LAUIL503 Summative Reflective Report

Reflective Report - Moving Pictures

First idea too complicated and would be difficult to animate. Was going to have camera zooming in through house window, through house and out through back window to reveal motel. Same camera movement continues but through motel window to show dead tree with Cormac’s name spelt out in the tree branches. Would have needed to patch up/reprint house and motel prints to fit the dimension requirements of the animation and to print the assets to make up the inside of house and motel. Seemed to ambitious and unnecessarily complicated for the time and skills available. 

Struggled thinking up more ideas as it is not my usual way of working. Translating flat imagery and illustration work into moving images proved very difficult. It is not just about making illustrations move but making an effective and relevant animation, no matter how simple. 

Had idea of panning camera across the landscape instead, by stitching together my prints digitally and panning in after effects. Joining the prints was near impossible to do seamlessly, with the noise of the analogue printing outcomes and the different sizes of the elements of each print that were supposed to become one, for example the bushes. Decided that redrawing and cutting a new print would be the solution, just on a smaller, simplified scale. This way I can ensure dimensions and space is adequate for panning movement.

Narratively originally wanted to include a gunshot sound in synch with a flash in the window of the house to depict a scene in one of McCarthy’s books before the start of the pan. However this was proving difficult to achieve effectively with difficulties in after effects and knowledge of the software. In the end it didn’t need it, with the audio sound track fitting perfectly with the pan allowing no space for a gunshot to start. The moon’s movement shows a passing of time as well as emphasising the sinister atmosphere, with the colour red. 

Final outcome may be too simple or unimaginative. It was very quick and easy to execute and it has ended up not telling much of a narrative, but more of a feeling. If the brief was just to make out prints move then it achieves that, but for me I would have been happier if it had more substance and energy to it. 

Cormac McCarthy Sting from EhrenBarnard on Vimeo.

Printed Pictures - Final Prints

Reflective Report - Printed Pictures

Started by considering what elements of McCarthy’s work are important and interesting, looking for motifs and recurring imagery. Wanted each print to be coherent and link with the others, whether that be with their subject matter or what they represented. Wanted images to have deeper layer and story to them.

Place is an important aspect of McCarthy’s writing. He often describes the settings or landscapes featured in poetic detail. Coupling this with the recurring theme of death, I wanted to depict 5 settings where deaths had occurred in his stories, without showing the actual occurrence. Wasn’t really leading anywhere and struggled depicting the scenes as described in his writing and conveying what his words conjured up in my imagination. Although, I was particularly drawn to how unassuming the images looked despite the dark history they had.

Nature is another aspect McCarthy describes extensively. 5 illustrations of trees I believed could tell a story, each tree representing a different place or situation, with one dead and burnt to again show the theme. This became quickly uninteresting and too easy; I have done lots of work  about trees in the past and this would not have challenged me.

Kept wrestling with place and landscapes, simplifying, making symmetrical, creating shapes and depth and texture in my roughs. Throughout my research I was continually drawn to the print work of Mexican artist Leopoldo Mendez, often showing village people and protesters interacting with authoritarian figures, and the political unrest in Mexico. The way he uses lino and mark making to portray light and emotion and energy is awe-inspiring and he was a strong reference for me. I thought that the use of Lino really complimented the dark, often unsettling imagery. Although my tests with screen print worked, it lacked this macabre feeling, and where the mono print work does achieve this, the process of cutting and working with Lino had me hooked. Figures became of interest and after stumbling across a photograph of some Mexican skull masks I felt like they fit aptly with the themes of the work. At the same time I came back to the place idea, specifically the house and then to a motel based on ‘no country for old men’, the tree fitting nicely in the middle and two skull figures on either side; and so my final roughs came as an amalgamation of all the separate ideas and roughs that came before. I love the idea of the whole set working together as a whole, the composition of each complimenting them all. The moon, as with Idea Pictures’ stands as the consistent death theme and again allows them to work as a coherent series. 

Study Task 5 - Sound Storyboard

Fathom by Murmurous 

• eerie, dark ambient music, unsettling atmosphere 
• wide establishing shot. moody sky and dark tone, feels empty and expansive to set uneasy atmosphere
• rear of horse becomes visible on right side of frame slowly walking and house slowly appears in background
• see parts of rider, hand and eyes looking skeptical, enigmatic 
• Rider arrives, dismounts and is seen as silhouette in the doorframe of house, unknown what is inside to audience 

Devil in The Lion's Den - Crying Sam Collins

• establishing shot of house, small and distant, on a 45 degree angle
• camera slowly moves forward toward house from above at said angle, blues record playing muffled from inside house becoming gradually louder
• cuts to close up of record, warped and scratched spinning on a player, music is loud and close
• cuts back to house, again camera getting closer, music louder
• back to record, needle further into record
• back to house, focussing in on the front window until audience can see in dusty and cracked window to see a blood covered messy bed
• finally see the record as needle makes it into centre, record keep spinning and only the crackle of it can be heard

Study Task 6 - Presentation

Pat Perry 

• signed edition of 250
• archival pigment print 
• one colour/tone 
• 330gsm fine art paper
• shipped rolled
• unframed 

• edition of 350 
• two colours?
• giclee print
• heavy weight acid free matte stock
• unframed

Allie Webb 

• edition of 4
• hand pressed lino print, Graphic Chemical & Ink Co water based ink
• one colour
• stonehenge paper
• from exhibition 'After Dark'
• framed
• $590 

• edition of 6
• hand pressed lino print, Graphic Chemical & Ink Co water based ink
• stonehenge paper
• framed
• from exhibition 'After Dark'
• one colour
• $800

Study Task 5 - Sound Study

Texture - Roman Alaivi

texture // A digital bolex test from Roman Alaivi | Tests on Vimeo.

• camera test, no real narrative or structure, yet tells a story of a forgotten place and a time gone by
• Natural sounds, most likely recorded on site of the filming, relevant to location and feeling
• Unsettling/eerie feel created by sound and visual not synching, sound one long piece whereas visuals change throughout, creates uneasy 'silence' of the subject matter in each shot, elevated by nature of visuals
• Familiar sounds for an audience yet quite intense and gains in intensity throughout 

TINCUP Whiskey - We Stayed 

TINCUP. WE STAYED. from Andre Stringer on Vimeo.

• Natural wind sounds establish visuals, layered with guitar feedback, notes and strings. Dark and eerie, creates ominous atmosphere. Low notes create sombre tone, higher notes build story. Picks up at end into glimpse of an actual song, to conclude visuals to a point 
• Sounds from visuals, such as footsteps, rain, movement etc, immerses viewer in action
• Voice over describes context and narrates, low gruffly to match the tone of voice of the video as well as the company