Week 6 ITAP - Medium

In the real world it is more than likely that most illustrators and other creative professionals may find themselves working to client defined briefs (Which pays the mortgage) in order to fund artistic indulgences in what really interests them.

However it doesn't always have to be a battle to juggle both client initiated and self initiated work.  Sometimes the two can coexist happily and successfully.

Since the days of researching FMP for my foundation course, I have been a fan of artist, illustrator and animator, Benjamin Goldman.

He initially rose to fame through his work on the movie "Lemony Snickets Series of Unfortunate Events" where he illustrated and animated the end titles.

I have added a sample of his work from this film below:

Of course this was client led work for which he was working to a brief.

However one of his most famous works was called "New York Divided" which was an animation about how the cotton trade was the root cause of the American Civil War and the relationship of this trade to slavery:

The link to this animation is given below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KyET5gTQ6g

This short film very soon became the centre of a major collaborative exhibition at the New York Historical Society alongside other creative works depicting the effect of the slave trade on the course of American history.

Whether or not Benjamin Goldman benefited commercially from this work only he will know but his professional reputation was undoubtedly enhanced as a result. So at least in that respect the project was a success.

Week 6 ITAP - Delivery

The potential market for illustrated work has never been so great as it has been today.  Illustrated outcomes can be found in magazines, billboards, textiles and animation for example.

Some illustrators can have their work defined by the market in which they work (Magazine illustrator, pattern illustrator etc) but every now and again a piece of self initiated work arises which crosses all the barriers into a variety of consumer products.

The example I have chosen is the "Hello Kitty" illustrations which arose out of the Sanrio studio in Japan by Ikuko Shimizu.

Kitty appeared on her first consumer product in 1975 which was a plastic coin purse which caused a fashion storm among young Asian girls and other small accessories and products soon followed.

Since then "Hello Kitty" has become a brand in itself.  The Sanrio studio now has over 3000 shops in the USA alone and the number of consumer products has multiplied hugely.

Today, there is now an artistic team which manages the creative output of the brand, creating new images and deleting old ones from production thus keeping the brand fresh.

Possibly the irony of the "Hello Kitty" brand and images is that what started as a piece of original, self initiated art which found a mass market has now become a very legislative design and publishing house working to a fixed and established artistic formula.

Week 5 ITAP - Story Development: The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell made a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of mythology in his book "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" which asserted that everyone in the world is born with the same model in their subconscious of what constitutes a hero or a heroic journey ("quest").  He used this assertion to explain why people who speak different languages can enjoy the same stories.  This was also an idea put forward by a leading Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.

Jung developed these ideas for the purposes of treating the mentally ill by finding meanings to their dreams and visions which were terrifying them.

What Campbell did was to take Jungs' theories and made correlations to give a common structure to all the worlds religions and myths derived from the worlds cultures.  He found a common pattern in these stories and myths and called them the "Hero's Journey" aka "Monomyth"

These findings have been adapted in films such as "Star Wars" and "The Matrix" in order to condense the numerous ideas into a coherent single story.

Assuming this would apply to most film stories involving a "hero", I have attempted to apply his framework to the film " Gladiator" who for me is possibly the most iconic hero of modern cinema.

I - Departure

• The Call to Adventure - Dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius makes it his dying wish for Maximus to become Protector of Rome.
• Refusal of the Call - Evil son, Commodus attempts to execute Maximus but fails.
• Supernatural Aid - In requesting a "soldiers death", Maximus manages to escape to Spain to try and save his family.
• Crossing the first Threshold - Upon arriving at his home he finds his wife raped and burned to death.
• The Belly of the Whale - He is found almost dead and taken to North Africa and forced to fight as a gladiator.

 

II - Initiation

• Road of Trials - Maximus fights to survive in the "fleapit" arenas of North Africa.
• The Meeting with a Goddess - Maximus is briefly reacquainted with his former lover, Lucilla the Emperor's daughter.
• Temptation Away from the Truth - After defeating his enemy in the arena, he shouts "Are you not entertained?!!!!!" as a rebuke to the people who demand he kills for their pleasure.
• Atonement with the Father - Maximus allows Proximo his captor and owner to be his mentor and to give him the opportunity to meet Commodus face to face in order to take his revenge.
• Apeothesis - Maximus aka "The Spaniard" becomes a hero in the Colosseum in Rome and marshals the other gladiators to numerous victories.
• The Ultimate Boon - He is summoned before the emperor and reveals himself to be Maximus and that he will have his revenge. The soldiers cheer him!

III - Return

• Refusal of the Return - Maximus continues to become a legend with the people supporting him.
• Magic Flight - Lucilla hatches a plan for the escape of Maximus.
• The Rescue from Without - The roman soldiers refuse to kill Maximus during the final confrontation with Commodus.
• Crossing the Threshold -  Maximus kills  Commodus and has his revenge.
• Master of the World - The soldiers and gladiators triumphantly take Maximus from the Colosseum.
• Freedom to Live - Maximus is reunited with his dead family in the afterlife.

Common Mythic Elements

• Two Worlds - Life as a revered general and his life as a gladiator.
• The Mentor - Proximo
• The Oracle - Lucilla
• The Prophecy - Maximus will have his revenge in this life or the next.
• Failed Hero - Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
• Wearing Enemy's Skin - Maximus becomes a Roman gladiator
• Shapeshifter - Senator Gracchus
• Chasing a lone animal into the enchanted wood - Maximus fights Commodus in the Colosseum.

Week 5 ITAP - Development of Ideas and Structure in Moving Image

Story Development- 3 Act Structure

For the purposes of this blog I am going to consider one of my favourite films, "Crash" (2004).

This is a film set in Los Angeles and explores the theory that we when the paths of different members of LA society meet, they in fact "collide" or "crash".   Peoples lives touch each other in dramatic and not subtle ways.  It also deals with the subject of racism and how all the racial groups in LA in fact stereotype each other.  Analyzing the film, I have tried to find the three main acts.

Act One

• The different characters are introduced through a series of events.  In each case the "equilibrium" of each character is disturbed by an event.
• Detective Waters finds a body and a piece of evidence which horrifies him.
• Persian shop owners is denied a gun on racial grounds but his daughter acquires one with ammunition.
• Local DA and wife are carjacked by 2 black youths (Peter and Anthony).  Fearing the house keys have also been stolen they hire hispanic locksmith, Daniel Ruiz.  He is later dismissed by wife who suspects he is a gang member.
• LAPD officers John Ryan and Tom Hansen stop black couple, Cameron and Cristine Thayer for an alleged driving offence.  Ryan conducts intimate body search of Christine to the disgust of his police partner.
• We find out that Ryan becomes main protagonist of film and we find out that he is a troubled soul caring for a sick father who may have prostrate cancer.  In order to obtain treatment for his father he crosses swords with black insurance worker who denies his request. She tells him that if his father had come she would have granted treatment.  
• Reflecting on how his racial abuse has prevented his father getting treatment, he starts on a path of change.

Act Two

The plots unfold.

• Blaming Daniel Ruiz for doing a bad job changing the lock to his shop after a robbery. Persian shopowner goes to Daniel's house and "shoots" Daniel's daughter by mistake.  It turns out, his daughter bought blank bullets for his gun.
• After and argument on the phone, DA's wife falls down stairs and is taken to hospital by her often berated and racially insulted housekeeper.
• Waters visits his mother to discuss his errant and missing brother. He promises to find him.

Act Three

We see how all the characters, including the main protagonist, Ryan arrive at a new equilibrium and the events which take them there.

• Christine suffers a horrific car crash. She is trapped and engulfed in flames.  The first officer on the scene is Ryan who without thinking for his life rescues Christine much to her amazement. Ryan has overcome his racism to save a black person's life. He has made amends for his earlier bad deed.
• After an attempted carjacking, Anthony and Peter separate.  Peter is picked up by officer Hansen and is offered a ride home.  Thinking Peter is about to pull a gun, Hansen shoots Peter and leaves his body by the roadside.
• Detective Waters arrives at crime scene (as in beginning of film) and recognises a "lucky charm" at the scene as belonging to his missing brother.
• Anthony returns to a white van he tried to steal earlier in the film and discovers the van full of Asian "slaves". He refuses money for them and takes them to Chinatown to be released.
• The black insurance worker has a rear end shunt  with another foreign driver. She exchanges racial insults with the other driver
• The cycle of abuse continues and film ends.