Monday, 31 January 2011

Road to nowhere - a celebration of 'Road Movie'

I decided to look into the three film genres in more detail and found particular interest in the Road Movie option;

'A road movie is a film genre in which the film's plot focuses around a road trip. A kind of bildungsroman, a story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story.'
Wikipedia

I thought there could be several different ways of expressing this idea of a journey and growth visually.

Concept 1 - light/movement

An obvious place to start my research is 'traveling' and 'movement'. I travel down to Leicester most weekends and brainstorm my ideas while driving. I've often tried to take reference of things I have seen while driving to add to my 'Professional Studies' module. Only last weekend I made a note of the movement of the shadows caused by my headlights when maneuvering.


Concept 2 - life is a journey

When I first read the brief I had an idea of an impact image lead poster. I thought using the audience as the 'star' in the film. By showing a weathered face that suggested the subject had been on a journey themselves. Although this idea doesn't really fit the target audience of the poster,18-28 year olds, but I still think it could be worth pursuing. 


Possibly by having two images overlapping, like a hologram. At first glance the figure may appear young but then as the audience moves the picture changes and the figure ages.

Graphic Projects - The Brief

Today we received the brief for our new module, 'Graphic Projects'. The aim is to produce an A2 poster design to advertise an event.

The Event - A new film festival created by the UK Film Council and Sponsored by FilmFour is designed to attract and celebrate filmmakers working on independent productions and offer them a platform to screen their work.


We are required to select a genre from the list below;
  • Road to nowhere - a celebration of the Road Movie
  • Cinema from the edge - a celebration of Art House Cinema
  • Noir - a celebration of Film Noir
The Audience - The UK Film Council and FilmFour's primary aim is to develop the audience of the independent films. To attract a young and sustainable audience. 18-28 year olds who perhaps already have an interest in film, fashion, music, trends etc

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Film Club - Neo Noir

A few weeks ago we were told that the movies we are going to be watching from now on in Film Club will relate to our next module, Graphic Projects.

Today we watched Sin City, a Neo-Noir based on Frank Miller's graphic novel series. I actually have one of the novels on my bookshelf. I really like how the director (Robert Rodriguez), and Miller himself used the novels as the films storyboard.
There are several scenes that match very closely to the origional. A similar approach was used in the making of Watchmen (2009). An adaption of a graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Before the movie started, our tutor again spoke about the idea of film neo-noire and implied that the theme will heavily influence our Graphic Projects work. I can't wait now to get the brief and get going.

Saturday, 22 January 2011

A Career Case Study on Peter Saville

Below is a copy of my notes and the slides used in the presentation. I tried to show a general overview of Saville's work, while focussing on what inspires him and his influences. One of main reasons for choosing Saville was his theories on design; why create, who for and what is its purpose?
I felt the choice of designer applied really well to the brief as we had to investigate a designer who could influence our career direction. Some of the ideas Saville talked about in various interviews really affected me and made me think about my own designs and my own design education.

Some of the interviews I found very interesting can be seen here;


They are taken from the D&AD President's Lecture - 12 March 2009

Friday, 21 January 2011

Case Study - Presentation

Today I had my presentation on Peter Saville, for the professional studies module. I think it went really well and was pleased with the reactions from my tutor. He praised my research and said it was obvious I had worked hard on the order and content of the presentation.

He did however mention the way in which it was presented. The brief stated we should create a PDF in InDesign. As Saville became known originally for his album covers at Factory Records, I thought it would be nice to present my slides as album covers.
I thought it showed his work in a unique way but its downfall was that the carousel couldn't be viewed at full screen.