First Photographs

This is a test shoot of my scene before my models came onto set: 

American Beauty:

(Lester Burnham) I like this photograph because to the emotion in the characters face and body. However he just looks sad because the petals have fallen off the rose. You have no way of knowing why the person is sad other than the rose.

American Beauty:

(Ricky Fitts) This photograph is easier to read than the above American Beauty photograph. But because of this I think the photograph becomes too one sided, you get nothing back from the character. 

American Psycho:

This is one of the best working photographs in the series. The relationship between the characters and the viewer works very well and so does the position of both characters.

Atonement:

This is another photograph that works on an emotional level. There is a very strong story line within this photograph that the viewer is quite easily able to read. The only problem is the character on the left hand side is a bit lost within the photograph, she is too hidden.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

These two photographs are starting to work quite well. However, I think there is not enough change within the two photographs. There needs to be a more dramatic change within the two photographs to make more of an impact to the viewer.

Fight Club:

I like the idea within this photograph but I think it looks too much like two different people and not one person and his alter ego. I think there only needs to be one person playing both characters so the viewer understands they are in fact the same person.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:

This photograph isn’t quite where I want it to be. I think it is too readable and gives too much information away. More thought needs to go into this photograph.

Pulp Fiction:

This is meant to be the aftermath of an exciting scene, but it looks really boring. The female character is meant to have almost died but it looks like she is just waking up from having a sleep. This photograph needs to be more exciting.

Over all I am very pleased with how my photographs turned out. I think they are a good starting point and I will be able to further develop my ideas through theses photographs.

Why These Films?

American Beauty:

American Psycho:

I chose to use American Psycho because of the strong contrast between Patrick Bateman’s two personalities. On the one had Bateman is an everyday working man who comes from a rich family and is successful in life. But at night time Bateman turns into a evil cool blooded serial killer.

This film interested me because of how ruthless Batman is at night, but how he can be so normal during the day. It’s like he has a switch he can flick on and off when he feels like it.

Atonement:

I chose to use Atonement because of the extreme conflict that happens between the main characters. Brony has a very active imagination; she dreams of becoming a writer. Brony sees what she thinks is Robbie raping her young cousin and changes the course of all their lives for ever. Brony is a strong young woman to be able to even speak up about what happened that night; unfortunately she got it so very wrong. Her sister Cecilia is also a strong young woman to side with her lover Robbie as she is so sure he is innocent. Robbie is a very understanding man, he can’t do anything about what hand he had been delt so he works out his prison sentence and his time in the army, unfortunately it costs him his life; he dies without his name been cleared. Cecilia also dies during the war without being reunited with Robbie.

This film portrays what happens when you tell one little lie and how it effects the lives of the people around you forever. The film shows this really well through the use of moving time. The film starts off before the situation unfolds and then afterwards it moves forward to the effects of Brony’s mistake and the emotion problems it caused.

These types of this happen all the time in ordinary life. Mostly not on such a big scale, but telling one white lie always starts a stream of lies. Everyone lies; it’s a fact of life.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

I chose to use Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because of the relationship between the two main characters. They are complete opposites yet they fall in love with each other. As the relationship unfolds they start too full out of love and hate each other.

These types of things happen in relationships all the time. People full madly in love and can’t stay away from each other, but so often it ends badly.

Joel and Clementine take measures into their own hands, it is only after they erase each other from their memories, but they find out how much they really love each other and are meant to be together.

This is a far reaching film in the fact that there is no sure thing as a procedure to erase people from your mind. It is the idea his procedure initials that is important for the film. The couple had to be without each other to know how much they really loved one another.

Fight Club:

I chose to use Fight Club as one of my films because The Narrator is a very interesting character.  At the start of the film we see The Narrator at his weakest. The Narrator has a boring job, catalogue apartment and average life. Through the introduction of Tyler Durden, The Narrator becomes stronger and more emotionally stronger. As the fight club grows bigger and better so does The Narrator. Only at the end of the film is The Narrator strong enough to get rid of Tyler Durden; this is done when The Narrator shoots not himself but Tyler in the cheek.

Theses aspects of the film are very relatable to normal day life. The Narrator is a character who could be applied to many people’s very day lives. His live is so boring and mundane that he creates an Alter ego, a strong charming, and good-looking male character. Having this character on The Narrators side makes him strong and through his he is finally able to become his own person again.

Many people in real life create an alter ego or invisible friend to help them deal with their problems. For example, Dan had an invisible friend who sat on his shoulder call Kenneth. Whenever Dan did something wrong, it was Kenneth’s who was the problem. Dan grew out of his invisible friend, but it is still a fond memory. Fight Club is very much a reflection on human life and how people, especially men deal with their problems. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next

I chose to use One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest as one of my films because R.P McMurphy is a very interesting character. He goes into a Mental Hospital when he has no mental problems to begin with and it ends up costing him his life. Both McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are very strong willed characters who would never back down from one another. McMurphy works so hard to try and break down Nurse Ratched that it ends in McMurphy getting a lobotomy. If McMurphy had just waited out his short stay in hospital he could have left a free name. But McMurphy wanted what was best for the other men in the ward. He wanted them to have a better more enjoyable life while receiving their medical treatment.

This film really shows what happens when you take the easy way out. R.P McMurphy chose to go inside the Mental Hospital instead of jail because he wanted an easy way out. Also McMurphy could have had a cushy time staying out him sentience but instead he chose to annoy Nurse Ratched into giving the patients a better life.

McMurphy tried to give the men in on the ward a better life, in the end it cost him his life. But I think after his death he changed the ward for better. 

Pulp Fiction:

I chose to use Pulp Fiction as one of my films because it’s a fast passed extremely violent reflection on life’s underground. As the film revolves around six different lives you get a greater scene of the wider community. The things that happen throughout the film are very extreme and are quite unbelievable, but it almost like these things could happen, for example; the drug over dose scene. This scene is so extreme, the woman is about to die from an overdose. After the two men save her life she seems to bounce back very fast and is ready for her next hit up.

The aspects of this film are extremely unbelievable when you relate it to everyday life, but that’s just my life. I have ever been exposed to this extreme form of living but some people have. To these types of people some aspects of this film are relatable to their lives and unfortunately they know what it is like to experience someone who has overdosed. 

Films I have chosen to re-create

American Beauty

1999

Directed by Sam Mendes

Stars; Kevin Spacey

The film won five Academy Awards

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

American Psycho

2000

Directed by Mary Harron

Stars; Christian Bale

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

Atonement

2007

Directed by Joe Wright

Stars; Keira Knightley and James McAvoy

The film was nominated for two Oscars and won one

Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. (Based on the British romance novel by Ian McEwan).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004

Directed my Michel Gondry

Stars; Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet

The film was nominated for two Oscars and won one

A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.

Fight Club

1999

Directed by David Fincher

Stars: Brad Pitt and Edward Norton

Nominated for many awards including an Oscar

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1975

Directed by Milos Forman

Stars: Jack Nicholson

Won five Academy Awards and six Golden Globes

Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.

Pulp Fiction

1994

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Stars; John Travolta and Uma Thurman

The film was nominated for two Oscars and won one

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

  

                                                                           

  

Test shots...

Imagine this space with clear walls and clear floors. Wide angle lens and a whole lot of empty space. Imagine the bed made and base covered, studio lights and high contrast.

Amy Moffitt

Amy Moffitt

These photographs are the first ones taken in the set I will use for taking my real photographs. I am testing the space to see if there will be enough room for the person and the bed but also enough empty space.­­

At first these were just test shots so it didn’t matter what was in the background and on the wall. After looking at these photographs I quite like the different this in the background. The things at first don’t seem to matter, they are of little importance. But after looking at the photograph for longer you start to look at the different things which help build the story line and potinually change to story completely.

I have decided to make the set look like a photography staged set. I have put a sheet up on the wall and on the ground. I don’t want the set to extend right out to the end of the photograph. I think there needs to be some of the space outside of the set so you can see it is in a real life environment.

I would like the set to look like it is a walk in staged set. I want it to have the feeling that any normal person can walk in and become a movie star from any film they chose. 

Amy Moffitt

Film Re-creation

I've been inspired by the Wade Brother's over the past few days and have slightly moved my project. I am going to try and recreate film scenes. (Not always in the same way.)


For Example: American Beauty
I would like the whole bed and floor to be covered in rose petals with one lonely man sitting at the end of the bed looking sad and alone while holding a rose.
Not the same as the film, but you can see that inspiration has been taken from the film.
I'm not sure if  I should do just one film or a range of different ones...

 

The Wade Brothers- Room 107

The Wade Brothers - Room 107

The Wade Brothers - Room 107

The Wade Brothers - Room 107

The Wade Brothers - Room 107

The Wade Bothers - 107

"The Wade Brothers are David Lindsey Wade and sibling Lyndon Wade who are each recognized as one of the top lifestyle, fashion and advertising photographers in the world. They have received worldwide acclaim and exposure for their work in all forms of media. Additionally their work appears in galleries around the world."

Room 107 is a personal project, with still photographs shot by Lyndon Wade and motion generated by The Wade Brothers. Many of these still images are also hanging in the Lumas Gallery.

This work really stood out to be because of how well it was made. Room 107 refers to a hotel room in which many different types of people inhabited. Looking at all the photographs as still images you can tell there all in the same room but each of the situations are completely different. 

http://www.thewadebrothers.com/

Ex-Offenders at the Scene of Crime - David Goldblatt

2010 Photo series
Silver gelatine prints on fibre base paper
Portraits of perpetrators of crimes not in jail but "as 'ordinary' people such as one might encounter in a street or supermarket."

Ex-Offenders at the Scene of Crime - David Goldblatt

 

Ex-Offenders at the Scene of Crime - David Goldblatt

Ex-Offenders at the Scene of Crime - David Goldblatt