contextual statement
DESCRIPTION
conextual statment. a statemtn regarding the context of my workkTRANSCRIPT
Prototype contextual statement: My main project for this year was originally going to be a graphic novel. However over the last few weeks I have had a change of heart for numerous different reasons. I am now setting my sights to make it almost like a motion comic. The central focus of it, is to create a world that the main character (Hermit) develops, in order to cope with his rejection from the real world. The themes I will be focusing on are: insanity, isolation, violence, and corporate ventures. The form will be a lot like a motion comic except there probably won’t be any animation or motion. I plan to make it so there will be a lot of attention on the dialogue and sound. The basic concept is to have images conveying parts of the story, with an underlying narrative explaining what’s going on. I plan to put the images I create onto after effects to create different camera effects, including zooms and close ups etc. I also plan to use after effects to put it together/edit it. This will entail putting the recorded dialogue, music and sounds on, and editing them in time with the images. In order to record the sound, I will probably use my friends microphone, and record it onto garage band and edit it with that program. I may also compose some ambient music to put in the background. Nothing too sophisticated, just something to not make it sound empty. In terms of visual style, I’ve been experimenting with a variety of materials in order to create the artwork I will use for the piece. I haven’t decided on a definite one yet, but a strong contender is this style:
I particularly like the use of watercolour as a background, its just the figure that needs work. I’m still unsure about a definite style as I stated previously. There needs to be two styles in the work. One for Hermit’s world, which I’m thinking will be more of a traditional comic style, perhaps something along these lines (but with perhaps colour):
The thing I liked most about this image was the lines, and how they had a real comic book type feel about them. I made this image with a felt tip, and am considering using it for a lot of the line work I will have to do. Ultimately I feel if I was to utilise this style, I would definitely need colour to bring more life to the images, as it looks quite bland as it is. Alternatively after reading ‘Hush’, there was a visual style that Jim Lee uses for Bruce Wayne’s flash backs that I was particularly fond of. Although they are done in black and white the use of light, tone and shading gives the images a lot of substance. The style looks like this:
However due to the professional nature of these images, so far I have been unsuccessful in trying to replicate the style. I will either need more practice, or more experience at literally copying them, so I can get more of a feel for the style. I think if I was to try and directly copy it it would perhaps give me more of an understanding of how to do it. Taking all these factors into account, I’m pretty sure that I will make Hermit’s world black and white, then the mole’s world colour. This will provide a nice juxtaposition between the two worlds. Also the Mole’s world is meant to be an exciting fictional place filled with lies and possibilities, so it makes a lot of sense to do it this way. The Mole’s world is again a style which hasn’t been fully worked out, but I have ideas. I have taken a lot of inspiration from Dave Mckean, particularly his work in ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘Arkham Asylum; A serious house on a serious earth’. I particularly like the really surreal element he utilises within his work, and I feel this style would really work within the world I am trying to create. I get the feeling he uses paints and creates a lot of his work free hand, instead of creating it digitally, however I could be wrong. In any case, the images I have been inspired by look like this:
As previously stated, I have a desire to make the Mole’s world very bright and colourful, with random lines and splashes of colour, which I’m hoping will make it look quite surreal. I think I need to be careful in order to not rip off Dave Mckean’s style too much. There are elements of his work I want to capture but I don’t want to just imitate the style. Perhaps take the way he uses colour, but then have my own concept of lining. Narrative: As this piece revolves around a story, the narrative must be strong and coherent in order to communicate the feelings it conveys. This has, and still is to an extent, one of the hardest things to conquer. I’ve battled thoroughly with ideas and have had some difficulty narrowing things down. Nonetheless I feel I have made solid progress by tying up all the loose ends. Over the last week I have restructured the narrative almost entirely. By chopping scenes up and placing them in different places I think I have enabled the story to become quite engaging from an early point. It now begins with the original ending scene, of Hermit in Roy’s office, the ultimate showdown effectively. The ending of the scene will not be shown though, instead it will cut to the first time Hermit becomes the Mole. Throughout the story, the Mole’s narrative will lead up to the point where he is confronting Roy, and Hermit’s will be quite sparse, basically filling in gaps, and crucial plot lines, and explaining to the audience all the crazy things the mole does. I’ve used quite a lot of unreliable narrative in an updated script I’m working on. This is to really provide juxtaposition between the worlds, and to communicate to the viewer Hermit’s warped view on reality. I feel this will also benefit the story because it will allow for a much larger time scale. If only certain parts of Hermit’s narrative are being shown then the time gap between them can be much larger. I felt that originally, trying to cram many events into a small time scale in one linear time line was very frustrating. This strategy made it increasingly challenging to achieve scope or dynamic. Alan Moore’s ‘Watchmen’ (1985) has been a very large source of inspiration for this project. It was after looking at it again that I realised the benefits of slicing up
the narrative into parts, then slotting them into different places. There is one particular sequence (Ch.IV) when Dr. Manhattan has been exiled and is on mars, that he juggles around memories, and thus the viewer’s judgment on time. This showed me how narrative can be a lot more captivating if it isn’t chronological all the time. The project ties hand in hand with my research paper in many respects. My research paper is about the graphic novel’s difference between other mediums. There are several different aspects which I could use to compare the different platforms, however I haven’t decided on a specific one yet. I’m swaying towards the idea of using time/space and narrative as the defining factor to draw comparisons and differences between the mediums. Another one for example could be imagery. The other platforms I will be focusing on are: The motion comic, film, and animation. Looking at imagery would be a strong factor because the difference in it among mediums can be quite vast. It would also need contextual knowledge so I planned to look at futurism, and Edward Muybridge. In order to look at movement within a frame, or multiple frames (which is essentially what comics are), understanding the historical context would help me get a better understanding of how the movement has developed. On the other hand exploring space and time would be an interesting adventure. The way comics show time is quite unique compared to other mediums. It’s left largely to the perception of the reader. The gaps between panels, or ‘the gutter’, ‘is where the reader fills in the time gaps between panels’ S.McCloud -‐ ‘Understanding Comics’ 1993. In films and animation, the time scale is all provided, comics is one of the only mediums where the reader has this power. Although I’m unsure about the factor I want to specifically focus on, I have decided on sources. For case studies I will look at ‘Watchmen’, as it has been adapted from a graphic novel to fit a motion comic, and a feature length film. This means I can take elements from the different platforms and compare and contrast them. It’s possible I could discuss other factors, like Imagery, but specifically look at Watchmen.
If other sources are needed I will look at ‘Batman: Year One’ (Frank Miller: 1987), as it has been adapted into a feature length animation, and was a building stone of Batman Begins (2005, C.Nolan). Looking at narrative is something which I have done a lot for this project, so writing about for the research paper would make a lot of sense, especially as I feel I am more knowledgeable about it than the imagery aspect. The target audience for this project will probably be people of the age 16 and over. I would imagine it will draw in a larger percentage of males than females, as I feel it appeals more to the male audience. Ultimately, (at least I hope) it will appeal largely to the average ‘graphic novel’ fan. I say graphic novel as apposed to comic because the graphic novel traditionally reaches out to the more mature viewer. In recent years ‘comics’ have usually been perceived as ‘childish’ or ‘immature’. This is at least the view Scott Mccloud takes on the matter, which can be found in his work Understanding Comics. I’m hoping that because my work is fundamentally a story, the viewer will be able to relate to, and understand the characters, and become involved with the plot. This is probably the aspiration for most people that create stories among different platforms. I can’t really imagine that anything would actually be achieved from watching my story, I just want it to be captivating and entertaining. I’m hoping it will submerge the viewer into a world of fiction, and engage them. Similarly to the way I feel when I read a good comic, or watch a good film. There is still definitely a lot of progress to be made however. There is a lot of room for improvement, and modifications still need to be made. I think my skills as an artist still aren’t sufficient enough to do this piece full justice. I have a lot of experimenting/work to do over the christmas holidays. I also want to scan more drawings on, and have a fiddle around with them on illustrator to see what I can come up with. The images need substance and depth in order to make this piece successful. The final script is very nearly finished, and I have made some progress with the storyboarding. This still needs to be developed and finished. At this stage I anticipate my work will be displayed on a computer at the graduate show. Bibliography and Links: G.Morrison & D.Mckean. ‘Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On A
Serious Earth’ (DC Comics 1989) N.Gaiman & D.Mckean, ‘Black Orchid’ (DC Comics 1988-‐1989) A.Moore: ‘Watchmen’ (DC Comics 1985) J.Loeb: ‘Hush’ (DC Comics 2002-‐2003) F. Miller: ‘Batman: Year One’ (DC Comics 1987) S.Mccloud: ‘Understanding Comics; The invisible art (Tundra Publishing 1993) W.Eisner: ‘Comics and Sequential art’ (Poorhouse Press 1985) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21504857.2011.629668 (Academic journal on graphic novels) Images taken from: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=361968&gsub=56615 http://alis.me/x/wp-content/uploads/archive/20070821_arkham.asylum.fear.jpg http://media.photobucket.com/image/dr%20manhattan%20mars/KarlJamesBrown/Misc/Mutants%20and%20Masterminds/Watchmen1Medium.jpg