Project - work in progress

Monday 9 November 2009


"Journey to the lost continent". As usually thoughts and ideas.

7 comments:

Simon Holland 74 said...

What I'm liking at the moment is your confidence in using light within your scenes... as well as scale and depth you are promising some great stuff.

anewman said...

I need to add more details. Also composition, mass ratio ...etc. A lot of work to do.

Friend's comment : How much did you drink to draw this ?

tutorphil said...

Interim Online Review - Unit 2 : Space 10/11/09

Hi Alex,

For a melancholy person you're making me very happy! :-)

Seriously, what is really impressing me is your absolute commitment to plugging the holes in your own understanding; I know you were worried about drawing and conveying your scenes to a high enough standard, but the above image demonstrates admirably that your confidences, skills and flair are all coming on a-pace - and it's very exciting stuff. You're creating very filmic, moody and expressive scenes, which suggests that you understand what the audience needs from a scene - what they don't - or at least, what they need to see to think they're seeing more...

You also succeed in creating a real sense of depth and recession in this image; I love your independence and your hunger and I'm now expecting big things from you.

Generally, I'd encourage you to further embrace theatricality in your image making and that dynamic, evocative use of light. I get a sense that you're enjoying yourself - good. Keep it going. Keep it up. I may direct some of your classmates to your blog - those that feel their lack of drawing skills is holding them back - perhaps you could give them some advice? :-)

Re. the written assignment, The Matrix has been written about a lot, which means there should be lots of supporting material for you; please see second comment for general advice re. the written assignment.

tutorphil said...

Written Assignment stuff…

Some general structural advice regarding framing your essay in the more general context of ‘production design’ – by way of introduction to your specific case-study (i.e. the movie or game of choice), you’ll need to demonstrate your understanding of the purpose of production design/designers in enshrining certain ‘narrative values’ within the look of the production; you should discuss the general aims/objectives/definitions of production design – see below:

“Before designing anything, the designer develops a "design concept," an overarching metaphor for the film's appearance that governs individual choices. This "concept" may or may not be established in conjunction with the director. Once settled upon, however, it structures all decisions made, helping the art staff to give an individual film visual distinction.”
Read more: http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Production-Design.html#ixzz0WRjZ6wTX


You’ll find alternative definitions that you may want to include, but your following analysis of your chosen exemplar should be an in-depth discussion of that ‘overarching metaphor’ that organizes all the various components of the production’s design; you need to be looking for recurring motifs, colour values, use of space, set-design etc. that, collectively, create ‘the look’ and be able to talk insightfully about the narrative contribution of ‘the look’ – i.e. – how does it assist in the audience’s understanding of the narrative or thematic framework.
IMPORTANT; try and think of your written assignments as ‘complete worlds’ – i.e., that they must contain all information necessary for your reader to follow your discussion coherently. Never presume prior knowledge on the behalf of your reader; do not, for instance, presume that your reader understands or is familiar with ‘Production Design’ – you always need to define your terms WITHIN the essay; likewise with films and games; give their release date, their director etc. Use footnotes to give definitions or information that would otherwise interrupt flow of argument; for instance, if you don’t want to pause rhythm of sentence by giving reader additional information about a particular artist or designer, use a footnote to put this data into the ‘margins’ of the discussion. On Word, goto to Insert and then ‘Footnote’ to install footnote at bottom of page.

AVOID DESCRIPTION – obviously, you will need to give some plot details to contextualise the scenes you want to discuss, but I don’t want a blow-by-blow account of the game/film; give a brief prĂ©cis and get on with the ANALYSIS.

Below is a list of useful websites; use them in addition to other sources of reference (books, docs, making ofs) to SUPPORT your observations; you need to gather EVIDENCE to corroborate with your analysis. GENERIC observations (i.e. ‘stating the bloody obvious’) are to be avoided at all costs. Tell me something I DON’T know!

http://www.filmreference.com/
http://www.imdb.com
http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/
http://www.screenjabber.com/
http://www.empireonline.com/
http://www.metacritic.com/
http://www.totalfilm.com/
http://www.channel4.com/film/
http://movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/

WORD COUNT!

The gloves are coming off; the brief asks you to produce 1,500 words… and that’s what I want; shortfall assignments will be penalized accordingly – or failed.

Good Luck!

anewman said...

Phil,

"and I'm now expecting big things from you."
-No expectations, no disappointment.

"Read more: http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Production-Design.html#ixzz0WRjZ6wTX"
-Yes, very useful I've read this already to understand what is "production design" [yes, shame on me, I didn't know clearly what is it].

Generally
Thank you very much, very helpful information. Definitely, I will try to use all your advices to make good written work and good concept arts[no promises]. Thanks for references, I think I'll find them useful.

Why did you underline the WORD COUNT ? Did I less in my previous essay ?

tutorphil said...

The essay stuff was a general note to all students - so the word count wasn't directed specifically at you - but there were a number of assignments that came up short...

Ath31as said...

Wow Alex your images draw very powerful emotion of wonder, fear and uneasiness from me. Excellent work, I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Post a Comment