My poster is going to be approximately 64 cm x 90 cm in size (two A2
thin cards joined together).
My first idea is to stick various pictures in the background, showing
all the characters that had important roles in the films, different scenes and
the locations - the left side of the poster relating to the 1968 film and the
right side to the 1996 version.In the
middle part of the poster, lengthwise, I will put photos showing the faces of
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who acted as Romeo and Juliet in 1968 and
those of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes from the 1996 film.The face of Romeo will be split in half, the
left part of the face showing Leonard Whiting and the right side showing
Leonardo DiCaprio.Similarly will be
done with the pictures of the actresses who played the part of Juliet.Apart from the changes in the
actor/actresses’ faces, I will also focus on their costumes, the weapons and the
means of transportation that were used.After
I finish glueing the pictures, I will extend them by drawing out from their
edges (photomontage technique).I will
be using acrylic paints.
My second idea is to do a collage with the pictures that I find in
the magazines/brochures and the internet, separating those related to the 1968
version from those of the 1996 film.However, I will link them with a message (showing text) in the middle of
the poster.The story used is the same –
the tragedy written by William Shakespeare – therefore the message that comes
out from both films should be the same.This idea regarding the message comes from my previous research on
conceptual artist Barbara Kruger.
Another idea that
comes to my mind is to sketch the main characters, using pop art – I am mostly
inspired by Roy Lichtenstein.
I
decided to prepare a poster, not a test piece (as I was considering earlier
on).It will be entitled “Romeo and
Juliet” and it will bring out the changes that took place between the 1968 and
1996 film versions.
I
shall go through some travel magazines and brochures of Verona which we don’t
need any more at home and find any suitable pictures that I can use for my
poster.That way I will be re-using
them, just like some of the artists that I came across during my research who
used recycled or re-used material to produce their artwork.I will also use the internet to search for
various photographs taken during the filming of the old and modern versions and
print some of them.Then I will use the
pictures to do a collage or a photomontage.
The
pictures that I will be using must clearly show the transformation in the
location, clothing, weapons and means of transportation.
Two
days ago, while I was doing a presentation regarding the film “Romeo and
Juliet” (based on Shakespeare’s tragedy), in the presence of Ms. E. Abela and
the other students, an idea popped into my head regarding my “Transformation” final
idea.I thought of using “Romeo and
Juliet”, instead of the films that I mentioned before in my blog, bringing out
the difference between the 1968 and 1996 versions of the said film and therefore
the transformation that took place from one version to the other, especially
with regards to the costumes worn by the actors, the location of the scenes, the
weapons used and even the means of transportation.
The
1968 version of the film was directed by Franco Zeffirelli.Zeffirelli was greatly influenced by
Shakespeare and his film was set in Verona Italy, just like Shakespeare’s
version.The costumes worn by the actors
were medieval and the weapons that were used were swords/daggers.They travelled on horses/donkeys.
The
1996 version of the film was directed by Baz Luhrmann.Luhrmann was also influenced by Shakespeare,
but more in writing than in his directing.The film was set in a fictional location in America called Verona Beach
and the actors wore modern outfits (leather clothes by the Capulets and
Hawaiian shirts by the Montegues).The
weapons that were used by the actors were guns (even though they were called
swords and daggers) and they travelled in cars.
Zeffirelli
introduced his film by having an actor narrate the introduction while showing 5
scenes or so of Verona to let the audience reflect on the words rather than the
scenes. On the other hand, Luhrmann repeated the introduction twice – first as
a television news report and the second time by showing various scenes from the
film.
I
sketched the 5 objects – a feather, a gun, a heart, a noose and a piano – that
are connected to the characters that were transformed in the films The Four Feathers, The Godfather, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, Return to Paradise and Ray.
I
also sketched an abstract art using the same objects.
Another
idea that came to my mind is to do a structure made out of used printing
aluminium or scrap metal and demonstrate the Four Feathers.The base will represent the desert where the
battle took place.An old camera film
will rest on the structure.
The
first idea that comes to my mind is a sculpture made out of scrap metal, featuring
something that reminds me of a famous cartoon character.I thought about Mickey Mouse’s hand covered
by a glove.The artwork can be used as
an ornament or else as a ring holder (rings can be placed in each finger).
These
are my first sketches:
Another
idea is to create a poster regarding the character of Amélie.I can also add some text to it to bring out a
message regarding “love”.
In my first 5 entries I wrote about the following 5
films that showed transformation in one or more characters:
·The Godfather (1972);
·Return to Paradise (1998);
·Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie
Poulain (2001);
·The Four Feathers (2002);
·Ray (2004).
I have
now carried out some more research regarding the directors of the above films
with the hope of finding out what or who influenced them in their work.I managed to find the following information.
I found
out that Francis Ford Coppola who directed “The Godfather” was influenced by
the film "Blow Up" (1966) of Michelangelo Antonioni.It was the best film of 1966 and it was
Antonioni’s first English-language film.The
writers of the screenplay were Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, whereas British
playwright Edward Bond was responsible for the English dialogue. The producer was
Carlo Ponti. This
film is about a photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes that
he may have witnessed a murder and unintentionally taken photographs of what
happened. Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles,
John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin and Gillian Hills, as well as the model of
the 1960’s Veruschka, also star in this film.
Jean-Pierre
Jeunet, the director of “Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain” was influenced by
the film “Once upon a Time in the West” (1968), directed by Sergio Leone.Famous stars in this film include Henry
Fonda, Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale.The screenplay, written by Leone and Sergio Donati, was taken from an
Italian story by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento.The
story is about a young woman named Mrs McBain, who finds her husband and family
killed when she arrives in Utah after moving there from New Orleans.A prime suspect become friends with her and
starts his quest to find the real killer …….Following is a trailer from the film and also an interesting interview
with Jean-Pierre Jeunet about his life as a director of films.
I think that for my artwork I might consider taking 5 objects connected to the transformation that took place in the characters involved in each film that I wrote about in my first 5 entries, and include them in a sculpture or else produce an abstract artwork out of the objects.The objects can be: “a feather” which reminds me of The Four Feathers that were given to Harry to make him realize about his cowardice and to do something about it; “a gun”which transformed Michael from a quiet to a violent person in The Godfather; “a heart” in the case of Amélie in Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, “a noose” which ended the life of Lewis in Return to Paradise, even though he was transformed into a better person; and “a piano” that made Ray Charles famous.
two buildings that both involve transformation – one of them being a private residence whereas the other used by the public in a multi-functional way;
space-saving furniture that can transform one room into two or three rooms;
a wrist watch that can be transformed into a pocket watch;
cassette tapes being transformed into fabric and then transformed into neckties; and
material from London bus and underground seats transformed into shoes.
The designers of the neckties and the shoes were
also influenced by the concept of reusing and recycling – to produce
environment-friendly products.
The designs of the buildings, the
furniture and the watch all show that the designers were influenced by the
concept of multi-functionality which is quite a modern concept considering that
traditional designs were usually produced to serve just one purpose.
The designers of the furniture
were also influenced by the concept of space-saving, which nowadays is essential
since the majority of people do not afford to live in spacious buildings.Space is especially limited in the cities,
therefore offices, shops and private residences all benefit from space-saving
furniture.
I will be considering multi-functionality when I
design my test piece.
Now that
I`ve done a lot of research on TRANSFORMATION IN
ART, DESIGN
& FILM, I am
going to reflect on my research and comment
about how the practitioners` work is a reflection of various influences.Today I’m
going to focus on Art, whereas in my next 2 entries I will reflect on Design
and Film, after which I will prepare another 2 entries regarding my ideas about
the creation of my end visual product concept.I think my concept will take the form of a test piece.
Transformation in Art
In my first 5 entries of this blog, I wrote about:
scrap metal being transformed into beautiful works of art;
two paintings that, although very different from each other, both showed the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly;
an image with the statement “We don’t need another hero” on it, which shows that the meaning changes if one had to look at the image only without the words.The words transformed the interpretation of the image;
discarded toys transformed into a wonderful dog sculpture; and
used paper cups decorated with beautiful paintings and transforming not only the cups themselves, but also the place where they were installed.
The
artwork produced from used material – scrap metal, toys, paper cups – shows
that the artists involved were all influenced by the concepts of reusing and recycling
which are very important in today’s world.People are now aware that, in the years gone by, waste was not managed
well and this caused damage to our environment - climate change, pollution,
health problems, etc.With the research
that I carried out I realized that even artists are trying to do something to
protect our environment and make our world a better place to live in.In view of this, I decided that my “transformation”
test piece should be eco-friendly and it will be made out of used or recycled material,
possibly scrap metal.In fact, I
searched for some more information regarding “green companies” (companies who
produce environment-friendly products) which use scrap metal.I found out about the company that produces “Unique
Thai Scrap Metal Art”.This company
considers the environment as their number one priority.Their goal is to be creative in their metal
works, using recycled material and non-toxic products.They transform the metal that they find in
scrap yards into beautiful sculptures, mirrors, robots …. and they also create
film/mythical characters.Maybe, for
my test piece I will transform used metal into a cartoon character.
I did
some more research about Allison J. Bratt, one of the artists who painted the
transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.She says that she is mostly influenced by
"the fluidity of nature, and the tangled web we’re a part of."I found out that even this artist cares about
our natural environment and when she produces her artwork, she tries to use
recycled or used material, just like Robert Bradford who makes use of discarded
toys and Gwyneth Leech who works with used paper cups.
I think
that Barbara Kruger is influenced by social issues and she produces her artwork
– images with statements added to them – to make others reflect about what is
going on in our society.She makes the
photos that she finds eye-catching by putting a red background and she uses text
with ideas that she wants the viewers to think about, not just read.The text that she puts is in a way asking the
viewers about certain issues, such as feminism, classicism, consumerism, and the
freedom and desires of the individual persons in our society.Her artwork can be very useful during
discussions, for example during debates of social importance.Apart from “We don’t need another hero” I came across other statements
by Barbara Kruger, such as “I
shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground."Her statements all bring out a message.Maybe I will add a message to my artwork
too.
This dog sculpture was created by artist Robert
Bradford.It is made up of recycled
toys.Bradford has been creating these
original and wonderful sculptures since 2004 and some of his creative artwork
includes up to 3,000 toys.It all
started when he looked at a toy box that was left at his work place by his
children.The toy box inspired him to
start doing this type of artwork and it made him very successful.At first he used his own children’s toys but
then he started buying other unwanted toys from garage sales.
This is another good example of transformation in
art - discarded toys being transformed into unique art sculptures - and again
it shows that the concept of recycling is being practised by a lot of artists.
TRANSFORMATION IN DESIGN
As I was carrying some research regarding
recycled textiles,
the following caption caught my attention:
Don’t Put Your Feet On the Seat, Put a Seat On Your
Feet
I learned that the “Above+Below” London footwear company manufactures
shoes from recycled material - discarded tire rubber, fabric taken from the
seats of London’s public means of transport (underground and buses), and even
unwanted leather checkbook covers.
FirstGroup's Climate Change Strategy and TRiP (Transport Recycling in
Partnership) supported this project.Seat
material was donated to the project to be reused, instead of being thrown away in
the landfills or incinerated and causing damage to the environment.On the other hand, the footwear company
donated a tree for every pair of shoes sold.
This
is the most environment-friendly project that I have ever heard about and I
never imagined that tire rubber, underground and bus seat materials and leather
checkbook covers could be transformed in such cool shoes!
TRANSFORMATION IN FILM
Le
fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001):
This film is about a girl named Amélie Poulain who was born in 1974 in a French location
called Enghien, in the northern suburbs of Paris. As a child Amélie was raised
at home alone, without any contact with the outside world. This was due to the
fact that her father, who was a doctor, mistakenly believed that his daughter
suffered from a heart condition. This concern made her mother suffer from
stress. Amélie did not even go to school. Her mother used to teach her at home.
Obviously Amélie did not have a normal upbringing because she hardly got any
real life contact with other people. Amélie was shy and lived in a world of her
own, which was a world full of fantasies and dreams of love and beauty. Her
life was full of imagination. After some time, her mother died in a weird
accident when somebody jumped off the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and landed
on her.
When Amélie
Poulain became a young woman she was still a daydreamer and quite shy, but she
moved to central Paris and started working as a waitress in the café Deux
Moulins in Montmartre. In the café she used to wonder about life and daydream
about finding the love of her life.
One day Amélie
found a long-lost childhood treasure in her apartment after a small bottle cap
slipped from her hand, hit one of the walls in her apartment and cracked it.
The treasure was hidden behind the wall. It was a small box containing childhood
mementos which belonged to a dweller from the 50's who used to occupy her
apartment at that time. So Amélie decided to search for the man and return the
treasure to him without letting him know who did so. When she succeeded in
doing this and witnessed the man’s happiness, she decided to devote her life to
the people around her and become the "godmother of the rejected".
Amélie helped people she knew anonymously, using her fantasy and her little
tricks. She was mischievous but she managed to help many people and enrich
their lives, even though not in a normal way. For example her father was
obsessed with his garden-gnome, so she used his garden gnome to convince him to
travel abroad. She befriended and helped a rejected and lonely neighbour. She
played jokes on another neighbour. She collected objects and later returned
them to their owners. She also helped her hypochondriac colleague that worked
in the tobacco shop and the man that used to stalk his ex girlfriends. When
this particular man stalked the other waitress who worked with Amélie in the
same café, Amélie acted like cupid. She played pranks to an employer that
mistreated his employee with abusive relationship.
However,
soon Amélie realized that her life was totally dedicated to others. She was not
focusing much on her own life and especially on her long-time dream to find
love in her life. So she decided that she needed another change in her life.
She was determined to take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love
that she had always dreamed of. One day Amélie discovered an album of photos
that belonged to a secretive collector. She looked for this mysterious person
and she found out that he used to collect rejected photos in the Photomaton of
the Gare de l'Est. This man was a bit of a freak but Amélie fell in love with
him and found the love that she was searching for.
I see a
lot of transformation in this film. Amélie’s life changed a lot from the time
that she was a small girl till she finally found love and the meaning of life
in general. The change from a child to an adult brought about other changes in
her life. From a person cut out from the rest of the world she became a
waitress, a job that makes you meet a lot of people. From a timid person, not
so sure of herself, she started to help others, in unusual ways, after
interacting with her neighbours and customers, and also with a mysterious
Photomaton-image collector and one of his even more mysterious photo subjects.
From a person who, for several years, depended totally on her parents, Amélie
became independent and realized that the way to happiness required her to take
her own initiative and reach out to others.
The above
video shows hundreds of hanging colourful cups at the Flatiron Building in New York City. This
building is located opposite Madison Square Park, at the intersection of
Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. The area where the Flatiron
Building was built used to be full of junkies and drug dealers in the past.
Over 800 colourful paper cups are hung by fishing
line and exhibited in the Prow Art Space of the Flatiron Building.This exhibition is entitled
"Hypergraphia: The Cup Drawings".Artist Gwyneth Leech is behind this artistic work.The coffee cups that she decorates so nicely
with various abstracts (inspired by paintings and nature), or else with cityscapes and even with drawings of people (for example wearing winter clothes and holding umbrellas), were either
used by her or by her artist friends who decide to donate their used paper cups to her instead of throwing
them away.
Travel and Events. (2012). Gwyneth Leech HYPERGRAPHIA at the SPRINT FLATIRON PROW ARTSPACE. [Online Video]. 17 February. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5EFycv--aI. [Accessed: 15 November 2012].
According to the curator of The
Flatiron Prow Art Space, Cheryl McGinnis, over 500,000 people per week see the
exhibit. “With Hypergraphia,” she says, “you get to see art and the process by
which it is made.”
Gwyneth says on her blog:
“Readily
available and of no value to anyone else but me in their used state, paper cups
allow me to risk everything. Nothing lost, everything gained. In short, they
are a very useful form. I like to say, Bach had inventions, Shakespeare had
sonnets– and I have coffee cups.”
I think that Gwyneth Leech’s artwork and the
Flatiron Building offer various examples of art transformation:
Used coffee cups, which are objects that are not so interesting, are transformed into beautiful and attractive works of art
Adegrading area in New York City which used to be frequented by drug addicts and drug dealers was transformed into a beauty that all passers-by can experience;
Workers from all walks of life who stop and look at the hanging cups can say that part of their workday is transformed into a moment of artistic meditation.
TRANSFORMATION IN DESIGN
These Sonic Fabric Neckties are made from recycled
cassette tape.
Nowadays cassette tapes are hardly ever used by modern people,
but conceptual artist Alyce Santoro brought them back to life when she designed
these ties.Santoro came up with the
idea of spinning cassette tapes into fabric – an idea which is very original.Not only most of the fabric that these ties
are made of comes from old cassette tape, but Santoro also made these
particular ties “playable”.If one rubs
a tape head across their surface, they produce a sound.On the tape that was used to manufacture this
batch of ties, Santoro recorded sounds from her cd “Between Stations”.
Santoro’s design was successful and these eco-friendly ties show
a very interesting type of transformation.Cassette tapes which are considered by many as old, dull, uninteresting
and no longer used, were transformed into something modern, useful and in this
case distinguished type of clothing.Santoro calls them “superhero garb"
Ray (2004): This film is a true story
about the life of the legendary singer Ray Charles.
As I watched the film, I saw a
lot of transformation that took place in Ray Charles’ life – not only
transformation for the better but also for the worse:
·Ray Charles could see before the age of 7 and
then he became blind.
·He came from a poor and humble African American
family but his rising career during the 1950s and 1960s made him very rich and
famous.
·He lost his mother (a very determined person who
offered him strong support) and his little brother at a young age. They were the only family members that he knew and loved. However later he had his own family.
·He struggled with various problems in his life,
such as prejudice because of his blindness, racism because of his black skin
colour, his weakness for drugs and women that led him to drug abuse and failed
relationships .... but he managed to overcome the problems.
·With regards to his ideas to combine soul and
gospel music, Ray Charles encountered a lot of problems because this involved
change.However, his incredible talent
made him revolutionise American popular music - Rhythm & Blues (or "race music"), Jazz, and Country &
Western music.He also played
an important part in the invention of Rock & Roll music.
I think that all this
transformation in the life of Ray Charles is a good example of human success.
