Design Triangle and Illusion Photographs

As well as visiting the Photographers gallery I went to the Shoreditch Design Triangle where I viewed interesting and different types of artwork and installations. It gave me inspiration for my work that I did in the following week of college. 

I always find the Photographers gallery very interesting as they always have different types of work than you see at all of the main galleries around town. I discovered this galley in my second year of sixth form when I was researching movie posters and the photography surrounded by them. My favourite thing about the gallery is the wall where the project work onto it, I think that this is a new innovative way of showing work in the digital age.

I used an old doll that i have in my house for this image, I think that it shows a more sinister route that i could have taken for this task

I used the reflection of the window in the Photographers Gallery to give the impression that i was standing on the pavement below rather than four stories up.

This photograph was taken at the bottom of a flight of stairs looking up, however it looks like it could almost be at the top looking down.

For this photograph I tried to make it look like the pencil was attached to the spider web however it has not come out as well as I had hoped.

Day 3: Lens based Media

Task 1: Finish and refine storyboard
Task 2: present to group and find any flaws

Over the day I changed my storyboard quite a few times, it started with the photographs that I took the day before:

 First Draft

1) the character needs to cross the keyboard but there is no safe way across. This is the challenge that my character must overcome before the end of the story.

2) the character spots something that she can use to get across the keyboard.

3) the character meets it first problem that it needs to overcome to complete the challenge. To improve this shot I could have shot the photograph at a lower angle and from the other side so that it makes the challenge look more menacing to over come.

4) The character overcomes the first problem but is then faced with another problem immediately after. I had a few problems myself when creating this storyboard, this one being that I found I didn't have enough boards.

5) The character is placed in a situation where it looks almost impossible for them to escape from, this encourages the audience to get on side with the character and start rooting for them.

6) In the last frame the character is shown completing her goal, all of the problems that she overcame lay in the foreground where her challenge began.

I found many flaws in my original storyboard, one being that I initially only had 4 instead of 6 frames. However I do feel that my story board does show the basic structure of what happens in a story and I just need to add more meat (story) to the bones.

Second Draft

1) The chacter is introduced as a frail old woman, I have kept her the same as the original character (apart from her age) for continuity. the scene is set, showing the old woman heading for the hospital, her house is shown in the background as a small cottage, this is to help the audience to understand her character

2) The woman is walking across the bridge towards the hospital, this makes it clear to the audience what the woman's goal is for this story. It also gives the audience time to think about why she might be going to the hospital.

3) The first challenge appears. The woman is confronted with some rowdy looking people. This shot could be taken from a low angle to make them look more menacing and an even bigger challenge to surpass.

4) The audience are put into the position of wondering how she could overcome this problem to get to her goal. The old woman in this shot is could be made more vulnerable by having a close up of her eyes or looking down on her, these are two kinds of shots used in filming to convey fear or weakness.

5) This is the shot where the twist happens. It turns out that the woman is not as frail and weak as she seems. The audience are left wondering what she is going to do and how she became like this.

6) It turns out that she was never destined for a hospital but a mental hospital/ institute. It makes the viewers question what they had just watched and if it was ever clear that she was going to visit a loved one or not

I used an old woman as my character for this story as I felt that the audience might emphasise with her more as they may think that she is just visiting a sick friend or husband etc. Also the twist would strike them more as they feel that an older woman would not be capable of being a killer. This story strikes parallels with films with the killers being slightly older such as 'Keeping Mum' and 'Hannibal'. 

Final Idea

1) The old woman is shown in her house, I changed this from my second draft as here I was able to show a photograph of some family members (relatives/ friends) that could convince the viewer that she is going to the hospital to visit a relative.

2) The bridge scene is the same, this gives the audience time to consider why she is going to the hospital.

3) I have used this over the shoulder angle as I feel it gives an interesting aspect to the scene. What I had planned to do was take the shot from a low angle which would make the challenge more menacing however I found that all the shots I took from low angles made them not look scary at all. Also I feel that taking the shot from a slightly higher angle has put the scene on its head, giving possible foreshadowing to what is to come.

 These shots do not look that menacing, I have not used them for that purpose.

4) This is an over the shoulder shot from the opposition which is completely the opposite shot from the last one, which gives foreshadowing to what will happen next. 

5)  This scene I shot from in-between the two opposition which puts the woman in perspective, also having her in the centre of the frame draws the eye to her.   

   Other angles I experimented with.

6) The ending scene is the same as the second draft

My time management for this task was very good as for each task I finished on time or just before. I have enjoyed doing this task better than what we did for the beginning of the week as this is more what I am interested in. The part of the task that I did not enjoy was having to tell people what my story was about as I felt that I may give away something, by accident, to early which may lead them to my audience having biased views toward the end, or if I lead them into thinking in a certain way about something, such as suggesting that maybe she is visiting someone at the hospital. 

Day 2: Lens Based Media

Task 1: create characters, then write a short story about them using a 6-panel storyboard

I found the task of creating characters interesting and fun to take part in. I thought that the successful part of my work in this task was the different characters that I created; each of them had characteristics that differed from each other.

I thought that the part where we had to draw different places that we remembered slightly strange as it did not really fit in with what we did in the task after. I also felt that the time management for this class was not set up correctly because everyone on my table completed and refined our work and we still had ten minutes left. For the storyboard I found it quite easy to show what I wanted with only pictures and symbols. 

Lens Based Media: Day 1

Task 1: draw (A1) for 1:15 mins one of your photographs. Use  the whole page, do not leave any blank spaces.
Task 2: crop parts of your drawing that look interesting
Task 3: take a photograph that relates to each of these words;
- happy
- sad
- crush
- echo
- fall
- jump

For the first task I wish I had chosen another photo to draw, I found that the one that I did choose was too intricate and busy and this was hard to draw when I scaled it up. I could have improved it by thinking about colour and shading more or using a different medium. One problem I encountered while creating this image was that my pens kept running out and my pencils kept breaking.

Water Colours

Later I decided to add water to see if enhanced my image, I feel that it worked well to blend the colours especially in the reflection in the sweet tin.

I felt that I was maybe trying to convey too much in my picture with the dark colourless edges that I hopes to show sadness creeping in as the people left and colourless poker chips which I hoped to draw attention to as they were the only sharply drawn aspect of my image. However it all got a bit lost in transition I feel.

I think that I completed task 3 successfully as my pictures portray well the words. I am happy with how sharp and clear they are to say I took them on my phone.

My time management was good for each task and I finished on time or just before for each, however I feel I should have split my time better for the first task.

Jump

Sad

Echo

Fall

Happy

Day 2 Graphic Design: Typography

Task 1: Create different styles of letters with different techniques
Task 2: Create an alphabet with one style of lettering

For day two we had to experiment with different types of typography and making letters. I both worked in 3D and in 2D for this task. My 3D project was a cube which I carved letters into it, I could ave improved the aesthetic value of this cube by carving the letters before I folded it. I experimented with different kinds of letters, ones that had holes in the such as 'O' and those without 'E'. I found the shapes that I made the letters into much like stencils.

Fist I coloured in the letter
then I added the water

I then used the end of the
pencil to flick the water across
the page to create this design

For this task water colours was a successful medium to use as I could experiment with different ways of using both the water and pencils. The design that I decided to use as my final idea was using water colours in a destructive style.

For the first task time management was an issue as I was only able to create 10 designs instead of 15. However I improved this for the second task as I was able to complete the entire alphabet in time.

I used different colours for each letter
as I thought that it  might look more interesting

Graphic Design Day 3

Design a poster for a gallery where your work will be exhibited in 2033 after you have become a success. We had one week to come up with 10 ideas for the design of this poster.

For this project, I came up with 10 designs that I could replicate. I decided on the design of the eye, which shows posters that I would have designed over the years (I have drew up a few ideas for what these posters could look like, but I decided to stick with the original designs as they are more noticeable and recognised like this).

In my final design I do feel that there are a few flaws, one being the shape of the eye, I could have overcome this by tracing an image of an eye. Also the colouring of the poster is quite dark and dull I could have improved this by doing the poster on the computer with block colours which would stand out better. I could have kept the eye quite simple by not adding in an eyebrow or eyelashes etc. I could have experimented with how minimalistic I could make the eye and for it to still be recognised. I also felt that the text on the poster did not fit in well with the style of the poster, so next time I will experiment with different placements of the text

I have been commended, by my tutor and peers, on the design of the poster; the idea that the eyes are the window to your soul was brought up which I had not previously considered. Also the thought that the posters were reflected in the eye, so we are seeing what the eye could be looking at, this is useful being that it a poster for a galley.

I feel that I managed the time very well for this project, until lunch I sketched out and coloured the poster and from lunch until 1:30 did the water colours. 

Edited image

Designs for posters