Month: March 2020
RESEARCH WHICH INFORMED IDEAS – ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Alison Wonderland was another thing that we thought would be wise to research in regards to our themes because of the scary undertones yet playful atmosphere of the film which relates to other things that we’ve been researching. Both Melanie Martinez an Alice in Wonderland have films that both emulate are young and childish playful atmosphere yet both have eerie and dark connotations to a deeper meaning of the film, Which made me want to also look into Alice in Wonderland because it’s done so differently yet I feel Alice in Wonderland must’ve been an influence with a Melanie Martinez‘s work.
Themes of freedom, expression, exploration, adventure, fun, happiness are portrayedWithin Alison Wonderland however so are themes of identity, being lost, being misunderstood, confusion, sadness and loneliness Are cleverly being paralleled to the other themes within the film as Alice falls down a rabbit hole and becomes lost, sad and confused however starts a new journey which she does eventually find happy and enjoyable and I feel these two themes being in conjunction with each other have a darker meaning about life as a whole and how there is a balance between happiness and sadness, positive emotions inside emotions as well as the fact that nothing is linear and everything is subject to being moved at any minute. Like Alice in Wonderland we also would like to get the audience to have some sort of emotional reaction potentially to the film that we are going to be making it might be nice to catch up on things like nostalgia and childhood as we do have the paper element we wouldn’t want anything to be too sad however.
The idea of being transported into a different world works well with themes we were discussing previously such as using distorted mirrors or using installations when you walk into a certain part of a room which would be very interesting to be looking into as we can explore effects on photo shop or gain new editing skills. Being able to be transported into a different world is such a childlike thing as this always happens to the children when they read books and less so to adults and we do want to keep a sort of playful tone to our work there for the same could be very nice in reflecting all of our garments to the public.
RESEARCH WHICH INFORMED IDEAS – MELANIE MARTINEZ
MELANIE MARTINEZ
Melanie Martinez is an American born artist Who gained exposure on a popular television show called the voice. How work is relevant to my theme is because her music videos have the exact same colour palette as Wes Anderson and officially look very similar however she has work which relates to being a child and even growing up therefore relates to Sophie’s work perfectly, as well as having a few music videos and doll houses which is a potential idea we can explore. I’ve always found her back really intriguing because of the effort put into every element within her music such as the vocals and costume design, filming, the set design, the props, the models.
The make up she was wearing reminded me so much of Romilly’s style of work due to the heaviness of it as well as the darkness of the eyebrows, eyeshadow and lipstick as well as a heavy blusher which really gives of showgirl / burlesque vibes as well as suiting Romilly’s work as well. The background of the patterned floral wallpaper completely reminded me of a 1940s wallpaper which were usually floral and patterned, this tied in with the fact that usually have her music videos filmed with a type of grey cast over the screen or have the saturation turned down slightly with a muted colour palette which is actually gives of retro and vintage filming styles leads me to get a 1940s feel from Melanie Martinez‘s music videos. And I feel like this 1940s theme is so essential to show because it’s so evident throughout two of our designers therefore it should definitely be played out in our final outcome.
- The energy is shown throughout the music videos is really interesting because there’s a lot of emotion there’s always big stories characters interacting with each other and different environments that suit different moods therefore we could take this element within our own work as I feel like it’s quite inspiring to be able to be moved by just the music video. Themes of growing up, ageing, family fights, identity, infidelity and general depression are themes within her work which one one one might not be able to tell just by looking visually at her aesthetic’s it’s quite the contrast actually. This contrast is so interesting to me because these themes are extremely heavy triggering and generally dark and pairing them with her sort of playful bubbly pink girly aesthetic really enhances the things that she’s talking about because although she seems young it can happen to anyone which is clearly highlighted throughout the messages that she chooses to portray.
RESEARCH WHICH INFORMED IDEAS – DAVID LYNCH
DAVID LYNCH
Researching into David Lynch’s work was an appropriate suggestion by one of the group members as he has a very strong aesthetic, colour palette and imagery to his work which is very distinctive to David Lynch himself and therefore as we wanted a strong concept it would be wise to look at him.
These images represent mystery, melancholy and a bit of a sadness which intrigues me further into asking questions or raising assumptions about the characters and why they are placed in the setting, what year is this a film, where the actual sets; where the houses from and whose houses are these? Because of this it is clear that there is such a big story hidden in each of these images which you can sense by looking at it but your left wondering what the actual narrative is.
There are a lot of shots within David Lynch’s work that are wide and full of the entire set which in a way it makes the characters almost secondary to the set as opposed to where they film close up and make the characters very obvious. Which really connects the character with the setting as they are shown an equal measure but maybe takes back from some of the characters personalities and puts it more into the background as it is shown more how they interact with a background then with each other?
from his work I feel like we could channel the slightly eerie element as we may be looking into dollhouses and children’s toys we could also study how the characters interact with the setting and how we can do that with our characters as they are going to be placed in a house and I feel like it would be wise if we took elements of his visual style as well considering we are looking into artists like Melanie Martinez.
OFFIE MAG AND POLYESTER
I viewed the Offlicence Magazine and Polyester Magazine live talk and Q&A in Brighton. As a genuine fan of both of these incredibly inspiring and entertaining platforms, I was extremely grateful to be able to experience the founders of each be able to tell their story and share their journey with us. This could give me ideas for my personal professional development, in general life skills or maybe something related to my current project. Getting research in this way is far more personal, and therefore more interesting answers develop, you’re also really able to connect with the artists by hearing them share their experiences both positive and negative.
Both platforms are completely different, yet became so successful because everything they do is authentic to the magazine; they work only with brands that they’re passionate about, no matter the style, and incorporate music, politics and lifestyle elements to create a whole brand that links together aesthetically as well as ideologically. This talk gave me such an insight of how the industry works if you set up a small business, about working with companies and how payments and futures and submissions work within a magazine; which is so relevant as we have just finished a magazine project which could inspire us to produce more magazines in the future.
FASHION FILM / DOLLHOUSE IDEA
After meeting as a group we further solidified the idea of doing a fashion film of a dollhouse with inspirations from Wes Anderson, Tim Walker, Petra Collins, David Lynch, Melanie Martinez, 40s style in modern day, music inspired by each design, build sets or green screen would be a fun opportunity to learn something new. We were particularly interested in David Lynch’s melodramatic, eerie yet mysterious style of cinematography like in Twin Peaks while also keeping the aesthetic we had from the beginning with Wes Anderson’s beautiful colour pallete and soft pink tones. This related to our work as our themes were of a sort of subtle and dark nature like escapism or being transported to another world which is why we looked at Alice in Wonderland in the beginning, the aesthetic of Wes Anderson works with the colour palettes of everyone’s work; pinks and muted tones with monochromatics too, as well as the 40s interior colour palette aligns with it nicely, the houses and buildings are always beautiful too and hopefully we will be making a set.
Our plan is to make a fashion film, the setting is in a dollhouse, inspired by Melanie Martinez as well as the themes of ageing and youth, femininity and beauty where we will have actors for each model to represent the garments and make the film building a small set of a dollhouse, hopefully using an actual dollhouse and then adding hand made props. We had a rough plan made up for the group as a whole where we need to be making props this week and next week to be able to shoot the week after and would need to have made storyboards for then so we were a little short on time.