The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

Q2. In his essay “Word And Image” Einstein describes five methods of montage. What are they?

A.

Einstein describes five methods of montage in his essay “Word And Image”. These different types of montage build up on each other so the higher and more complex forms of montage include approaches of the simpler forms of montage. The different methods of montage that Einstein went on to explain were:

1. Metric: This type of montage includes a process where the editing follows a specific number of frames and cuts to the next frame regardless of what’s happening within the previous frame. This form of montage is used to bring out the most basic and emotional reactions of the audience.
2. Rhythmic: This method of montage comprises of cutting based on continuity. This creates visual continuity from one edit to the next.
3. Tonal: A tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots by not just manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics, to bring out a reaction from the audience that is more complex than the reaction achieved by metric of rhythmic montage.
4. Overtonal/Associational: An overtonal montage is the usage of the metric, rhythmic and tonal methods of montage to synthesize its effect on the audience in order to gain a more abstract and complicated effect.
5. Intellectual: Lastly, an intellectual montage is one that uses shots, that when combined bring out an intellectual meaning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory

http://www.chicagomediaworks.com/2instructworks/3editing_doc/3editingeisenstein.html

 

 

Q3. Describe the Kuleshov effect.

A.

The Kuleshov effect is a film editing technique that can be credited to the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. To demonstrate this technique, he took a shot of the actor Ivan Mosjoukine’s expressionless face and used it with these other shots that he took, i.e. a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin and a woman on a divan. To his surprise, when his work was shown to the audience it aroused some peculiar reactions. The audience thought that the actor looked hungry while he was looking at the bowl of soup, sad looking at the girl in the coffin and full of desire when looking at the woman on the divan. Kuleshov observed that the viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this set of images and attributed those reactions to the actor, thus giving the actor’s expressionless face feelings. He believed this along with montage had to be the basis of cinema as an independent art form. Kuleshov used this experiment to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of filmmaking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuleshov_Effect

 

ITAP 2 British Documentary

Q1. Research John Grierson’s definition of documentary. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this definition?

A.

John Grierson defined documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality”. I absolutely agree with this definition as I feel that a documentary is a record of certain events put together in a certain way so as to make it more interesting and informative. A documentary film is a film, which tries to document reality in one way or another. John Grierson’s definition is comprised of all these details. Although it is a short definition, its meaning is comprehensive. Therefore I choose to agree with John Grierson’s definition of documentary.

 

Q2. Who were the poet and composer on the film ‘Night Mail’? What other work did they go on to produce? Provide examples.

A.

W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten were the poet and composer respectively on the film ‘Night Mail’.

W.H. Auden went on to write many other poems which include, the philosophical poem “”New Year Letter” which appeared with miscellaneous notes and other poems in “The Double Man”, “Walk After Dark”, “The Love Feast”, “The Fall of Rome” and many others. He also wrote separate prose books such as “The Enchafèd Flood: The Romantic Iconography of the Sea” and “The Shield of Achilles”.

 

Britten went on to compose the “Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo”

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Mail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Auden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Britten#Work_in_America_1939-1942

 

Q3.Grierson’s film ‘Drifters’ premiered in London with a film by Soviet director Sergei Einstein. How did the ideas and aesthetics of Soviet Cinema influence Grierson?

A.

Grierson is only credited as directing ‘Drifters’, although he did exert a significant amount of influence in the young filmmakers around him. ‘Drifters’ contains many traits that would later characterize the documentary movement’s result, notably an emphasis on the everyday routine of fishermen at sea and the economic importance of the fishing industry. The new montage style of Soviet cinema was a clear influence on Grierson.

 

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/454202/

 

ITAP 2 From Pencils to Pixels

Q1. Animation styles developed over the years have a rich history. What particular style and genre are you most interested in? Explain, analyse and elaborate why you have chosen it.

A.

Even with the vast technological advancements in the field of computers and C.G. animation, the style I’m most interested in would be traditional 2-D animation. I have always been fond of sketching and have been practicing 2-D animation with light boxes and flipbooks for quite a while now. As for the genre I’m most interested in, I’ve been a big fan of Anime, i.e. Japanese animated cartoons since a really young age.

 

Even though I have also had experience in C.G. animation, I would still choose hand drawn animation as it has a certain effect and feel to it that computer graphics would be unable to replicate. Many animators still stick to hand drawn animation as they feel that they are able to put in more emotion into their animation and also feel that they are able to convey their story in a much easier way by using hand drawn animation.

 

Q2. Pick the personality of an animated character and explain why and how it is believable to the audiences.

A.

For this question I have chosen Shrek, from the first movie in this series, “Shrek”. Throughout the movie Shrek is portrayed as this grumpy green ogre that wants nothing to do with all the fairytale creatures that have entered his swamp. The character of Shrek is that of a tough grumpy ogre on the outside but on the inside, Shrek actually has a soft core and is considerate. His characteristics are made very believable to the audience as they can easily tell that he was grumpy, angry and didn’t want anyone’s company in the beginning, but he eventually shoes the audience his softer side later on in the movie. This can be easily seen when Shrek in the beginning of the movie shows no regard for the fairytale creatures that have just entered his swamp, and we can also see this when he shows us his disregard for the villagers. This can also be seen by the signs he keeps outside his house to ward off people passing by. His softer side shows when after he rescues Fiona towards the end of the movie and he starts to fall in love with her. This can also be seen with how his relationship with the character “Donkey” builds up through the course of the movie.

 

Q3. What are the differences between Miyazaki’s films and Western animation? Miyazaki celebrates the quiet moments in a film. What does it mean? Discuss.

A.

The main difference between Miyazaki’s films and western films is the fact that in Miyazaki’s films animation starts before the storyboards are finished and while the storyboards are developing in contrast to American animation where the scripts and storyboards are created first before proceeding with the animation.

 

Miyazaki’s films are characterized by themes such as environmentalism, pacifism, feminism and the absence of villains. Miyazaki celebrates the quiet moments in a film, letting the audience fully soak in the story and the environment at that particular time. It gives the audience time to fully understand the events that have taken place in the film.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

 

 

ITAP 2 Cinematography

Q1. What is the role of the cinematographer in filmmaking?

A.

A cinematographer, also known as the director of photography is the chief of the camera and lighting crews working on a film. He is responsible for reaching artistic and technical decisions related to the image. There are differences in the British and American traditions regarding the role of the cinematographer.

 

In the British system, the cinematographer (DOP), also known as the lighting cameraman is responsible for lighting the set and the visual look of the film but has no final say over purely camera operating based visual elements such as framing.

 

In the American system, the camera operator and everybody else in the camera department is subordinate to the cinematographer (DOP), who along with the director has the final say on all decisions regarding lighting and framing.

 

Some of the functions of the cinematographer are:

–       Conceptual research and design

–       Quality control

–       Testing

–       Planning

–       Lighting

–       Photography

–       Colour correction, etc.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographer

http://96.30.50.47/showthread.php?t=2222

 

Q2. In the film Raging Bull, why was the fight scene filmed at different speeds?

A.

Raging Bull is a movie that uses various techniques that make the violence both realistic and disturbing. Most of the fight scenes were filmed by a hand-held camera, as they were good for close-ups of the fighters and also good for showing the facial expression of the characters. Backlighting was also used to give the boxers a sort of supernatural glow and it also aided in bringing out the blood and sweat falling from the fighters as they got hit. The fight scenes included many rapid cuts, which broke the fight scenes down to several short shots. The main focus was on the punching blows and not the strategy. The most effective visual strategy used in the film is considered to be the slow motion effect used especially during the point of view shots during the fight scenes. Slow motion tends to give us a heightened sense of awareness and causes us to notice every detail of the character’s field of vision. With this effect we can see and feel the tension of the character’s mounting anger.

 

http://www.unc.edu/~slindsey/

 

Q3.Who is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now? What is his philosophy?

A.

The cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now was Vittorio Storaro. Storaro is regarded as a master philosopher with a sophisticated philosophy which is inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colors which focuses on the psychological effects that different colors have and the way in which colors influence our perceptions of different situations.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Storaro

 

ITAP 2 Work of Director Chris Cunningham

1. How did Bjork and Chris collaborate on the All is full of Love video?

A.

Bjork had been suggested to work with the English artist Chris Cunningham, former special effects designer for famous filmmakers like David Fincher and Daniel Kubrick for her music video All is full of Love. When Chris finally agreed to take on the project the only suggestions Bjork had were that she wanted it to look really white and portray heaven in a way. At the same time she wanted there to be an element of lust and to show how it takes over the hard white background and softens and merges with it. They had decided to start work on the music video for the song after her album came out so they wouldn’t be restricted my a marketing schedule. Chris, being very fascinated with industrial robotics since a very young age wanted to try and incorporate this fascination into the music video.

 

Chris’s initial idea was to have the two robots unfold like flowers as they mate, but apparently the music didn’t really allow for it. For the robots used in the video, Chris was assisted by Paul Catling who had taught him about model making in the past. Paul had sculpted the full size robots in clay in two hours. For the set design, Chris worked with Julian Caldow for the layout and the entire set was put together by Chris Oddy. Bjork had to have her face painted white and wore a blue costume while singing. Taking the place of the clay robots, Bjork had to remain perfectly still for the team to replace her face with the robots’ using computer graphics. The music video is a mix of sculpted models and computer graphics, made in such a way that the viewer cannot tell what’s real and what’s not. The scene with the white fluid dripping down the mechanical parts was made by submersing the parts in milk and then draining it off, filmed in reverse. Chris did express that he wasn’t very convinced with the way the video looked till the final effects were added at Glassworks. It was only after Glassworks started the computer graphics work that Chris started to see how the music video would come together and started getting new ideas for the video. Bjork, being very confident in Chris’s ability, let him work on the music video till it was finished and did not interrupt him to see how it was going in between.

 

http://unit.bjork.com/specials/gh/SUB-01/

http://www.rogersv.com/blog/bjorks-all-is-full-of-love-making-of/

http://www.acmi.net.au/195152371BA94B86B26F6F314A1D7C8E.htm

 

2. Which famous sci-fi film did Chris Cunningham work on before he became a director?

A.

Before Chris Cunningham became a director he had been recruited by Stanley Kubrick to work on Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi drama film, ‘A.I.’. ‘A.I.’ shows us the story of the childlike android David who was programmed with the ability to love. The movie shows the viewers the journey of David as he sets out to become a real boy to win the affection of his mother.

 

Kubrick did take inspiration from the Disney story of Pinocchio, and regarded the movie as “a picaresque robot version of Pinocchio”. Chris became the visual effects supervisor and helped assemble a series of robot type humans for the David character.

 

Chris worked on A.I. for little over a year before he carried on to become a director.

 

3. What other music video directors have gone on to direct feature films? Name two and the feature films they have made.

A.

The first director I’ve chosen is David Andrew Leo Fincher, a music video director who went on to direct films. He directed music videos for artists such as Madonna, including songs like “Express Yourself”, “Vogue” and “Oh Father”. He also directed “Love Is Strong” for the Rolling Stones, “Who Is It” for Michael Jackson and “Suit &Tie” for Justin Timberlake. His music video for Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence” won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1990. He also won MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction in 1989 for “Express Yourself” and in 1990 of “Vogue”. He also won three of the four available nominations in 1990 for the Best Direction category. He finally made his feature film debut in 1992 with Alien 3 and the movie received a nomination for its special effects. Other movies Fincher directed were “Seven”, “The Game”, “Fight Club”, “Panic Room”, “Zodiac”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “The Social Network” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Out of all these movies, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, “The Social Network” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” were nominated for and won many Academy Awards and Global Globes.

 

The second director I’ve chosen to write about is Marc Webb, an American music video, short film and film director. He directed movie videos like “Nothing at All” by Santana, “Duck and Run” and “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down, “Motivation Proclamation” and “Festival Song” by Good Charlotte, “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5, “Remember” by Disturbed and many more. “(500) Days of Summer” was his full-length feature film debut, which was released in 2009. A year later in 2010, Colombia Pictures recruited Webb to direct “The Amazing Spider Man” which was a remake of the original Spiderman film franchise and was released in 2012. He is also directing the sequal to “The Amazing Spiderman”, “The Amazing Spiderman 2”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Webb#Filmography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher#Features

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/music-video-directors-turned-film-directors

ITAP lecture – 7 : Production

Principle 1 : The Design Workflow

A workflow, more specifically a design workflow, illustrates the process one went through in the making of a certain piece of work. It is the step by step procedure that shows all the steps that person followed to complete that particular task. It simplifies and breaks down the entire work procedure so it is easy to interpret and understand by others and is also easy to review by the maker.

I have prepared a small design workflow that shows the process I went through in producing my magazine section and the ident. Firstly we had to sort out our group’s name. I had first decided on the name Scarecrow because scarecrows are made of so many different materials and things that represents diversity in the group and diversity in our individual skills. I also thought it was a good name as it also related with our magazine name and content which represented diversity. The idea was then sacked, so as you can see from the flowchart below there is a little line below scarecrow going into a trash can. I later came up with the name headshot, since all of us shared a liking to video games. That name stuck, so then we moved on to confirming the magazine name as Diver-City which we finalised. As for the content of the magazine, we had a few set backs as seen below before we finalised on Art Forms in Birmingham as the final topic for the content of our magazine.  After that was finalised work went pretty fast, I then did my research on graffiti in Birmingham and found this park behind Aldi in Selly Oak that used to be a legal graffiti tagging spot and decided to make that the basis of my research. I then followed my research up with a photo shoot of the park following which I wrote my article for our magazine. After writing the article for my section in the magazine I began work on the group’s ident. The first idea i came up with was sacked after I went pretty far with it, so I had to start work on the ‘Bullring Ident’ that we finalised.

Principle 2 : The Experts

According to wikipedia, “An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well-distinguished domain.” There are experts like these in each and every field of life that specialise in what they do and they do it perfectly. For this principle, we were asked to talk about one design expert that inspired us the most. I’ve chosen the graffiti artist Banksy as the expert I’ve gotten inspiration from.

I always had an interest for graffiti but didn’t know much about stencil graffiti until I saw some of Banksy’s work. He was an immediate source of inspiration as I had never seen graffiti like his before. His stencil art and epigrams that we’re sometimes political and filled with dark humour were what caught my interest. Banksy despised the government for labelling art as vandalism. Starting out as a normal graffiti artist that did free hand graffiti art he slowly moved on to intricate sketches using stencils. A certain incident that he is remembered for is the fake 10 pound bills that he made that substituted the Queen’s head with Diana, the princess of Whales, and also substituted the text saying ‘Bank of England’ with ‘Banksy of England’. These notes now sell for about 200 pounds each on ebay. He really made a big break when he sold Christina Aguilera the original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for 25,000 pounds, and then later on sold a set of Kate Moss paintings in London for 50,400, setting an auction high for Banksy’s work. Some famous works of art by Banksy include : “The naked man on the wall of the sexual health clinic, Banksy’s Stonehenge, Ozone Angel, Bansy Swinger, One Nation Under CCTV, etc.”

Banksy was nominated for the “Academy Award for the Best Documentary”, for his film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” which was released on 5th March, 2010 and was labelled “the world’s first street art disaster movie”. Banksy displays most of his artwork on walls and even builds physical props for some of them. One of his famous quotes were, “We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.”

— Banksy, Wall and Piece

Bibliography :

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/29510.jpg

http://replicahenge.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/banksy.jpg

http://site.icanvasart.com/giclee_print/Ozones_Angel_Banksy_Art_Print.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2807501477_3245f7f33f.jpg

http://brandtao.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/one-nation-under-cctv.jpg

ITAP lecture – 6 : Narrative and Structure

Principle 1 : Developing Character

Developing strong and powerful characters for a story is essential for the story to progress smoothly and for the audience to react appropriately and emotionally. Other than the original storyline itself the characters are also one of the key elements involved that actually make the story whole and meaningful. In this lecture we learnt briefly what traits a character must possess, wether positive or negative to be a strong element in the story. We learnt that the audience empathises with emotion and not information, which means that they are more likely to react well to happiness, sadness and twists in the story rather than plain facts or just loads of detail and information.

A hero is a regular person that had to rise to extreme heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle, whereas a villain is a regular person with a fatal flaw. To explain this statement I would like to take the example of the animated movie ‘Shrek’. In this movie we can see the character Shrek as the hero and the Prince as the villain. Shrek had to go through the massive obstacle of getting princess Fiona to love him although he was an ogre. He eventually does overcome all the obstacles that stand before him and Fiona and finally gains her trust and her heart. The Prince on the other hand can be seen as the villain as throughout the entire story his job is to pose as an obstacle to Shrek in his quest for Fiona’s love. The flaws we see in the Prince are that he is filled with selfishness pride that makes him think he’s above everybody else because of his royalty. He thinks of Shrek as a mere ogre that is not worthy of Fiona’s love.

As I said earlier, we learnt that the audience empathises with emotion and not information. Using Shrek as an example again we can see how the audience reacts to all the different emotions in the movie. All the action scenes where there’s fighting, all the sad scenes where there’s heartbreak and sadness and all the happy scenes where there’s joy and relief are all responded to by the audience appropriately. For example, when the Prince fools Fiona into thinking he’s Shrek, the audience really sympathises with Shrek and there’s a feeling of sadness and a little betrayal. But when Shrek finally makes his entrance and convinces Fiona that the Prince was lying and that he is the real Shrek and that he is truly in love with her, the audience breathes a sigh of relief and is filled with joy and the mood stays this way with the singing and dancing that follows after this scene.

A survival mechanism is what a character reacts like when he feels really threatened by something. We see some of this when Donkey volunteers to drink the ‘Happily Forever After’ potion and thinks he’s melting. An adrenaline moment is when a character is strongly compelled to act towards something in a certain way due to the current occurrences. We see this adrenaline moment when Shrek puts in one final effort to rescue Fiona from falling in love with the wrong person at the end of the movie. Actions refer mainly to the gestures and movement used by the characters to complement their speech. We can see this throughout the movie Shrek where in some places actions are so effective that words are not needed to convey the full meaning to the audience.

Principle 3 : Developing Stories

A story is the plot around which all the characters revolve. As we heard from our lecture, a story is told from a casually linked set of events. It can be information passed on from one person to another about connected happenings whether true or false. A story can be someone’s account of something, or the depiction of a journey. It is ultimately through these stories that we have come to know of and understand our past. Stories help us understand ourselves and everything around us.

A story basically comes in many forms. These stories may be true or false. They can either be reports, accounts, rumours, jokes, legends, myths, etc. The only main difference between these types of stories is that some are accurate accounts of happenings while others are just fables that are made up or stories that are changed slowly as they are passed down from one person to another.

As far as developing stories goes, the main things one should take into account is firstly, the journey. The journey forms an essential part of the plot of the story and it shows the actions of the character through the course of the story. Secondly, the experiences of the characters as they progress through the story. This is a very important aspect of story development as the experiences of the characters and the way they react and feel towards different elements on the movie is what makes the audience emotionally react to the story as a whole.

While making a story, it is very important to keep in mind the meaning you are trying to communicate to the audience through your story. It is essential that the audience does not get the wrong idea about your story because of the way it was communicated. Similarly keep in mind the target audience for your story and what they would expect out of it. Ultimately, the success of your story depends on how well you plan to communicate your story and if the target audience reacts positively to that or not. Also decide how you’re going to convey your message to your target audience, whether visually or technically.

Bibliography:

http://images.wikia.com/shrek/images/c/c6/Prince_charming.gif

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100604223617/shrek/images/8/87/Shrek_fierce.jpg

http://rebloggingdonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/shrek-the-halls-sad-donkey.jpg

 

ITAP lecture – 5 : Visual Vocabulary

Principle 1 : Legibility

 

Legibility in a sense refers to clarity, but when viewed in a broader perspective, it refers to the viewers ability to fully understand what is being communicated. As visual communicators, we have the ability to play with legibility to achieve our desired effect. Type legibility can be affected in a number of ways, be it text alignment, font size, font colour, etc. Although legibility is a must for readers to understand what is going on, it can be used appropriately to draw the readers attention to different parts of the piece of work.

As we can see from the album cover above, the artist that designed it gave the writing a really small font size. We can still see it, but when we first look at the picture our eyes are drawn to the lightning bolt that takes up majority of the space in the picture. The artist did this intentionally so the viewers see the lightning bolt first and then read the text on top. In this case the text isn’t the main part of the picture so the artist made it small. He or she wanted the lightning bolt to be the centre of attention.

It is important for us to remember that legibility is necessary for the viewers to understand what we are trying to communicate. Keeping this in mind, lets take a look at the two maps below. The first map clearly shows City Centre, Birmingham and is wonderfully illustrated and uses colours that are soft on the eyes. The map is easy to understand and the names of the streets and buildings are clearly legible, making it a very well illustrated map. Now, lets take a look at the next map. Its not that its contents are not accurate, but they are less legible. It is more plain, and its singular colour scheme makes the map difficult to understand. Therefore, it is immensely important to communicate our message well so it is easily understood.

 

Principle 2 : Researching the Content

 

Researching content plays an important aspect of visual communication. It is this research that forms the basis of the final product. Researching content for a particular project is important as it provides us with information to base our work on. Let’s look at this form the point of view of an illustrator. A illustrator may me approached by different types of clients that require different things and may not always be familiar with what the client requires. For example, if an illustrator is asked to  sketch and colour a part of Birmingham for the cover of a magazine, he/she won’t be able to do it unless he has been there himself or has seen pictures of that particular place. If he/she hasn’t been to the place and does not have pictures of the place or any other resources to work from, thats when research comes in. The illustrator would then either visit the place and take reference pictures to work from or find pictures of the place from other sources.

For this principle I have chosen to talk about the game Metal Gear Solid 2 and how researching content plays an important role in it. The game is based on stealth and has many military aspects to it. For the first part of the game, the game creator and director Hideo Kojima, took his entire crew of artists and designers to an actual cargo ship to take pictures and reference notes as he wanted the game to be as realistic as possible. As the game is based on military strategy Mr. Kojima also brought in Mr. Motosada Mori a military advisor to show the team how actual soldiers work. He showed the team how soldiers moved and used hand signals to communicate with each other. He also showed the team the right way the characters should hold their weapons, i.e. pointing downward, as opposed to holding their guns pointing upward as we usually see in many movies. He provided the team with all the resources they needed on how soldiers think in different situations and this helped Mr. Kojima’s team develop the A.I. for all the characters in the game.

In conclusion, researching content indeed plays an important role without which Hideo Kojima wouldn’t have been able to create this international bestseller. Research aided the development of the game which helped make it more realistic, and this made the game a success, selling millions worldwide. researching content should be given more importance and time as it provides us with a large base of information to work on.

 

Bibliography :

 

 

ITAP lecture – 4 : Research

Principle 3 : Inspiration

In early greek mythology, it is seen that greek artists believed that artistic inspiration came from up above, and that their ideas came straight from God’s such as Apollo and Dionysus. Well, as far as inspiration goes, it is found that the more research done and more the enquires made, better are the ideas one comes up with. As artists we should treasure things that inspire us. We should collect and store work of other artists that have inspired us and constantly look back to see if we can gain anything from their work. It is important for us to keep an open mind towards everyday life in general, keeping our eyes peeled as inspiration can come from anywhere, all we have to do is recognise it and use it to properly fit our purpose.

There are so many things around us that we can draw inspiration from. Some artists draw their inspiration from other artists, while others like to derive their inspiration directly from experience. This inspiration can be drawn from nature, a particular incident, a person, etc. It is important for an artist to be continually inspired and motivated towards his work. Different things inspire different people so it is imperative that we find something that truly inspires us rather than looking at other artists’ sources of inspiration.

As an illustrator I was inspired by the work of this french artist named, Florian Nicole. What I liked most about her work is the style she used for most of her work, that water-colour effect she gave her illustrations while inking them. Apart from her style, I also really liked the way she brings out emotion and plays with facial expression in her illustrations. The two pictures above are examples of her work.

Principle 5 : Knowledge of an Audience 

Knowledge of a target audience plays a vital role as far as visual communication is concerned. As a visual communicator, the audience should hold a key position in the outcome of his or her work. The audience determines the path that the work takes and ultimately the final outcome. When visual communicators start a particular piece of work, they have to ask themselves various key questions like, ‘ Who is my target audience? ‘, ‘ What content would they expect? ‘, ‘ Does my content suit the specific audience? ‘, etc.

Artists require a general understanding of the audience and how different audiences react to different themes and situations. For example, it wouldn’t make sense bring a fine art gallery to an elementary school and expect the young students to understand the depth and grasp the inner meanings of each piece. Similarly, displaying graffiti work at a fine art gallery would’t make sense as only a few people visiting a fine art gallery would actually appreciate and understand graffiti artwork.

In conclusion, an artist should carefully consider his or her work in relation to their target audience. By doing this they ensure that their audience would grasp the meaning and significance of their work, allowing their work to be better appreciated. Having an idea of a target audience also aids in the overall construction process of the work and can act as a guideline on which people can base their ideas on.

Bibliography :

http://artistsinspireartists.com/drawing/artists-series-35-florian-nicolle

ITAP lecture – 3 : Connectivity

Principle 1 : Notions of Originality

The dictionary defines the term novel as, “The ability to think independently and creatively.” or “The quality of being novel or unusual.” In today’s day and age originality is absent. Everything is copied and transformed into something else. There is close to nothing that you can think of that has never been thought of before. Maybe it isn’t completely dead, but it is dying fast. As Mark Twain said, “Adam didn’t know how good he had it; he could say anything he wanted to and know it had never been said before.”

We see examples of this all over the place, on the internet, in works of art, books, media, etc. There are many people that claim that their work or idea is 100% authentic, but majority of the time, its not something someone  has never thought of or done before. Even if we don’t consciously copy someone else, our ideas or work always originate from somewhere. They can originate from someone else’s work or something we’ve seen someone else do, and therefore ideas that we some up with or work that we do cannot be completely original as we mainly base them on our experiences.

Ideas are consciously or unconsciously copied from others, but ultimately “its not where you take things from – its where you take them to.” – Jean-Luc Godard. As we analyse the first set of pictures we see two paintings that look similar in concept. The painting on the left is the mexican artist, Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait made in 1941, and the painting on the right is a copied version of the same painting, where artist Leyana Kurniawati from Indonesia has copied the pose and layout of the original painting. The second set of pictures shows us two very similar book covers. The original being the one on the left, the cover for L.K. Rigel’s book, ‘Spiderwork’. Just as we have seen in the paintings earlier, the book on the right has copied the layout of the cover of the book on the left in a very similar fashion.

Principle  2 : Relations Developed from Existing forms of Historical Culture

There are many artists and other people that derive their work from great works of the past. A large portion of artists like to draw inspiration from renaissance art, replicating and drawing ideas from it. This gave rise to a large amount of artwork inspired mainly by historical events and artwork, that would include sculptures, paintings, etc. Artwork especially from the renaissance period is a great source of inspiration as the period proved as a turning point for art as artists expanded their knowledge of art technically so as to produce artwork that was more realistic. Thus, there are many artists that like to experiment with these works of art and use them in their work.

The first painting over here shows us a picture that resembles the Last Supper. The artist here has used the idea and concept of the Last Supper to derive a specific and different meaning for his own purpose. The second picture is an edited version of the famous Raphael – Cherubini painting. Here the artist gives a comical effect to a historical painting by replacing the faces of the angels with cartoon faces, thus changing the meaning and message of the painting entirely.

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