Graphics Unit Conclusion

This blog contains computer based work over my experimental film and graphics units for Foundation Art.
Other supporting evidence including notes, sketches and ideas are contained within my sketchbook. I felt that a mixture of both a blog and sketchbook would help me to record and portray all of my ideas using which ever method deemed necessary.

For my Graphics unit, I thought about the type of film that I had made, which was domestic based and trying to portray the natural, playful behaviour of my dog. My chosen advertising methods were a poster and DVD front cover. Both images had to show impact and clearly suggest what the film is about.

My final poster design above is aimed to capture the attention of an audience by the contrast between black and white. The image is quite exposed and there is alot of bright white colour to try and enhance the motion and blurring of the images. This idea of movement suggests that this is advertisement for a film.
I have used 3 screenshot images from different parts of my film in this poster. Initially, the top image is very strong as there is clearly alot of movement, the shape of my dog aswell as some of her facial features are visible amongst the blurring.
Secondly, the lower part of the filmstrip styled poster consists of 2 overlapped images. I have tried to show two other movements that had less impact on there own.

If I were revisiting this type of theme or a similar project, I could improve by trying to integrate the text  so that it works well with the background. I could also look at more commercial posters that show additional information i.e. sponsors, website links, venue etc.

My second chosen part to the graphics unit was to design a DVD front cover, as I have burned my experimental film to disc, it was more relevant for me to create a slip - in cover.

Linking to the poster, this DVD cover displays similar information and a similar graphic image.
I feel more impressed by this image as it is cropped to focus directly upon one strong movement as oppose to many. I have included the image of my dog, her toy and her bed aswell as hinting the background setting.
I feel that the alternating white and black font colours help to display the information in a more appealing way.

Throughout the course of this unit, I have been faced with using editing software and researching into methods of editing that I hadn't used before. I particularly found it difficult to retrieve information on the artists whose work I liked and was most influenced by. Especially when researching online blog portfolios.
Using editing software i.e. Photoshop was limiting to a certain extent, particularly as I was new to the program and I hadn't drawn ideas of my poster/ DVD designs onto paper previously.

I enjoyed researching through different blogs of graphic designers/ artists as there is a very wide range of ideas and and methods to advertise certain things. I was most inspired by the 'Lurpak' filmstrip idea containing parts of the T.V. advert as it displayed a range of screenshots as to what the advert is about.

Overall, I think the whole Media project has been quite experimental, I feel that I've been challenged to work using two types of art that I'd never used before. I found it quite hard to come up with ideas that represented something exciting, interesting and something that other people may be able to relate to. With the graphic poster and DVD cover, I had to show an interesting image that represented my film. To further my graphic skills, I could become more familiar with photo editing software and ways of manipulating images.

In the future, editing software may become an additonal or alternative way of trialling and showing a different approach to developing my artistic paintings. It could be a useful way to experiement with colour and compostion instead of painting each individual trial piece. 

DVD Cover Design

To further Advertise my experimental film, I aim to create a Image cover for my DVD disc case.

Keeping in with a similar theme to my advertising poster, I have used one of the screenshots of an exciting motion being captured in my film. Similarly to my poster, I want to display the theme of the film without giving too much away. I feel that using these plain black and white colours, that boldness will appeal to an audience aswell as the colour scheme representing the boldness and impact of my dogs behaviour in the film.
I felt that by cropping the image, I could achieve a better focus upon the subject. This would relate to my filming style of having a still camera allowing my dog to move out of the focused frame.

 In this image, I've worked on the image using a blurring tool. I felt that this helped to provide focus upon the main subject being my dog. Although the ilm itself is not affected in the same way i.e. blurring, black and white; the advertisement has got to initially pin point the theme and signify the main subject. For example: 'Cleo From 5 to 7' by Waldemar Dabrowski and  'Made for the Romanian Western film The Prophet, The Gold, and the Transylvanians' by Mieczyslaw Wasilewski, the images contain alot of contrast in terms of dark shadows and black aswell as images that suggest the main character or general subject matter of the film. 
With my piece, I hope that by blurring out the background and enhancing the contrast of my dog, I can signify that she and her behaviour are the most dominant on the advert.

Continuing from the previous development, I have added text to inform the potential viewer of the film title and purpose.
I chose the font style based on the idea of a sketchy, non - technical domestic environment. I feel that the font is quite playful, so it integrates with my theme. The colour of the text was equally as important to get right. As the image is black and white, I broke up the different parts of information with different colours to try and make it clear, bold and obvious as to what it is that I'm trying to show.

Graphic Experiments

Merging Graphic Idea


I have used screenshots of parts of my film and using photo editing software, merged the two photographs together.

The screenshots were taken at different stages of the film each showing motion blurring. Each photo suggests what is going to happen within the film without revealing too much with the hope that the viewer will want to watch the film.

I have edited this photo using a greyscale effect as my previous image containing writing was hard to see over the coloured background. I hope that by showing the image in colour and adding the written information to the greyscale effected area the advertisement is clearer.

 

I came to this possible layout from my previous research into the Lurpak Kitchen advertisment. I liked the way that the images showed movement and generally what my film consists of. I feel that this piece would be more relevant to advertising the film on a poster rather than this being a DVD cover as it's more striking and has a greater impact.

  

With this poster image, I have added more brightness and constrast to the images to make the movement's more clear and bolder. The editing allows the blurring to be more visible and I intend to use this as my advertising poster.

Film Advertisment

Mieczyslaw Wasilewski - Made for the Romanian Western film The Prophet, The Gold, and the Transylvanians 1979.  

This poster by the polish graphic artist Mieczyslaw Wasilewski is very interesting for it's use of cropping of the portrait, colours and tones within the actual image. The poster is suggestive in the type of image the viewer should expect to see in the film. The fact that the portrait is blacked out and that only the lower part of the face is visible suggests that this is a negative possibly violent film. 

The written content is informative, giving information as to what the film is.

Alfred Hitchcock - Murders on the Half Skull 

This is an advertisement for Hitchcock's film. The graphic image describes the title of the film without actually showing an image i.e. a screen shot of the film motion itself.

This poster contains a stand out font type that displays all the relevant information of the film. The orange/ yellow colouration would capture the eye of a viewer drawing their attention towards the image.

Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds 

These two posters advertise the Alfred Hitchcock thriller 'The Birds'. They both are very different in the type of message and suggestions of the film context. Firstly, the first poster is quite active, suggesting that there is a lot of action, the facial expressions convey a message of the thriller film type. 

Secondly, the plainer poster although showing the same information, does this in a much more basic, simplistic way. This allows the viewer to make up their own mind as to what the film might be about whilst the basic graphic of a feather suggests that it is obviously about birds.

CLEO From 5 to 7

Cleo from Five to Seven was designed by Waldemar Dabrowski for the 1960's to advertise the french film.

I like how the graphic artist has made use of a character from the film although it's not obvious what it's about, it still shows the main subject and information regarding the film.


Within my own film advertisement, I could show an image that defines my film, suggests what it's about aswell as showing a motion - blurred image similarly to how this graphic poster shows the character moving across the poster. With my film in particular, this motion blur suggests fast movements, which has a lot of relevance to my dog's  behaviour and play routine. 

Lurpak Kitchen Odyssey

This collection of graphic photographs are grouped to advertise and display how the product is used. The images are not in a typical 'documentary format' i.e. showing basic, simple and obvious photographs of the product. These images are cropped, close up images suggesting how the product could be used. Some of the images also suggest motion and movement. Lurpak Kitchen Odyssey

I like how the images aren't too revealing, however they are interesting to look at and still draw in the attention of the viewer.

Grouping of images in this 'filmstrip' style is quite inspiring. I could use a style similar that suggests what the film consists of in terms of content. 

Developing Film ideas

This film is of my dog playing and running in the snow. It displays her behavioural routine out of the domestic environment. It's interesting to see how her behaviour has changed from in a domestic setting to outside.
From seeing the ideas behind this film, it's possible that I could even make a series of films that reflect the behavioural routines that my dog has.

I am particularly happy with the part at 0:37 where I have zoomed the camera onto Molly, this is where she dives into the snow. I felt that this playful expression of her having fun was unexpected and interesting.
This film is different to the other trial films as I am showing an adventure, almost a narrative of my travels in the forest. The shaky camera shots however, make this look amateur. I could improve by working similarly to 'Lucidity' which I had previously researched, this film showed a narrative adventure of a woman throughout a setting using camera still shots. I feel that after filming this piece, something involving stills would have a greater impact that a shaky camera.

The downside to this film is that there isn't much substance behind the film. there aren't too many shots of Molly's playful behaviour whereas my other film is quite lively.

White Space

After researching some Surrealist Experimental artists such as Jym Davis in particular the film: ‘White Space’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI5U5bapHcw) the sound has as much of a significant impact as the film images themselves.

The non – narrative film is intended to represent the creation of life and eventually it leading to death. The images of a head appear from this white dust almost like white liquid. Initially I felt intrigued to know what the head immerging represented, I was visually pleased by the aesthetical smoothness of the image however; the grinding background music provoked the opposite feeling. Metaphorically, this could be suggesting the good and bad associated with life in general.

Visually, I am interested in images that could express feelings towards something, similarly to my painting and drawings.

Stan Brakhage, "Mothlight" (1963)

Traditional Filmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stan Brakhage are quite influential in much of modern day experimental films.

Ideas such as the ‘Kuleshov Effect’ which Hitchcock demonstrates a lot in his films makes the viewer work for a meaning in the film. This idea can be integrated into an experimental film, especially films that have no context and are silent. The whole idea of experimental film for me is to spark off different meanings and perceptions of the film in every viewers mind. In a gallery for example, an aesthetically displeasing film could potentially cause a great reaction by the viewers, I could include different surfaces or images that provoke a reaction. The idea of objects grinding is less pleasing than the pouring of cream for example.

The ‘Kuleshov Effect’ could become apparent in displaying different images of objects out of context and placing them after each other, this would create an unnatural feeling that has a different impact on different people. Even a negative reaction could be as successful as a positive reaction depending on the intension.

Stan Brakhage is a traditional filmmaker, being successful in destroying the actual film he created. In the film ‘Mothlight’ – 1963

Brakhage scratches and marks to almost ‘ruin’ the film. Instead, Brakhage creates a weird, jumpy and flashy experimental film. I particularly like the black glitchy marks that appear all throughout the film these marks show that the film is old but also it looks quite effective.

'Molly Playing' Final Outcome

I have decided that this series of film clips, collectively is my outcome. I am particularly happy with the arrangements and ideas behind my film as hopefully the connections with the domestic environment, Molly's behaviour and playing routine and the overall impact that one still camera shot has on enhancing her personality and portraying Molly's playfulness to people who may be unaware of it.