Contexts of Practice - Evaluation - BCOP

Thursday 17th March 2016           Contexts of Practice              Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Written Evaluation - 750-word piece to sum up the module

Evaluation for Contexts of Practice – Lecturer Lucy Leake

This was definitely an enjoyable and challenging module, I got to learn about different types of theories and the theorists behind them and of course I was able to carry out research to understand their mindsets. The highlights of this module for myself as a film student had to be the short films I made, making a poster and the magazine task where we had to create our own journal article. I liked the way that I worked towards this module, doing my extra research to gather a better understanding of the subjects I was studying, to be able to back up my ideas or understand others opinions within film, helping myself to become a better film critic. I would always try to watch films that we had talked about within class to go more in depth about the styles and connotations of certain directors, filming genres, how we see a certain style and immediately think about the artist that it could be, links to the fact that we might have seen their work in past films.

I really enjoyed learning about monstrous feminine, it was an interesting subject, the way that I could understand the different types of monstrous concepts, which have been used in a wide variety of different films. Here is a link to one that I created: http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/contexts-of-practice.html.

We looked at a few examples of artists work, got me researching how the original artists have generated the ideas to create these fantastic recognizable concepts of art. One of the most interesting pieces that I was shown was from Salvador Dali, I started to look at how he came up with his ideas, how he created the piece “In Voluptas Mors”, I wanted to see if he had created anything similar before. I was fascinated to learn how he had positioned every girl on set, the angle of lighting that he used, what type of camera that he used to take the photograph, all of these different elements appeal to me as I love experimenting with different examples of technology and frame rates. From researching about the forming of this work of art, I started to realise that this wasn't the only skull concept that Dali created, he also created a lot of others with different meanings behind them i.e. campaign posters etc. http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/contexts-of-practice-27th-january.html - Details my review on Ex Machina as well (with references).

Here is a link to the blog that I wrote for my group presentation, the monstrous mood reel that I created with the idea of a search party for a monster as well as a little bit about the script that I read for Bluebeard.

http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/contexts-of-practice-13th-january.html

I was really pleased with the way my poster turned out, feel like by super-imposing Johnny Cash’s face on top of Sigmund Freud’s I was able to link the isolation between the both of them, the fact that they both had a problem with drugs, they started to mess their lives up, I then linked this back to a film called Walk the Line to discuss the character of Joaquin Phoenix, this film is based on a true story, Joaquin plays the character of Johnny, once on tour with his band, he starts to take drugs and drink a lot which messes his life up, everything starts to fall apart and people begin to not like who he has become, including his true love, June. Here is a link to the post with my poster and a short summary of what I thought about it. http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/contexts-of-practice-final-poster-3rd.html as well as a blog including the process/ideas of my work http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/contexts-of-practice-2nd-december.html

The best part of the module for me was being able to take a theorist that I have learnt about in class, to research them further in order to develop my very own Journal article, I based my specific article around Non-Place/Place, I looked into Marc Auge and the book that he had written, I really enjoyed writing this piece, I wanted to give the article the format and feeling to that of something that would be located in the National Geographic collection, I loved linking small quotes to my main concept, the idea I had was both challenging and motivating and I can sure enough say that I made it work with relevant links back to my chosen theorist. Here is a link to my blog post containing my finished journal article as a double page magazine spread http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/contexts-of-practice-4th-march.html

Extra: Thought this post where I watched and reviewed King Kong may help towards my research for my mood reel as well even though it was carried out after the presentation http://lukecurnopca.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/contexts-of-practice-28th-february.html

References: King Kong (1933) Directed by Merian C. Cooper. Radio Pictures 

Contexts of Practice - 4th March

Friday 4th March 2016                               Contexts of Practice                 Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Place/Non-Place

My Journal Article - Living the High Life.

For my Journal Article I have decided to research into the theory that Marc Augé (a French Anthropologist) believed could categorise a place from a non-place, I would like to explore whether these theories could relate to wildlife and their habitats by reviewing a range of wildlife documentaries, could an animal's presence have an impact on a certain location to transform it from a non-place into a place that they can call their own, a bit like when humans visit a location more than once. A non-place is described as somewhere, which doesn’t have necessary links to social or historical events, could be globalisation or tourist attractions, the examples given would be a motorway, hotel room, airport, or a supermarket. However, if a place is more defined as relational, historical, or concerned with identity, his theory believes that it is a place instead of a non-place. 

By the year 1995, Marc had written his own book, which was published with the title “Introduction to an Anthropology of Super modernity” which elaborated upon his beliefs of non-place whilst talking about Super-modernity as being the “opposite side of the coin” to Post-Modernity, he writes about the changes within our society which have led to the reproduction of his beliefs for non-place which have been associated with space, time and other elements of his research. 

In my opinion I think that wildlife’s presence inside a certain space, could have an impact on turning a non-place into a place. Take an empty forest, nothing lives there which means that there is nothing around to generate relationships so it becomes a non-place, but what if a family of birds were to move in, perhaps they start to mate and build nests, surely this makes the woodland a place as they have taken up residency, created their own relationship in a clearing which will more than likely lead to new life being born or could it revert back as a non-place because these birds or mammals will eventually migrate or travel to another space where they will carry on the cycle of life. This particular cycle of life can be seen in many wildlife documentaries, the series of films that I have chosen to talk about are called “Life Story”, this has been made into a six-part series of wildlife documentaries where David Attenborough outlines the development of certain species of animals but it also talks about the threats that they can encounter through their life, makes me think about super modernity, linking back to Marc’s book where he touches on the social changes in our society, I believe that the animals help one another and over time they form social family groups where they are taught to hunt by their parents i.e. they are brought out to watch the types of hunting strategies that their parents use, the young will need to master these techniques in order to ensure survival, the strategies learnt will most probably be repeated once the young have fully developed and found a partner, we get a feel for a range of wild beasts, land mammals, birds of prey, aquatic animals, we start to understand the differences between their lifestyles and how they go about their daily lives. 

David Attenborough’s narration throughout these documentaries takes us as the viewers on the greatest of all adventures – “the journey through life” I feel like the documentaries include the viewers as they use informal language to discuss life on the planet around us, like Marc’s theory of super- modernity we will witness solitude between species in the wild i.e. in the first episode Attenborough introduces the series from South Africa where he watches Meerkat pups emerging from their burrows, the majority of wildlife documentaries I have watched are detailing some of the threats faced by other animals at the beginning of their lives i.e. there were some disturbing shots of Barnacle Geese, I shortly became aware that the family were nesting high on a cliff to escape Arctic foxes, the parents temp their five Goslings to jump from the nest which has been perched off a 400 foot cliff face, the goslings survival depends on the luck, timing, weather conditions and technique of their leap of faith. I think that this series consists of the same codes and conventions too that like Life in Africa, Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, Life in Galapagos as they all tell stories about a wide variety of animals including their lifestyles, prey, preferred habitat, life expectancy and many other interesting pieces of information. 

Quote Ideas:

If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then it is a “place” – the rest would be “non-places”, such as for example highways, airports and supermarkets - Marc's book

The creators of the TV series released a hardcover format on 9th October 2014, it was written by Mike Gunton and Rupert Barrington, the UK version was published by BBC Books.

A quote I liked "The Space Doesn't Define the Use, The Behaviour Does, though this could be linked back into animals and the way that they behave between one another.

My Journal Article without References.

My Journal Article with References.

References

Images

Image of Barnacle Geese, not sure on the photographer as such: think its Kim Leblanc, (2015), 10 Lords a Leaping [ONLINE]. Available at: http://blog.healthywildlife.ca/day-10-ten-lords-a-leaping/ [Accessed 04 March 16].

Image of the Arctic Fox stealing eggs: Sergey Gorshkov, (2013), Russian Refuge [ONLINE]. Available at: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/wrangel-island/gorshkov-photography [Accessed 04 March 16].

Websites

BBC Two, BBC, BBC Earth (2015) BBC Two Life-Story , Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p026vg04 (Accessed: 4th March 2016).

PDF: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jread2/Auge%20Non%20places.pdf 

Wikipedia (2016) Marc Auge, Available at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Aug%C3%A9 (Accessed: 4th March 2016).

Patrick LAVIOLETTE (2012 0r 2016) Non-Places of non-Augé, Available at:http://www.materialworldblog.com/2012/11/non-places-of-non-auge/ (Accessed: 4th March 2016).

Contexts of Practice - 28th February

Sunday 28th February 2016                          Contexts of Practise                         Lucy Leake

King Kong Notes 

Carl Denham heads out to find a woman for his next picture, the public wants to have a pretty face to look at, have a love interest, make the picture worth twice as much. Whilst Denham is searching, he comes across a woman in the shop he’s at, the Shopkeeper catches the same lady stealing a piece of fruit, Denham steps in, gives the girl a job as an actor, she pleads to know what it is for, he says he has picked her for the lead in his next picture. (Lady’s name is Ann Darrow).

Once on board the motion picture ship, Denham gets Ann to dress up so he can take some cut away shots on board before they reach the island, showing her screaming and in fear, petrified as too what Denham hopes to find at Skull Mountain/Island.

The crew set out on a smaller boat with the camera, ammunition and gas bombs, to find out where the drumming noise is coming from. They spot the colossal Egyptian wall, over hear the tribes language as they chant kong (type of tribal dance). Denham seizes a chance to take a picture so steps out of cover with his camera to take a picture. The gang are spotted, approached by the tribes leader, he offers to trade 6 of his women for Ann, wants to give Ann to kong as a gift.  The whole crew flees back to the ship pretty sharpish.

Once dusk falls, the tribe people come on board the crews ship to take Ann back to the island. They open up the gates and tie Ann to the top of the steps outside the wall, she screams as Kong takes her back into the woods. The leader summons Kong by banging the drum. The crew enter the island but its too late, they can’t open the door in time, once they open the door they head into the woods in search of kong and ann. Denham uses gas bombs and ammunition to take out beasts along the way.

They decide to make a raft so as to get across the lake, they come across a second beast which destroys the raft and kills some of the crew. Kong wrestles a beast to save Ann, only two of the crew remain, Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll, Carl heads back to tell the skipper what he saw whilst Jack heads in search for Ann and Kong.

Jack takes Ann back behind the wall, they shut the doors but kong breaks through scaring everyone and destroying the natives village, Carl uses a gas bomb to stun kong, brings him back to his show all chained up, however whilst the press takes pictures of the capturers and kong, Kong suddenly escapes the chains and goes on a mad rampage to capture Ann, once he has her he climbs to the top of the empire estate building, they order in planes to take him out. They do so and Denham tells everyone that it was the beauty who killed the beast. 

Reference:

King Kong (1933) Directed by Merian C. Cooper. Radio Pictures 

Contexts of Practice - 27th January - BCOP

Wednesday 27th January 2016          Module: Contexts of Practise      Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Introduction to monstrous feminine

Female monster wear many faces 

The abject and Vagina Dentata are a few things that we touched up on in todays lesson - I had never heard of the word abject but I know that it is the name given to something about a woman that can be seen as shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject. Nasty things that we ignore, don't want to remember or see again.

Throughout the lesson we had a look at lots of different concepts for Abject art from different authors/artists such as Barbra Creed, Julia Kristeva, Cindy Sherman, Gilbert and George, Dali etc.

I especially liked the look of Salvador Dali's work, I have seen his concepts before and they can be quite inspiring, I find them too be both enjoyable and creative, they have a message behind them that can be across visually. The specific piece of art work that we looked at was "Skull" this caught my attention as he photographed and set up the shoot by using naked women in order to form a human skull for Salvador Dali's and Philippe Halsman's (American Photographer) photo shoot. "In Voluptas Mors" was the name given to this specific skull which was composed by seven nude women, apparently this took roughly around 3 hours to arrange, get the lighting perfect.

Here is a picture to portray how the women were arranged, how everything was formed together during the photo shoot for "In Voluptus Mors".

Dali Salvador and Philippe Halsman (1951) In Voluptus Mors

From researching about the forming of this work of art, I started to realise that this wasn't the only skull concept that Dali created, he also create a lot of others with different meanings behind them, I think that he created a range of different concepts which could be interpreted in lots of different ways depending on whether the viewer has been opened up to his other concepts or even other artists/painters who have a similar passion and interest.

A few different examples of skulls that I came across whilst researching Dali's work.

Created for the campaign against venereal disease (Salvador Dali, 1942)

Study, “Soldier take warning” – for the campaign against venereal disease (Salvador Dali, 1942).

After looking at paintings we watched a short clip from the film "Alien", I found this extremely interesting, the way that the piece had been filmed, we took a look at a scene where it shows an alien protruding out of a mans stomach, chest bursts open, blood splatter everywhere which is gory and horrifying, the small creature then scurries away of the screen and disappears.

Reading - Ex Machina

For my reading part I started to look at the review for Goddess from the machine - A look at Ex Machina's Gender Politics. I found it quite interesting to here that these AI robots were being created for a purpose to fufill men and make them happier. However, the AI robots suddenly became attached to each other, it talked about AVA taking her sisters skin in order to make herself human which I thought sounded abject in a way, the fact that she had been created in a specific way but she was not happy with the way that she was looking and so she wanted to become human with the help of Kyko. Caleb throughout the film, it is said that he altered the security in order to let Ava escape, this tells me as the reader that Caleb had strong feelings for Ava throughout the transformation, it says that he watched through the glass window as Ava scanned her naked body to analyse what she was. I was able to work out that Ava did in fact kill Caleb and so now I see her as a bit of a monster as he had strong feelings for her, Nathan claimed that the test was too see if Caleb could help Ava escape. It feels like Nathan created these AI's to become docile sex toys but they were turning against him, becoming human and towards the end it stated that Kyko and Ava became more attached and they stabbed Nathan to kill him, as if they didn't consent to being trapped, forced into sexual roles. They were women who did not wish to be treated as women are treated, they became aware of what sexism makes of women, they were treated like servants by men, as if men had strings attached to them to control there every move.

References

"In Voluptus Mors" Pictures and information:
 Rebecca M. Bender. (2014). The Morphing Body: Salvador Dalí’s Skulls and the Female Form. Available: https://rebeccambender.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/body-skulls-salvador-dali/. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016.

Alien Film: Alien (1979) Director Ridley Scott [Film] USA: 20th Century Fox.

A look at Ex Machina's Gender Politics:
Katherine Cross. (2015). GODDESS FROM THE MACHINE: A LOOK AT EX MACHINA’S GENDER POLITICS. Available: http://feministing.com/2015/05/28/goddess-from-the-machine-a-look-at-ex-machinas-gender-politics/. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016 .

Contexts of Practice - 13TH January - BCOP

Wednesday 13th January 2016                      Contexts of Practice                   Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Monsters Session 2

At the start of the lesson, we had a recap on the story Bluebeard which I must admit I did quite like, we started to discuss what we thought the moral of the story was, I thought that I might be able to answer this question as I thought that it could have something to do with temptation, Bluebeard's wife gave into temptation by using the key to open the door, leading to her finding something horrific i.e. the bodies of Bluebeard's other wife's when he specifically told her not to open the door.

We started to look into words that I had never heard off, everything that we did throughout the lesson, linked back in some way to being monstrous or popular culture.

Orientelism - Parts around the Mediterranean - Middle East - Orient almost a European invention, the place of Europe's greatest richest and oldest colonies, sources of it's Civilizations and languages.

Subjugation - To put down a culture i.e. beliefs, skin colour, when someone feels they have more power in a sense, they feel over empowered.

Tenopgobic - Be scared of a different race

Diaspora - Scattering of a race

For the second half of the lesson we looked at the different types of monsters in popular culture, can we really categorize them;

Here is a list of the categories that we found out;

1) Fairytale - Myth/Legend Folklore

2) Body Horror - Metamorphous

3) Taxonomy - Medical Gaze - Science

4) Monsters Difference/ Other - Notions of difference and normality

5) Monstrous Feminine

6) Technology turns bad - District 9, War of Worlds

7) Home - Disturbing the neighbourhood - We locate new or recognisable places on a daily bases (mundane) - In some sense it could be said that some of us are really engaged with monsters.

Group task

We were asked to create a mood reel

Ideas that myself, Dan and Emily came up with in lesson was minimal as we didn't have much of an idea about how to start it, I came up with a few ideas to cut together some clips from films portraying transformation, just like what happened at the end of the film, District 9. With the ideas that I had in mind I started to think about what category that the mood reel would link into, I thought about Taxonomy as well as body horror, when the human body changes into a monster.

I came up with the idea of using clips from similar films to District 9 to tell the narrative for our trailer, I started to look into fan made trailers for films, this got me thinking what if I was to try to re-create a fan made trailer and then link the shots to special scenes within my film.

Teaser Trailer - I started to think about monsters, scientifically created beasts, how they are all portrayed powerfully across which entertains us and gets our blood boiling, perhaps I could show this but with a sense that they are never seen, move fast paced through the trailer, catch a small glimpse. Now I am starting to think into the category Technology is bad etc. Here is my trailer that I have created.

 
Disturbia - 2016 from Luke Curno on Vimeo.

In order to create this action packed trailer, I took a look into films of a similar nature i.e. used scenes from District 9, BladeRunner, AVP Aliens vs Predators, Predators the final fight etc. I started to look into fan made trailers for District 9, wanted to give the impression that there was a search for the unknown beast, as well as giving a few ideas as to what the monster looks like, creating suspense which was helped by the fast paced music, got louder as the trailer went on.

I wanted to give the audience an idea as to the havoc and destruction that the unknown monster has created. As the viewer, you are given hints to try and interpret what it is, why is it after everyone, who disturbed it? The scene from AVP Aliens vs Predators I think works well by the way that it grips the audience into thinking why is someone hiding (see debris and frames being smashed and rocked), gives a sense of enigma as you want to find out what it is.

The hardest part to edit together was at the start from the film Blade Runner, this is where Rutger Hauer can be seen jumping of a roof, I wanted to give the impression that he has disappeared and descended into the mist, where has he gone, the idea was to create metamorphous as he appears human and next we see a prawn from District 9 leaping onto a building roof which could suggest that he has transformed into a monster. The idea that I had after that was to use different film clips to show the monster as a threat, everyone is searching, running and hiding for this unknown beast. However, the words throughout the trailer work well in a sense that they bring the footage alive, it brings the viewers in by asking questions, WOULD YOU HIDE, WOULD YOU RUN, WOULD YOU ACCEPT.

References

District 9 (2009) Directed by Neil Blomkamp [Film] USA: Sony Pictures

AVP Alien vs Predator (2004) Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson [Film] USA: 20th Century Fox

Blade Runner (1982) Directed by Ridley Scott [Film] USA: Warner Bro's

Contexts of Practice - 6th January - BCOP

Wednesday 6th January 2016 

Contexts of Practice                                   Module: BCOP                         Lectures: Lucy Leake

Introduction to monsters

Existing fairytales: Little Red riding hood - looking at the representation of the wolf

Identified the key elements of Little Red Riding Hood - The colour red what does this signify, blood, mortality, love, lust, danger etc. 

The mother and child relationship - Overly protective, makes me think that she hasn't told her daughter enough about the outside world, doesn't know what dangers lurk around in the woods. 

Have a read of Bluebeard, originally written by Charles Perrault (19th Century), it contains three distinctive motifs, a secret chamber, curiosity and keys. 

Find some examples of different ways that fairytales have been interpreted in popular culture.... games? Films Music? Ads? Old stories used again and again in different ways, targeted at different people/demographics. 

Auteur - A film director whose personal influence and artistic control over his or her films, they are so great that they are recognisable to know who the author is when watching films, film by the same author will share common themes or techniques, expressing and individual style or vision. So if you know the types of themes, techniques and styles that certain authors use, if a film uses the same ones then you would immediately be triggered into thinking who the author was going to be.

Look at a fairytale that has been reinterpreted in popular culture.

My chosen example of a fairytale: 

I looked into the fairytale called The water of life, the main plot for it was two sons who go in search of "The Water of Life, advised by a little old man, the two need to find a cure for the king (their fathers) as he is sick. I came up with the idea of using my footage of a river flowing as a way of portraying the journey of not only the "The Water of Life" but also it could be used to show the journey of the kings sons as they go on an adventure to collect "The Water of Life". I added in lots of metaphors as well as I wanted to use words to describe the waters texture and power, clean, fast flowing at places and it meanders and trickles down the valley in a lot of places, all of the video footage shows different parts of rivers/streams within the woodlands.

Myself and Dan then got a small quote to conclude the river by talking about the way rivers move, personifies the truth, this sounded like a great line to use to describe the wisdom behind the river.

Here is a link to the short film that I created to re-interpret a specific fairytale called "The Water of Life" This is the link to the video on my Vimeo channel.

"The Water of Life" Short Film from Luke Curno on Vimeo.

Contexts of Practice BCOP100 - Final Poster - 3rd December

Thursday 3rd December 2015 

Course Module - BCOP100                     Contexts of Practice                    Lecture - Lucy Leake

My Final Poster Concept - Falsem Prison

Poster created by Luke Curno with photoshop assistance by Simon Childe (PCA Student). 

Overall I am really impressed with my poster project and I am glad that I chose to work with someone in order to create what I wanted, I think that I benefited through creating it this way as I was opened up to new techniques, effects, colours and just ways to make my poster look even better. I think that I would have liked to smudge out the outlines a bit more but it does give a pop effect, gives the impression that he has just been chucked on (into prison), not to mention the way that it pops out of the image, giving it a 3D effect. 

References 

Walk the Line (2005) Directed by James Mangold [Film] USA: 20th Century Fox

Contexts of Practice BCOP100 - Poster Process - 3rd December

Thursday 3rd December 2015 

Course Module - BCOP100                     Contexts of Practice                    Lecture - Lucy Leake

Poster Project - Research, Initial Ideas, Evaluation and Pro's/Con's

Research

I decided to start thinking about how I could re-create a poster, using the two Johnny Cash posters that I analysed for my research, as well as watching the 2005 film, Walk the Line. I got thinking about how I could show my chosen theorist Sigmund Freud as the topic that I choose to link back to was psychoanalysis, thought about linking the elements of my poster back to the power of the mind which is the second strongest power next to the spirit. My initial ideas were to create a black and white film poster to represent the past, colours from his previous album covers, I thought that it could enhance the idea behind Johnny Cash being "The Man in Black" From my research through watching the film Walk the Line and doing some searching on the web I worked out that Johnny Cash always wore black, when himself and the ban auditioned they were wearing black, the audition lead to the band being given a record and they always wore black after there achievement as they saw it as a lucky charm which is why Johnny was known as the man in black. 

Initial Ideas

I came up with a lot of different ideas and techniques that I could use to create my poster, taking different elements from each poster and bringing it together with my background research. I knew that I could make a creative poster, with great visual ideas. I started to write down a few of my ideas so that I could get a starting point for my poster, wanted to explore the possibility of looking at existing posters for my chosen area of Psychoanalysis, this didn't bring much luck which in a way made me feel good as I knew that my poster would be my own concepts. I started to think about the choice of colours to represent my theorist, the types of fonts that I could use, what kind of quote would be suitable to link Johnny and Sigmund Freud, I wanted to really think about the way that my poster could be perceived or glanced at, should I give everything away? Perhaps I should have a few hidden messages within my poster, linking back to an issue that Johnny had within the film "Walk the Line". 

One idea that I came up with was to re-create the Walk the Line poster, had the idea behind using Johnny Cash's body and super imposing Sigmund's face onto Johnny's, I thought that the title for the poster could represent Freud, positioned above his head "Could be on his mind" I thought that the Walk the line text could link back to Freud being a lone theorist, lived his own way of life. This would tie in nicely with Johnny Cash, as throughout the film he follows his own way of life which leads to a lot of relationship issues, he turns to drugs and drink "Power of the Mind" as he can't cope with life, needs help and the impact of these choices slowly leads to him crushing his music career and messing his marriage up. This then links onto another element that I wanted to portray on my poster, I have started to think about how and where I could show drugs, money, alcohol on my poster as I feel that within the film Johnny's mind is all over the place, despite having a wife and children back home he flirts with a lot of girls on tour, not to mention the love of his life being June who he meets on tour. Again from doing further research I worked out that Freud had a cocaine problem, chose to take drugs just like in the film with Joaquin Phoenix (plays Johnny Cash). 

Here are a few more ideas that I have come up with but I am struggling to portray these within the poster;  

Bubble Writing - I feel like this could be used effectively to look like smoke, the way that the text appeared on the second poster that I analysed - would link the poster to the film and also in a way it would link Sigmund and Johnny Cash together through there drug addictions. 

I thought about super imposing prison bars over the main character to give the viewer the impression that they are both in Prison, when in fact my idea behind this would be to link Johnny Cash back to the film, right at the end we see Joaquin Phoenix (plays Johnny Cash) in his house looking at the fan mail that he hasn't yet opened, as an audience we slowly realise that the majority of letters are from prisoners, after reading one of the letters we are made aware that a lot of prisoners are impressed by Johnny's outlaw image, they look up to him and want to be like him. This leads to him playing a gig at Folsom Prison, he wrote a song called the Folsom Prison Blues. However, Sigmund Freud wasn't in prison, through my background research I worked out that him and a guy named Philip Zimbardo's linked back to the 1971 Stanford Prison experiment which apparently lead to effects that were so dangerous that the operation had to be shut down after it had been going on for 6 days of the planned 2 weeks. Anyway I think that by super imposing steel prison bar shadows over the top of my image, this could be used to link the film with Johnny and Sigmund and Philip's Stanford Prison experiment together.

I came up with a separate idea of portraying a consistency of red and and shades of black, the red linking back to the romance which I thought would tie in nicely with representation of women (thought about showing an image of June but changing the opacity - fading and blurring the image out and putting her directly in-front of the way that Johnny is looking, link back to the male gaze). I thought that the colour black would signify the dark stages within John and Sigmund's life, which is then being burnt by a ring of fire - on the walk the line poster that I analysed - this would link back to the film when June was disposing of Johnny's drugs and she wrote the song "Ring of Fire" which the two of them performed on numerous occasions).

I have been trying to think about a lot of elements to incorporate into my film poster but I was really struggling to create the poster as I only know the basics of photoshop, through watching some tutorials and working on this poster, I have been made aware of lots of different features that could be used for future creations. 

Poster - Here is the poster, I have also created a separate post to show the poster but this is just a deep evaluation and I feel that by placing it here, everything can relate back to each other, great way to show my whole thought process and the reasons behind my decisions. 

Poster created by Luke Curno with photoshop assistance by Simon Childe (PCA Student). 

Pro's

I really liked the way that the smoke text came out, I used a specific font creator as I wanted the title for the poster to be eye catching and symbolise the cigarette that both Johnny and Sigmund are holding in the dominant image. I think that it looks amazing the way that I stretched the bottom of the F so as to look like a small trail of smoke and then I placed the trail onto the end of the cigarette, looks effective. I liked the title for the poster as well because I decided to put a pun on Folsom Prison, called it Falsem Prison because with the bars I thought that I had created a false prison for Sigmund and Johnny, not to mention that the poster wasn't used for the film so it was a false poster. 

I thought that the bars which were super imposed over Sigmund and Johnny worked really well to tie into the Stanford Prison experiment as well as the fact that in the Walk the Line film, Johnny played a concert at the Folsom Prison with his band. 

The quote that I managed to find worked really well for my poster design as it linked back to Sigmund Freud as it was his quote "We are never so vulnerable as when we love" but it linked nicely back to the film as Johnny was emotionally and physically being vulnerable, attacking himself with the use of drugs over his relationships with both his wife and the love of his life, June. 

Con's

I didn't use my idea of Johnny standing at the front, and then a projection on a wall of a guitar, I thought that this would be a great idea of reflecting that he is a musician. 

I had another idea of using a guitar in the corner of the poster, super impose within the wooden veneer for the instrument a picture of June looking glamorous, this could be quite powerful for the film. I could make the guitar the colour of red to symbolise Johnny and Junes love for one another and I could use the colours red and black for all the elements on the poster. 

I wasn't very good at using photoshop and so I struggled to create the poster, I had all of the ideas but I needed help to put my ideas on the poster, so I had some photoshop assistance from another student but everything on the poster, I have created from my research or I instructed where I wanted it placed. 

Conclusion

Overall I am really impressed with my poster project and I am glad that I chose to work with someone in order to create what I wanted, I think that I benefited through creating it this way as I was opened up to new techniques, effects, colours and just ways to make my poster look even better. I think that I would have liked to smudge out the outlines a bit more but it does give a pop effect, gives the impression that he has just been thrown on (into prison), not to mention the way that it pops out of the image.

References

Walk the Line (2005) Directed by James Mangold [Film] USA: 20th Century Fox

Images

Sigmund Freud


Max Halberstadt, (1921), Sigmund Freud [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Max+Halberstadt&oq=Max+Halberstadt&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.561j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8 [Accessed 08 December 15].


Johnny Cash 


Article - James Tait, (2014), Five Horrendous Crimes Committed by Famous Musicians [ONLINE]. Available at: http://howlandechoes.com/2014/11/five-horrendous-crimes-committed-by-famous-musicians/ [Accessed 08 December 15]. 

Contexts of Practise BCOP100 - 25th November

Wednesday 25th November 2015 

Course Module - BCOP100                     Contexts of Practice                    Lecture - Lucy Leake   

Getting into virtual reality

Technology is always moving on, better cameras, equipment, software is being released. Got me thinking into whether these technologies make films, video games real or not?

Throughout the early 20th Century film has shaped most things to become digital, had a huge impact on video games as we have the option to play a campaign, helping to understand the story and impact behind the plot line for the game and explore the history of a specific place, person or character. It could be said that computers have started to become the support for any cultural media platforms.

I find it amazing how much in the 20th century that technology is moving, it seems like just a few years ago that we had consoles such as the PS1 and PS2 but now Microsoft and Sony are bringing out cross platform games, as well as new generation consoles such as the Xbox 1 and PS4. Places like the cinema have already started integrating 3D glasses which helps to give the audience a real world experience, I have been into 3D screens of films before and once I had positioned the glasses on my head, I felt like I was in the room with the actors, I was on the edge of my seat.

After watching a few, I thought that the examples of 360 videos was amazing for the fact that by dragging around the screen, it made me think that I was in the same room as the actors, however it was quite trippy at the fact that we could track people as they walked of the screen, especially for shots of cars, I can remember myself watching a short 360 surfing video, I loved the fact that I could track the surf board and the waves as they started to build up around the subject, metaphor of white horses.

After today's lesson I think that within certain films we could use video game techniques, by changing camera angles, having a particular narrative or storyline, we discussed that we thought this sort of idea would help to keep the audience interested and on track. There will be many ways that we can change virtual reality, this doesn't mean that any techniques not used could be erased or never used again, if there are complications further down the line we could then revert back to the old techniques.

Film is based upon time, take it all in at once, shows your narrative, where as when your looking at a painting, you create a narrative in your head, gets you thinking about why is this here, what does it represent, shows the artists expressing themselves. Film will always be a movie but you can choose to pick bits apart and analyse it but most movies nowadays have a clear narrative.

All of the lesson, it got me thinking about the products that I choose to make, how I make them, the technology that I choose to use and what software I choose to edit on. Also around the Video game idea, we need to be aware that not every theorist will support the idea, they might feel like the film could be used for subtle interaction between the audience and the content etc.

Reference

Backwater
Una experiencia cinematográfica en realidad virtual. (2015). Backwater . [Online Video]. 29 September. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEpgbcM_Wj0. [Accessed: 25 November 2015].

Contexts of Practise BCOP100 - 22nd November

Sunday 22nd November 2015

Course Module - BCOP100                     Contexts of Practice                    Lecture - Lucy Leake

Poster Research Unit 

I started to think about the Superego, ID, and Ego within films, prior to last weeks lesson, I have always had a keen interest in Westerns, the way that they are shot to bring the audience back to the times of the old west, fantastic characters, scenery. I have managed to work out who the Superego, ID and Ego are within films. I have previously watched the film FightClub which was a awesome film in my opinion and it tied into this specific theory really well because us as the audience would consider Brad Pitt to be the ID, Ed Norton (lack of ID) as being the superego, they work together to create the FightClub, however, we could argue that the ego would be Tyler Durden as we are torn between the two characters which towards the end incidentally becomes as one.

I decided to have a glance through my film collection at home so as to jog my memory and come up with a few ideas to talk about, since I have watched many films I felt that I would be able to connotate and talk about the content a lot easier, being able to understand always been interested in Johnny Cash, especially how the lyrics for his song link back to the issues that he has had throughout his life, this lead me onto wanting to watch the film "Walk the Line - 2005 Film"

Walk the Line - 2005 Film - Summary

Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon - Film by James Mangold

Start is set in 1944 - Farmhouse - Children - Children are called Jack and JR - Jack who was using the log machine dies as JR abandon's Jack to go fishing

Germany 1950's - Johnny worked for U.S. Airforce and he writes his songs throughout his time of being out there. - He begins to sell things door to door when he arrives back home, whilst out in the town he spots a record shop, decided to make a band and practise playing songs and creating there own music so as to audition. 

Him and his band auditioned wearing black - He sung the songs that he had written himself and he made a real record, changed the mood for the film as he was happy with the achievement. His first single Cry Cry Cry came out, they got recognition, played their first concerts, began touring places, despite his touring life, he begins to struggle with his time as he is always on tour, finds it hard to make time to see his wife and family. Starts flirting with other girls on tour, begins to drink and take drugs, messes his life up, mind is all over the place (psychoanalysis).

Johnny and June start singing together, but before long they are arguing again, they always come back together. 

Towards the end of the film he falls out with everyone around him, he loses his wife, children and he begins to fall apart which is portrayed through anger, crying and having no-one to talk too, some of his band members follow his path and start to drink and take drugs. Slowly with the help of the love of the life, he begins to pull his life back together and starts writing and playing a lot more frequently, including playing at the Folsom Prison, he makes a family with June and he starts to interact with everyone around him, positive outlook on life, even him and his dad make a conversation. 

June disposes of cash's drugs throughout the film which leads to her writing  "Ring of fire" which the two of them perform live on stage shortly afterwards. 

Cash discovers that most of his fan mail is from Prisoners, they are impressed by his outlaw image, the fact that some of his songs talk about crime, drugs and drinking, he then goes with June to play at the Folsom Prison. 

Walk the Line - 2005 film posters - Analysis

The whole poster reminds me of a circus act, the text, the font's, the layout of the whole page, in particular the dominant image along with the rest of the page makes me think Johnny is the performer on stage, he has come here to entertain us which he successfully does through his music. The ring of fire in the background makes me think about he's the lion. the flames are the same colours and shapes as a lions mane, a fierce animal. 

The text for the poster is clever as well "Walk the Line", it not only enhances the film title for the poster but it also linked me back to the fact that Johnny has everything that he could possibly have but he chucks it all away to drink and drugs. He starts to loose everything and he has written a song called I walk the line, the lyrics "Because your mine, I walk the line" really powerful and it links me back to the fact that he has a wife and children, he has everything yet he still wants June, he always goes back to her. 

Every one of his gigs started with the words "hello I am Johnny cash". You could almost say that it was his conversation starter or when he said those words you knew he was ready to perform/entertain everyone. - link this to the power of the mind once you heard those words you knew already what was going to happen. 

The colour red within the poster makes me think about the romance within his life, again reinforced by the ring of fire as he finds himself in a vicious circle around love, he has a wife and children but the love of his life is June. 

June herself looked incredibly glamorous throughout the film, when on stage with Johnny as they two of them played the nights away but also in the scenes where she was just out shopping, with her family and when she was in bed with Johnny. This got me thinking about representation of women within a particular film, we see camera shots as the two of the main characters Johnny and June, they are continuously glancing at each other, the camera has deliberately been placed to see the two main actors as they look at each other in fetishistic ways. Laura Mulvey believed that women were seen as erotic, portrayed across to entertain a male audience, also she wasn't always aware especially at the start of Johnny looking at her.

Tie into the american dream, Power of the mind - Psychoanalysis 

Why is he known as the man in black (good luck charm - he auditioned whilst wearing black, lead to him writing a song called "Man in Black" Throughout the film he was always wearing black, even in the scenes where he was with the band, or at his house. 

He once told Larry King (american television and radio host), “[I've] never done a concert in anything but black. You walk into my clothes closet.

Johnny Cash - The Man In Black

Another poster that I liked the look had a dominant image of Alcohol, Drugs and Money as well as a guitar, I thought that this image was so powerful because it showed Johnny's life and the different that he had within his career. 

I think that I could make use of the colours from this poster as they would link back to the idea that he is the man in black, reinforced by the wording at the bottom of the poster that says The Man In Black. 

Like the font of the poster too as the white bubble writing looks like smoke, gives a great effect, power of the mind but it links me back to the issues that his smoking and drinking brought into his life. Really powerful use of font. 


From analysing and glancing at these two posters, I had decided that I would like to bring lots of different elements together to re-create a new poster for the existing film "Walk the Line" Going back to the poster above, if we take a closer look at the image, the lines around the ring of fire looked to me like prison bars, I had the idea of a dollar bill, superimposing Cash's face onto the money, then slapping a picture of prison bars over the top, giving it the feel that Cash is in Prison. 

References

Poster 1

Studio Number One (2006) Walk The Line (2005), Available at:http://www.impawards.com/2005/walk_the_line.html (Accessed: 22nd November 2015).

Poster 2
CallumCrewGraphicdesignTypography (2015) Johnny Cash Poster, Available at:http://cargocollective.com/CallumCrewGraphicdesignTypography/Johnny-Cash-posters(Accessed: 29th November 2015).

Walk the Line (2005) Directed by James Mangold [Film] USA: 20th Century Fox