changed the fabric of their reality for ever and come up with some absolute gold, instead we shared a couple of polish lagers and cake! Rock’n’Roll. No doubt this part was the more difficult of the day - apparently being drunk in a hotel room doesn’t just mean you’re suddenly going to have fantastic ideas.

Although we didn't come up with a whole story immediately, staying in the room overnight gave birth to some of the most solid ideas we've had so far. We found that, by removing all pressure by just getting a notepad out and starting to talk - about what hotels meant to us, what they can mean to other people, and the thoughts and feelings they elicit - was a great method. We talked, without worry of how mad or silly any initial ideas or thoughts might sound. Once we got the ball rolling it was then a case of defining our ideas and streamlining them down into tangible themes. The issue is, it’s very tempting to get over-excited and put forward long, elaborate ideas of feature film length narratives. While all ideas are valid when researching, developing these kind of ideas further really would be like flying before learning to crawl. Our time in the hotel isn’t about making a concrete story or final direction for the project, but helping us to explore those feelings that come with staying in a hotel room. We wanted to focus on the wonderful minutiae of the hotel, rather than start plotting out some kind of sprawling novel.

One of the most successful topics we discussed was why people use hotels. We chatted about things like who else we thought might be in the hotel that night. Why were they there? Why had they chosen The Ladbrooke? We could hear women cackling in the hallway. They sounded as as though a large group of them were spread between a number of rooms. Each one of these women would have a different story, and the group would have one as well. That in itself is an interesting concept. Place them in a hotel room as group and you’ll see a different story emerge than if they each had a separate room. People act differently when they are around each other.

We realised that it is the people who stay at hotels we are most interested in.

Another exciting lead is the film Grand Hotel (1932), something we discovered whilst researching. It was Interesting to find another significant piece of secondary research that is, much like hoppers work, set in the 20’s and 30’s. It must be something to do with the liberalisation of society away from the old victorian structures that makes this time so interesting but what is it that makes the hotel a significant setting at this time? There were many films, plays and artwork set in hotels around this time...certainly a strong avenue to follow.

As we left, we found ourselves back in the cavernous lobby, with the 1920s inspired black and white flooring. I was so sure we were going to be exiting here with a modern topic in mind, but as the project takes shape, we seem to be heading in a 1920's direction. I want to dig much more into why there seems such a lot of art, music and film based around the subject of loneliness and what that connection is with hotels. Is the situation the same now as the early 1900s? What are the parallels?