Art of Persuasion - Ideas

I picked the word Negative Space, as I think it's an interesting concept to sell the idea of nothing or just space. I thought of products I could show negative space as and thought of fashion adverts, particularly adverts created by Boohoo.com, that sells women's clothing and an image of how a woman should be and how she should look - I want to make the woman in to negative space, to primarily show to a female audience that the way you look is a blank canvas and you can put whatever you want there - but also show the male gaze theory - Mulvey, to show that these fashion adverts also present a negative message, due to the secondary target audience which is males as specificed in the male gaze theory, men are spectators and only think a woman's body is to be looked at.

My plan is to take a photograph with a female model and a natural background, and in post (possibly photoshop) remove the woman from the frame, here is a mock up of my plan:

Louise Bourgeois

1. Use crits more efficiently - tell people exactly what I wanted to do, wanted to say, want my work to say - stop telling people about the progress of the work - be direct with comments to others work and suggest more to help improve. 
2.  Blind drawings - draw/write what I feel and develop from there
3. Be original and keep ideas fresh and outside of the box

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time

I enjoyed this documentary as I remember reading the book, my brother also recently went and saw the performance and was telling me about the stage and how much of a likeness it is to the book and how impressed he was.

From this documentary I learnt the following that can be applied to my own work:

1. Think about characters and how the story will progress with the characters - consider Props and Todorov
2. Think about mise en scene and how the actual piece of work will be presented to the audience and how it furthers the meaning of the work
3. Think in a fresh way 

Caught in the Act: 3rd Draft

To improve this piece we need to colour grade still as the lighting is too harsh in some close ups. We're hoping to grade to either a yellow or blue, which will also hint towards the tone of the film blue - links to depression and sadness, and yellow hints towards friendship and changes.

Caught in the Act: 2nd Draft

We went through this and picked out the following mistakes that we needed to fix:

• cut from black in the beginning
• cut from Lila - jumper, so Lila reacts 
• camera needs to be closer in the photo of the family - mirror frames?? vignette?
• Reshoot the papers
• camouflage
• shot needs to be longer and more in focus of the paper in the bin
• close up of acceptance letter part
• less time packing
• too short, can't read paper work
• Dawn needs to see Lila leaving and then react
• lighting is too harsh in close ups - colour grade??  

Caught in the Act - 1st Draft

This is the first draft of our script. We had difficulty with the microphone we used, as we couldn't link up the audio to the camera, so when we started post production the clips of the audio and visual had to be exported from the devices separately. We also had an issue with road works and traffic, which set us behind in our filming schedule, including normal things such a batteries dying and the sound recorder needing to be charged continuously.

 From what we could see from this draft we knew that we needed to improve:

• 3 seconds of black screen - put sound in
• pick up a new shot of the paperwork - because we can't see 'army' or school logo
• replace the cut of putting it in the bin - is slow and out of focus - can't read 
• Dawn - calling out is off - maybe show Dawn accompanied with Lila's voice
• laptop is already closed in 1st clip of Dawn
• Dad's old dog tags - audio is off towards end
• picture of dad is too long - maybe audio of Dawn begins
• Lila sitting down 
• 'what i don't care' - audio is off sync
• Dawn getting up from bed is too long
• last shot - cut to them hugging + fade to black 

Caught in the Act - Screenplay

Caught in the Act from Synflame

Feedback:

• Beautiful subtext 
• attitude changes - talk more about the body language she's using
• Lila - indicate she's going away to army
• specify last part is set forward in time
• can feel the tension building between characters 
• subtext is good
• fight works well
• Insert Dawn's age
• emotional truthful relationship
• more information for audience needed
• Your sister is coming home?? 
• DON'T do open endings
• protagonist needs to feel the consequence of her actions
• her calling vs her life
• Dawn is protagonist?

-We didn't think that Dawn was the protagonist and corrected the changes. 

Caught in the act (draft 2) from Synflame

After writing this script and talking with Seb, we realised that this is a coming of age story and Dawn is the protagonist, this is a story based on he moral scale that should Dawn grow up and let her lif happen and let her sister move out. This is a story that shows her dealing and realising the moment she should grow up and let things she can't control, be.

Feedback:

• Dawn needs to initiate the fight
• Dawn's monologue - needs to be pulled out of her by Lila
• Final line - needs to make a choice. 

Caught in the Act (draft 3) from Synflame

We changed the script to fit the feedback. 

Caught in the Act (draft 4) from Synflame

We finally that this was the structure of the script and the way the characters should be and matched their personalities. We felt that there was a strong build of tension and enough subtext.

Caught in the Act (draft 5) from Synflame

This is the final draft of the script, we cleaned up the dialogue - making sure that what the characters were saying would match their age group, also so that the actors didn't have long paragraphs of dialogue, ensuring that when we film the actors aren't stumbling over their lines and struggling to remember what they need to say.

Feedback:

• Subtext is beautiful 
• Perhaps ask others if the death of the Father is clear enough

Caught in the Act Planning Characters & Storyline

Caught in the Act Notes

Pitches for Final Major Project

FMP Pitch from Synflame

Freedom and Liberty: Final Piece and Evaluation

I think to improve this piece I could:

• Include a wider variety of cleaning and organisational skills
• Cut the editing so that towards 'the cut' that the editing becomes more fast paced and quicker cuts to build tension - showing a build up of the character's life and the pressure of cleaning 
• Colouring - make it darker 
• actually build a string to control the puppet OR animate in string 
• foley sound 
• include a voiceover or the poem that originally inspired the short film
• More theatrics? vignette?

I explained that my idea for the framing was based around that I wanted there to be a 4th wall, similar to how puppet shows are constructed, to take this further I could create an actual puppet show and build a set. 

What worked well:

• Music - mechanical/ robotic like - presents character as robotic housewife almost
• Concept - was a clear idea
• performance
• 4th wall - set up of cinematography and mise en scene

The Punk Singer

I enjoyed this documentary as the topic of feminism felt more relevant to my generation, as we are still dealing with issues of feminism.

What I learned:

1. Put my own feelings and what I want to say into my work
2. Involve issues into my work that effect me
3. Look into politics and movements for inspiration for my work

Jean Michel Basquiat--The Radiant Child

Didn't really enjoy this documentary, I don't think that I relate to abstract art well.

What I learned:

1. Experiment with everything, there are happy mistakes
2. Take inspiration from EVERYTHING, books, music, etc. 
3. Make references to other artists in your own work

Derek

how would you like to be remembered - evaporate?

What I learned:

1. Take life experiences and emotions and put it into work
2. Surround myself physically with work that inspires me
3. Make work about politics and current topics that affect me. 

Soup Cans And Superstars: How Pop Art Changed The World

Again a documentary I wouldn't typically watch, I don't consider myself to be thoroughly influenced by the art world in the 1960's.

What I learned:

1. Travel and look for inspiration everywhere
2. Put your personality/piece of you into your work
3. Watch the News, keep up to date with what is going on in the world and make work that reflects it

Transcription - Final Piece

I was inspired by a piece from The Big Bang Data exhibition in Somerset House, the piece called 'The Others', it was a collection of images stolen/hacked from other computers - this reminded me of the iCloud Celebrity Nude photos hacking scandal earlier last year (2015). I decided that I was going to film my class while they weren't looking, but when I went to film there wasn't really anyone around to be filmed. I think that for this to be successful, I needed to have filmed for a long time. I felt nervous filming people that I knew and felt like I was betraying them of their personal space. For this to be successful I think I should film people I don't know, more CCTV style so people don't know if they're being filmed and I get more realistic reactions, rather than people noticing the camera on the desk.  I think that the sound is realistic, if you concentrate, you can hear certain phrases, but because of the lack of visual you can't see who is saying what. I think that I felt what the artists must've felt: guilty, betrayal and more guilt. I think that filming people while they are unaware is still an interesting concept, no one changes their behaviour and you see a new sense of realism, but I don't think that this project was as successful as the original idea due to the guilt I felt with filming people without their consent or knowledge. To improve, I would research busier locations like London or a shopping centre and strategically place the camera so no one could see at an angle that you could see the subjects.

David Bowie : Five years

David Bowie: Five Years

Not a documentary I would usually watch, I don't consider myself to be a fan of Bowie. After watching his documentary I think I can see how fans feel about Bowie and how he changed the music industry.

WHAT I LEARNED:

1. Do the unexpected - Inspired by the explanation about the chord changes in 'Life on Mars'
2.  Everything is a performance - Inspired by someone commenting that Bowie's style was a performance, I need to think about my work as an actual piece of art and how it is presented to the audience. 
3. Collaborations are a good thing - Inspired by the commentary about Bowie and Mick Ronson and their relationship with collaborating in music and how they were on stage. 

Transcription - Ideas

Transcription - Research

This work in the Big Bang Data exhibition, reminded me of the iCloud scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud_celebrity-photo_leaks

http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/public-cloud/5608/icloud-celeb-photo-hack-full-list-of-all-the-stars-affected-by

http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/icloud-celebrity-hack-chicago-homes-raided/

Freedom and Liberty - Adam Curtis Documentary

Freedom and Liberty Planning & Research

I created a questionnaire to get feedback on other's perception of 'Freedom'. 

Overall, people from all age group and genders find themselves restricted and trapped, due to the pressure of responsibility to their families, communities and society. With their freedom, people would explore more and educate themselves.

Marionette Research 

Interim Crit Feedback - 'stick with technology idea as it's more interesting'