Saturday 28 February 2015
Set design - Group lighting plan
Tuesday 17 February 2015
Ken Adam exhibition in Berlin
Whilst away in Berlin last week, I visited the current Ken Adam film design exhibition at the Film and Television Museum.
Ken Adam is a production designer who has worked on over 70 films, including Dr. Strangelove (Dir. Stanley Kubrick,1964), Addams Family Values (Dir Barry Sonnenfeld,1993.), Around the World in 80 Days (Dir. Michael Anderson, 1956) and a number of the James Bond films. The exhibition included video installations of interviews with people who knew him personally, as well as a larger screen showing Ken Adam recreating some of his work at his desk whilst talking through his process in doing so.
Although I was unable to take photographs of the exhibition, I found it very interesting and was amazed at the detail of his body of work and how much consideration goes into each design. I also discovered the ways in which a character can be reflected upon by the space in which they are shown in within a scene or entire film. This made me stop to think about films that I enjoy watching and consider how if I did not know anything or much about the main characters, what the spaces and environments they were shown in would give away about them. This is an area that is interesting to consider when building our own set - although we do not have a narrative in our piece, we have the freedom to experiment with various elements within our sets and even the smaller details, in order to create impressions about who might live in the space we create, or the type of mood of the environment we are building.
Link to the exhibition:
http://www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/en/exhibitions/2014/bigger-than-life
Ken Adam is a production designer who has worked on over 70 films, including Dr. Strangelove (Dir. Stanley Kubrick,1964), Addams Family Values (Dir Barry Sonnenfeld,1993.), Around the World in 80 Days (Dir. Michael Anderson, 1956) and a number of the James Bond films. The exhibition included video installations of interviews with people who knew him personally, as well as a larger screen showing Ken Adam recreating some of his work at his desk whilst talking through his process in doing so.
Although I was unable to take photographs of the exhibition, I found it very interesting and was amazed at the detail of his body of work and how much consideration goes into each design. I also discovered the ways in which a character can be reflected upon by the space in which they are shown in within a scene or entire film. This made me stop to think about films that I enjoy watching and consider how if I did not know anything or much about the main characters, what the spaces and environments they were shown in would give away about them. This is an area that is interesting to consider when building our own set - although we do not have a narrative in our piece, we have the freedom to experiment with various elements within our sets and even the smaller details, in order to create impressions about who might live in the space we create, or the type of mood of the environment we are building.
Link to the exhibition:
http://www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/en/exhibitions/2014/bigger-than-life
Planning for workshop project
This week we got together in our groups and discussed our project idea further, in order to develop it to a stage where we will be able to make best use of the studio access we have during next week's workshop session.
We took another look at all of our individual project proposals. Carrie's and Sarah's were based around quite a thriller/horror type of theme, whereas my initial idea was more to do with exploring a child's imagination. We talked about how we could combine these two ideas, and after having researched further moodboard images for both of these ideas, we came up with an idea which we really like the sound of, however which will need some work upon in terms of how to best dress and design the set in the studio space whilst meeting the brief's set requirements.
The concept we are currently developing is an outdoor scene, in which we would either have a tent or a wooden shack as the main item occupying the space. For the green screen element, we are thinking about showing a night-time sky scene out of a wall which has a window space cut out. For the effect that we need to include, we are thinking about showing a figure climbing out of the window and stepping out to the 'outside', where leaves will be blowing around the scene (which is something we will set up in the studio with a fan).
We think this will be a strong idea to work with, in terms of combining our individual ideas together and focusing on the theme of contrast between the uncanny and creepy side to the wooden shack against the quite dreamlike and more peaceful side to nature that will be shown on the outside of this, through the small window and by the leaves.
Here are some images that show similar designs to what we would like to achieve:
We took another look at all of our individual project proposals. Carrie's and Sarah's were based around quite a thriller/horror type of theme, whereas my initial idea was more to do with exploring a child's imagination. We talked about how we could combine these two ideas, and after having researched further moodboard images for both of these ideas, we came up with an idea which we really like the sound of, however which will need some work upon in terms of how to best dress and design the set in the studio space whilst meeting the brief's set requirements.
The concept we are currently developing is an outdoor scene, in which we would either have a tent or a wooden shack as the main item occupying the space. For the green screen element, we are thinking about showing a night-time sky scene out of a wall which has a window space cut out. For the effect that we need to include, we are thinking about showing a figure climbing out of the window and stepping out to the 'outside', where leaves will be blowing around the scene (which is something we will set up in the studio with a fan).
We think this will be a strong idea to work with, in terms of combining our individual ideas together and focusing on the theme of contrast between the uncanny and creepy side to the wooden shack against the quite dreamlike and more peaceful side to nature that will be shown on the outside of this, through the small window and by the leaves.
Here are some images that show similar designs to what we would like to achieve:
Monday 9 February 2015
The subject of the uncanny
Freud's theory of "the uncanny" dates back to post -World War 1, and relates to the idea that the things people find fear in are linked to those that have some form of familiarity. The theory is concerned with what we perceive to be frightening with against what we are familiar with, and the similarity when the two are mixed together.
The subject of "the uncanny" is referred to within psychoanalytic film theory, in the way which we as viewers can be shown certain things on screen to help us connect with things we have previously been shown or are aware of. An example of this is within Hidden/Cache (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2005.) Within the film, Haneke wants to connect with the viewer through making them constantly look for clues and find an answer in the unknown subject of who sent the mysterious video tapes. A main theme behind the film is guilt, and he reveals this through portraying the idea that hidden guilt can be suppressed but will resurface eventually. Michael Haneke and other directors such as David Lynch focus a lot of their work around the subject of the uncanny as a theme; the idea that slightly odd or things we find frightening to look at are things that we have had experience with before in some way, and so can be to an extent normalised.
A lot of art is also centred around the theme of "the uncanny", and on his original theory Freud stated that “The uncanny was not to be found in the exotic but the everyday.” A lot of artwork that relates to the idea of "the uncanny" appears as almost ordinary to the viewer, but with a twist to it. For example, the exhibition Lifelike (See more at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf ) includes a series of images that are "strangely familiar yet simultaneously foreign; we think we recognise the place that the image claims to represent but we are at a loss to identify that place definitively".
The idea of "the uncanny" is to some extent a trick of the mind; we think we perceive something as well known to us yet still feel unnerved when it does not appear to us completely as it normally would.
Research sources :
Bright Lights Film Journal: http://brightlightsfilm.com/hidden-within-ourselves-a-psychoanalytic-examination-of-the-effects-of-repression-in-michael-hanekes-cache/#.VP3EWcNFDIV
Aesthetica Magazine (Uncanny LifeLike exhibition)page) : http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf
The subject of "the uncanny" is referred to within psychoanalytic film theory, in the way which we as viewers can be shown certain things on screen to help us connect with things we have previously been shown or are aware of. An example of this is within Hidden/Cache (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2005.) Within the film, Haneke wants to connect with the viewer through making them constantly look for clues and find an answer in the unknown subject of who sent the mysterious video tapes. A main theme behind the film is guilt, and he reveals this through portraying the idea that hidden guilt can be suppressed but will resurface eventually. Michael Haneke and other directors such as David Lynch focus a lot of their work around the subject of the uncanny as a theme; the idea that slightly odd or things we find frightening to look at are things that we have had experience with before in some way, and so can be to an extent normalised.
A lot of art is also centred around the theme of "the uncanny", and on his original theory Freud stated that “The uncanny was not to be found in the exotic but the everyday.” A lot of artwork that relates to the idea of "the uncanny" appears as almost ordinary to the viewer, but with a twist to it. For example, the exhibition Lifelike (See more at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf ) includes a series of images that are "strangely familiar yet simultaneously foreign; we think we recognise the place that the image claims to represent but we are at a loss to identify that place definitively".
The idea of "the uncanny" is to some extent a trick of the mind; we think we perceive something as well known to us yet still feel unnerved when it does not appear to us completely as it normally would.
Research sources :
Bright Lights Film Journal: http://brightlightsfilm.com/hidden-within-ourselves-a-psychoanalytic-examination-of-the-effects-of-repression-in-michael-hanekes-cache/#.VP3EWcNFDIV
Aesthetica Magazine (Uncanny LifeLike exhibition)page) : http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Moodboards - Week 3
During this week's seminar we looked at different types of moodboards and the purposes of creating these when designing a production. Since learning some basic design skills for mood boards on Photoshop during the session, I created the above image which is based around my initial proposal idea for the module. The idea is centred around the theme of imagination from a child's perspective, and so I have adapted selected areas of the general overall room image in subtle ways to reflect this, such as the cloud on the wall, the adapted framed pictures and the open storybook on the floor, leading to the imagination world that is opened up through the bookcase.
We also got into our main production groups during the session. Myself, Sarah and Carrie had already began to develop early initial ideas as a group of three, however we were put with Ryan, Terry and Billy to form a larger group of six, and so we began to discuss all of our individual ideas and develop these into a combined idea. We agreed to keep in touch via a group conversation on a messaging app, and send any research influences and inspirations over this. We have decided from an early stage that we would like to do something different, yet keep the idea simple and focus more on an installation piece with shadows, rather than involving any people in our piece and instead being able to purely focus on the design of the set, the materials we would like to use and the visual techniques we would like to incorporate into our idea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)