Statement of Intent

3rd MARCH

FINAL MAJOR STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

SECTION ONE

Film Festival Campaign

I would like to work towards creating advertisement products for an imagined film or TV festival with a single running theme. These products could include moving and still posters, brochures/brochure covers for the film or TV festival, banners, web design, etc. I am hoping that having a specific scenario to design for will help me to develop a better understanding for promotional projects and help me to further develop an illustrative and animation skillset for university. To avoid becoming overwhelmed with the potential scope of this project I will create a list of possible themes and the products that I could make from these individual themes, before choosing one in particular to research and work with.

 

SECTION TWO

My starting point for my final major project will be researching the marketing of the recent Oscars and BAFTA film awards, in particular the illustrated brochure covers for the BAFTA Film Awards that depict the top 5 nominees for best film each year. Illustrators for these include Levente Szabo, Malika Favre, and Jonathan Burton, of who I would like to contact to ask about their process and thoughts when designing for BAFTA. Among other artists that I am interested in researching are Matt Taylor, Dan Mumford, Aaron Horkey, all contemporary designers, and the early 20^th century artists Egon Schiele, and J.C. Leyendecker. I would also like to look for cinema museums and potential film festivals to influence me, and any associated media that I can find, investigating the opinions of people interested in film as well as potential industry professionals.

 

SECTION THREE

Following my previous Trace Elements project I started to build up some basic knowledge on the GIF making process and feel that this is something that I would further like to explore in my final major. Beyond this I feel that I would also like to continue with digital illustration and perhaps collage. I would like to think more about researching digital illustration to build up my skillset and will turn to a number of different resources for this, hopefully including first-hand information from the artists that I contact, as well as from books and magazines. This is something that I would like to start in my third and fourth weeks and continue on throughout my project. I would then like to spend the next few weeks recording observations, planning and making for my final outcome, leaving myself the last few weeks to solely focus on creating final works to be displayed.

 

SECTION FOUR

To determine whether the work that I create for my final major is successful I will continuously refer back to my research and self-evaluate. I would also like to get peer assessment and frequent critiques throughout my project to get more outside opinions.

APPENDIX

BOOKS/MAGAZINES

Empire Magazine

BFI’s Sight & Sound Magazine

Total Film Magazine

Animation: The Global History © 2017 Thames & Hudson Ltd Text © 2017 Maureen Furniss

Illustration on Advertising © 2011 Monsa

Egon Schiele 1890-1918: Desire and Decay © 1999 Taschen © 1999 Wolfgang Georg Fischer

MUSEUMS/EXHIBITIONS

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/

WEBSITES

https://uk.pinterest.com/ellenhodds/movie-poster-project/

https://issuu.com/search?q=film+festival

http://www.dan-mumford.com/

https://society6.com/jamesormiston

http://www.matttaylor.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Horkey

https://www.instagram.com/aaronhorkey/?hl=en

https://www.paulabonet.com/

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-schiele-egon.htm

http://www.americanartarchives.com/leyendecker,jc.htm

 

 

Timeplan

3rd MARCH

Week/Date	Plan…
Week 1 20/02/2017	Creating a Pinterest board to start exploring possible ideas and to identify potential artists to research
Week 2 27/02/2017	Finalising Statement of Intent Finalise theme plan for project Start researching marketing for Oscars and BAFTAs as well as recent films Look into existing film festivals Identify books and magazines relevant to my project Continuing research into artists, designers, directors and potentially a bit into the film industry itself
Week 3 06/03/2017	Statement of intent to reach the moderator by 6th March 2017 Try to contact the found designers for the BAFTA brochure illustrations to ask about their processes and how they wanted to approach Start to try and further develop digital illustration and manual illustration with recorded notes and development
Week 4 13/03/2017	Identify selection of films that will fit my chosen theme and start to record observations from them Pick out significant iconography/imagery that will resonate most with the viewer of my pieces Continue digital illustration development and considering moving elements/animation Artist research
Week 5 20/03/2017	Artist research Continue digital illustration development and considering moving elements/animation
Week 6 27/03/2017	Idea development Consider products for final outcome Reflection and critique of project up to this point
Week 7 Easter Holiday 03/04/2017	Recording observations Further idea development
Week 8 Easter Holiday 10/04/2017	Recording observations Further idea development
Week 9 17/04/2017	Final outcome development
Week 10 24/04/2017	Final outcome development
Week 11 01/05/2017	Final outcome development
Week 12 08/05/2017	Final outcome development
Week 13 15/05/2017	Final outcome development
Week 14 22/05/2017 DEADLINE 26TH	Finalising final outcome DEADLINE 26th May 2017 6th Assembling exhibition 13th opening 3 weeks?

Research

4th MARCH

My first wave of research was to use Pinterest to find inspiration for this final unit and to locate artists relevant to my theme and chosen digital medium.

BAFTA Illustrated covers

Levente Szabó 2016

Malika Favre 2015

La Boca 2014

Jonathan Burton 2013

The artists above have all been commissioned to create 5 separate illustrations for the top 5 nominated films in the BAFTA Film Awards. Each of the illustrations was used as the front cover for a number of brochures for the event.

Links:

https://issuu.com/bafta/docs/bafta_film_awards_2016_brochure_brihttps://issuu.com/bafta/docs/film_awards_in_2015_brochure_-_birdhttps://issuu.com/tobyw/docs/ee_british_academy_film_awards_in_2013https://issuu.com/bafta/docs/12_years_a_slave_-_bafta_2014https://issuu.com/bafta/docs/bafta_film_awards_2017_brochure

Animated Movie Posters

As I had experimented with GIFs in my last project I did some research into animated film posters. There are a number of examples online of edits from the chosen film’s source material which then have the film poster’s text layered over the top, e.g. the title and tagline.

Other examples that I found were of digitally images for a chosen film with a small moving aspect. For example this poster for Pulp Fiction has a simplified animation of one of the most famous scenes in the film.

While this is still something that I have a huge interest in, and is relevant to the Illustration and Animation course that I will be going on to study, I’m not sure that this is something that I will move forward with in this particular project.

Olly Moss Movie Posters

I also looked at the works of Olly Moss that he had done for film. He is an artist that I have previously studied for a similar project in the past and so I looked further into his works. In particular I liked the simplistic but clever designs that are consistent throughout his works.

Tom Whalen

Tom Whalen’s colourful works caught my eye for their style and longer composition.

J.C. Leyendecker’s Works

I looked into some more traditional works also in the work of J.C. Leyendecker. He was an artist for advertising in the early 20th century and employed a particular style that I am drawn to.

 

 

J.C. Leyendecker Research

7th MARCH

An American illustrator from the early 20th century, Joseph Christian Leyendecker is most well known for his poster, book, and advertising illustrations, notably for The Saturday Evening Post. In his career he produced 332 covers for The Saturday Evening Post alone as well as interior illustrations for the magazine.

Leyendecker would become an important influential American figure, credited as the creator of the modern day image of Santa Claus, the New Year’s Baby, flowers on Mother’s Day, and firecrackers on the 4th of July. His relationship with The Saturday Evening Post, the then most popular magazine in the country, would span over 40 years from 1899-1943.

Leyendecker was also well known for his Arrow Collar Man, created for the Cluett Peabody & Co brand, and the artist is often thought of in conjunction with the famous American artist Norman Rockwell, whom he acted as a sort of mentor for.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._Leyendecker

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/artists-gallery/saturday-evening-post-cover-artists/jc-leyendecker-art-gallery/j-c-leyendecker-biography

Tom Whalen

6th MARCH

Of all of the works of Tom Whalen that I researched, the image shown above is by far my favourite. It is a movie poster print titled ‘Confectionary Kaiju released by Gallery1988 for a series of screenprints for the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters.

One of the main things that I find most interesting about this piece is the unusual use of composition, with the print measuring 12 x 36″. This long and narrow composition works well for this piece, with the Japanese text standing vertically. For a film poster this seems unusual, as the typically used composition uses international paper measurements. I like how this makes the piece stand out from others with such a simple change.

The colour palette for this piece is also something that really works with the piece, as the illustrator stuck to a simple selection. The purple and orange act harmoniously together as contrasting colours. These colours are kept to a darker sort of hue which helps to offset the off white and the small amount of green in the image. As the colours are flat without any sort of gradient or rendering, the colour palette stays simplistic, which seems to be characteristic of the illustrator’s works.

These are also colours that work for this film in particular, as they fit the style of the film, with the brightly coloured CGI ghosts. They really help to evoke the playful sort of feeling that the franchise is known for, which is something that I want to keep in mind when moving forward with my project.

The last thing that I felt worked in this piece was the flat coloured style used by Whalen. The uncomplicated shapes used work for this piece, and don’t need to rely on smaller details to carry it. This makes for a powerful illustration, as even in this simpler style, the viewer is clear on the subject of the image.

Ideas

8th MARCH

In this I went through the list of my different ideas and recorded my thoughts.

MOVIE CAMPAIGN PROJECT

TV CAMPAIGN PROJECT

BAFTA Film Awards Brochure Covers ·         Each year has a different illustrator ·         Film covers are the top 5 nominated films ·         5 separate illustrations all have a running theme Animated Film Posters ·         GIF posters that have a loop taken directly from the film/trailer and have the other assets on film posters pasted over the top ·         Illustrated GIF posters that have a moving element within them Film Banner ·         Long, vertical illustrations that have common theming through style and subject

BAFTA Television Awards Brochure Covers ·         Existing brochures aren’t always illustrated but I can research the film awards illustrators ·         Would still include the top 5 nominees and would have a consistent theme Animated TV Posters ·         GIF posters can use the same process as film posters ·         Would try to use TV shows that had been cancelled early as a theme     TV Banner ·

 

* = Best ideas

Imagined scenario for a series of works – could produce campaign products for a film festival with a single weaving theme:

 

Film/TV with strong and famous iconography

• Film/TV with a single item that is instantly recognisable, e.g. the spinning top from Inception is something that sticks in the mind of the audience
• Will often be something that is shown consistently and has connections to the story/characters, e.g. the polaroids in Memento are important to the character as an insight as to how he copes with his memory condition, while also being important to the story by acting as a sort of bread crumb trail for the protagonist to follow
• Films that are psychological are probably the best place to look for something with strong iconography
• An example of strong iconography in TV would be Hannibal, a psychological horror that uses the imagery of a stag consistently to great effect. The iconography seems unrelated to the story when taken at face value, but is in fact used to suggest that the main character has already subconsciously solved the most important mystery, and is having visions of a stag through association. The story of Hannibal is famously about a serial killer cannibal, and the importance of the stag is its relation to the wendigo, an evil spirit or cannibalistic monster from Algonquian folklore that is often depicted with stag antlers.

 

Auteurs that have a consistent style/sort of film that they work with

• Action films – Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bay, etc. are names that are instantly recognisable and guarantee huge blockbuster type films
• Nicolas Winding Refn is a style that is recognisable to me, with something about the colour choice and framing always being recognisable to the viewer.
• The Hitchcock name is a brand that is known worldwide
• Studio Ghibli is another huge recognisable brand; as a company that is synonymous with animation I would be wary to create illustrative content from it because they are masters of the craft and I am not
• Hayao Miyazaki – Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, The Wind Rises,
• Alfred Hitchcock – The 39 Steps, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds,
• Nicolas Winding Refn – Pusher, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon,
• Stanley Kubrick – The Killing, Spartacus, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket,
• Christopher Nolan – Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar,
• Steven Spielberg – Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, War Horse, Lincoln,
• ***Ridley Scott – Alien, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Prometheus, The Martian, Alien: Covenant,

Franchise films

• A strong theme to use in these works could be a continuing story or multiple stories set in the same imagined universe
• A huge amount of content to work with
• Main concern with this would be the superficial nature of some of the most popular examples. The most obvious example with the most to work with is the Marvel superhero franchise. While this does provide a lot of material and has a huge fan base, they aren’t hugely emotionally impactful and the identity of individual films gets lost within the grander scheme.
• This can be the same with many other franchises:
• In the list of top franchises is Star Wars, James Bond, the MCU, Harry Potter, Batman, etc.
• Star Wars – started as an original screenplay; was originally only planned as 3 films and so had a clear beginning and end but became such a cultural phenomenon that more films were made; extended universes can become problematic because while it can build the imaginary world that so many people love, but the original intention will get lost; a particular problem with the Star Wars brand that the MCU shares is the lack of focus on one particular character, you find that there’s too many people’s stories that the creators are trying to tell, so you yourself often lose any sort of emotional connection;
• Harry Potter – is slightly different to the other franchises as it was adapted from a series of books that were already quite popular and important to many people; the film franchise introduced the story to a much wider audience; doesn’t necessarily suffer from the same lack of character focus as I mentioned before due to the protagonist always staying clearly the same; could be argued that this series is now falling into the franchise pitfall with an extended universe;
• James Bond – this franchise again suffers from a different set of problems; there’s always years between the last and next James Bond film so the actor has changed more than once; each film is often disconnected from the previous film leading to a sort of episodic structure within the franchise; Bond films are also the phallic dream, Bond acting as the ultimate masculine symbol which is not something that I have ever personally connected with and so would struggle to work from;

 

One strong genre/category connecting films from different times/studios/directors/etc. *

• The first one that comes to mind is the umbrella genre for LGBTQ cinema in light of Moonlight winning the award for Best Picture at the Oscars 2017; ACLU ribbons worn by many of the attendants to the ceremony;
• Feminist films – Thelma and Louise; Mad Max Fury Road;
• Alien films – not exactly a genre but many of them often feature some of the same themes; dependant on whether the alien is hunting the characters or befriending them; treat these as a sub category of the sci-fi genre, for example I would lump Alien and E.T. together, but not E.T. and Star Trek; would use alien films that treat the alien in the story as something completely new and unknown, better if it is one single enemy rather than a huge disaster film;
• *80s sci-fi films* – Blade Runner, E.T., The Thing, Tron, Terminator, RoboCop, The Fly, Back to the Future, Aliens, Predator, Ghostbusters,
• https://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/tbz10.issuu
• Moon, Prometheus, Alien, Europa Report, Gravity, The Martian, Silent Running, Serenity,
• Fantasy – night watch, day watch,
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films
• https://issuu.com/micaradu/docs/empire_uk_issue_334_april_2017
• https://issuu.com/sci-fi-londonfilmfestival/docs/sfl_2016_a5_programme_web

 

Films that feature one particular actor, either in a leading or supporting role

• The one common feature that you would see within each would be a single recognisable face
• In some cases this could be restrictive as an actor can only do so many films in their lifetime, in which case I would likely need to choose an older actor
• Some actors stick to one particular genre which could help to focus a genre and style
• Jack Nicholson – Easy Rider, The Passenger, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Shining, Batman,

 

Chose a central theme and select films that explore that theme *

• This gives me quite a wide field to work with as this can cross time/genre/director/style/etc.
• Themes could be things like death/family (found family film festival)/liberation/vengeance/mentorship/the human condition/

 

Work based off of the 2017 Oscars *

• Can draw direct content from the films themselves
• Can draw from their individual marketing campaigns
• Research into the BAFTA Brochure illustrations covers that I had found, could contact these illustrators to get their own words on their personal process and thoughts for these pieces

 

J.C. Leyendecker Analysis

8TH MARCH

Over the course of his career, Leyendecker created over 300 illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post alone, not including his other commissioned and private works. His work for the Saturday Evening Post spanned 40 years, from 1899 to 1943, the most notable of which are his New Year’s covers, which he was recommissioned for annually, which featured a continuing series of babies. In addition to his work for the Saturday Evening Post he also created over 100 magazine covers for other magazine titles.

Of his works in magazine covers, the image shown above is the one I find myself most drawn to, and so is the one that I want to focus on.

Characteristic of the time that he was working, there is an elegance to the way that he imagines the figures he portrays. Many artists of the time seem to have employed a style that exaggerated slenderness in the figures they portrayed. This is something that I have always found myself drawn to, previously studying the works of Egon Schiele and Howard Tangye.

Leyendecker’s figures are particularly beautiful, with softer lines used, and deep set features. The figure’s in his works always seem to be in action, in the sense that they are often seen in the middle of some sort of act, usually domestic or calm. The fluidity of the lines used always helps to make the subjects appear gentle, more so for the female subjects. Leyendecker’s works also helped to shape the popular romanticised style of his time, given the popularity of the Saturday Evening Post.

Many of his works employ a muted colour scheme, also shown in the work I have chosen to look more closely at. This was also characteristic of advertisements of the time. The colour choices in his works lean towards realism and are a part of his staple style.

Also characteristic of his style is his use of a sort of crosshatching with paint. For more detailing in areas of particular light or darkness, he uses paint in an unusual way to create short, consecutive lines, in a way that you would typically use a pencil.

Another thing that I find appealing about this work is the centralised composition. As a piece that will be set to the cover of something, in this case a magazine, a central composition is functional. Typically magazine covers will place the brand title at the top of the image, with additional text either around or, in the case of the Saturday Evening Post, below the featured image. This is the most common sort of composition that I have seen for most forms of advertisement, as it is tried and tested to be repeatedly successful.

The resulting image is one that feels well balanced. In this example the negative space surrounding the figures works well to keep the image looking open and uncluttered. Placing the title at the top and the additional information at the bottom of the image is also a clever use of composition, as the eye typically moves from the top left corner of the page to the bottom right. The first thing that the viewer will see is the brand, and the last is the contents of the magazine.

From this study, I want to pay attention to composition, as the composition of most magazine covers is similar to most film posters I’ve seen.

Library Research

9th MARCH

These are a list of different designers and artists that caught my eye when doing surface research for my project. From this I can select ones relevant to my project or to the work that I create.

-Alphonse Mucha 

I looked into Alphonse Mucha for his style

-Gustav Kilmt

Style and use of gold as well as a continuing love for his works

Illustralia promopress, Art Director Emma Termes Parera

-Eduardo Bertone

-Andy Potts – Graphic style

Pattern work:

A Catalogue of Hand Drawn Patterns Over & Over, Mike Perry

Looking into the pattern work of these illustrators for future reference

-Noah Butkus

-Dan Funderburgh – patterns like wallpaper designs

-Jason Gnewikow – type

-Claire Scully

-Yuko Shimizu

-Yokoland – vector imagery

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud

A book that analyses the structure of comics, story, etc. Recommended to me when I went to UCA and found in the library

The Art of the Japanese Folding Screen, Oliver Impey

Thinking about other possible outcomes and applications of my work

Egon Schiele, Wolfgang Georg Fischer

Taschen book about Egon Schiele

Threadless, Jake Nickell

Book about t-shirt design but I liked many of the designers I found

-Joe Van Wetering – vector, brightly coloured but not really relevant to the 80s theme that I’m looking for

-Ray Frenden

-Alex Solis

-Jared Strumpenhorst – *****work similar to Schiele

Fashion Illustration, Martin Dawber

Collection of designers that focus on fashion illustration. I didn’t find a particular artist that I liked and felt that the style of the ones that I looked at weren’t really relevant to my project.

Illustration on Advertising, Monsa

Book that collects a number of different advertisement projects including illustrative elements. Relevant to my project in regards to creating an advertsing campaign for a film festival.

Metal, Paper, Plastic for Greenpeace

Art Director Bozenka Slaga – Analyse the three different resulting images for this campaign ‘Believe in reincarnation’

-Egon Schiele – favourite artist, would love to find a way to work in this style for my final major

-J. C. Leyendecker – an influential American illustrator from the early 20th century. The main influence for Norman Rockwell and creator of world wide famous imagery, e.g. Santa Claus. I love the style of this artists and should analyse on of his works.

BAFTA Brochure Covers

10TH MARCH

This was further research into the covers that I had previously found.

-Levente Szabo

2016 brochure covers, created for The Big Short, The Revenant, Carol, Bridge of Spies, Spotlight

-Malika Favre

2015 brochure covers, created for Birdman, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory of Everything

-La Boca

2014 brochure covers, created for Gravity, 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, Philomena

-Jonathan Burton

2013 brochure covers, created for Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty

 

These are artists that I found when researching film posters.

 

-Matt Taylor – I like this illustrator for his use of colour and style

-Dan Mumford – Illustrator similar to Matt Taylor in colour and style

-Aaron Horkey – A very detailed and complex design. Famous for his works with musicians and bands

Research

11TH MARCH

Empire magazine – British film magazine published every month that focuses on current mainstream films

Total Film magazine – UK film magazine published 13 times a year (extra summer issue) that features interviews with industry professionals

Total Film bookazine

ImagineFX magazine – digital art magazine published monthly

https://movie-screencaps.com/movie-directory/ – resource website for chosen films, has screencaps of the entire film