Presentation 2.0

Haven't got loads to show physically since the last presentation, I've mostly been working on my production pack and stuff.

So I've also been carrying on doing storyboards, I've been in contact with TJ and using a shared google document to get the shot list and show the rest of the group any progression with storyboarding.
TJ and I met up to discuss the shot list and go over exactly what he wanted each shot to look like.

I did a rough draft first, and even after I'd finished drawing I ended up redrawing some that I was not happy with. I added some very rough camera directions and compiled the images onto one file so they were more easily viewed.
This is only the first half of the shot list and I will soon be completing it.

For my own project, I'm still doing my three paintings, of three fairytale characters; Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood and The Little Mermaid. I chose these stories because I feel they have complex characters in the middle of stories with a lot of psychological interpretations which I thought would make it much more interesting to paint them.

I began looking at illustrations I found online and by looking at them purely as colour blocks I started to think about what colour palettes I wanted to use for my paintings.

I started right off with Alice in Wonderland which was possibly not the best idea as I hadn't really made a colour palette before and there are so many different colours in Alice in Wonderland it was a bit overwhelming at first.
I knew for Alice I wanted a bright colour palette, something to stimulate the eyes of the viewer as Alice in Wonderland is such a visual story, so I chose the most prominent colours I could find in the drawings and used them as part of my colour palette.

For Red Riding Hood I wanted a slightly more muted colour palette. The tones in this story are very different to Alice in Wonderland; there are a lot of earthy greens and browns, and the greys of the wolf and shadows. The colour red is also very important to the tale, and will be key to the painting.

Something else I enjoy about this colour palette is that of course the story is quite dark, so I wanted to emulate that in the colours I chose to put in my palette. So the usual greens and browns you would have in the forest I made sure were really dark and rich in tone.

My colour palette for The Little Mermaid was similar to Red Riding Hood in that the colours really worked together. The deep blues, purples and greens of the ocean were very satisfying to put side by side and the fiery red of her hair, which is something I am taking from the Disney adaptation, stands out nicely against the other blue tones. The tone of the original story – like most old fairytales – is quite brutal at times, with the little mermaid losing her tongue to the sea witch and every time she takes a step on land she experiences excruciating pain. With this in mind the main colour palette for the piece is quite sorrowful, with a lot of blues and dark. The mermaid herself is a bright spark amidst the darkness around her.

I've put together some diagrams on how I think the paintings could be displayed in the installation piece, as I am still considering different options and what I end up choosing will be based on the space I am allocated to display my work.

Each painting is going to be A0 in size, with dimensions of 841x1189mm and will be spaced out with a gap of 200mm between them. 

The first idea is to have a projector opposite my paintings, projecting shadows and creating the illusion of movement onto the work. I am considering whether or not I want the space to be dark or not, and it could be beneficial either way.

Of course if the environment is darker, the projection will stand out a lot more and be easier for people to see. On the other hand if I place the paintings in a lighter environment people will be able to see what they are more easily, but the projection will be less evident

However I have been thinking that even in the daylight you are not unable to see projection, it’s just fainter. On that note, I have been thinking it could actually be quite effective to have fainter projection over the top of the painting as it would be a much subtler effect of motion.

My other plan was to project something onto the floor of the location, and have it link to a fairytale environment and hopefully be a bit more immersive for the viewer.

By this I mean to maybe have either like a body of water or a forest environment projected onto the area so that the audience feel as if they are in a fairytale environment themselves.

A third idea could be to have one painting on three walls of a room, with three projectors in the middle each pointing towards a wall. They would project a vision of an environment that is associated with each painting such as an underwater scene for The Little Mermaid or a dark forest for Red Riding Hood.

Sound

For my sound design I am planning on have either one piece to play aloud for all three paintings, or three individual sound pieces that will be played through headphones for each piece. If I do one soundscape it will be linked enough to the paintings so that there are homages to all three of the stories but not so much as is overwhelming.

If I do three, they will be individualised to each painting and the story it is based on. I have been listening to lots of various soundscapes I can find online and also using my knowledge of film soundscapes to think about what I know has been used for magical fantasy scenes in the past.

The links for these are in my production pack.

Budget 

Schedule

Kiki Smith

Artist Kiki Smith has explored a lot of different dynamics involving stories, specifically in regarding Red Riding Hood. Smith has had a long time interest in wolves and the natural world. Its intriguing that in her work she represents the wolf and woman as equals instead of the natural prey and predator.

What is quite refreshing about this piece is that it shows a different side to the usual violent nature of the story of Red Riding Hood, showing an unnerving companionship between them, as the wolf lies totally docile at the woman's side. I love the contrasting way Smith has created these pieces of work with this new dynamic between human and beast, totally at ease in each others company. 

The piece below shows not adults, but children in mutual peace with the forest creatures. I like the way Smith has done one child with a deer, the deer being the usual prey of humans but both totally at ease in each others presence, and the other child (the one wearing the red cloak) is side by side with the wolf. Both pairs are natural enemies, at opposite ends of the food chain and yet are sitting in total comfort with each other.

I also think her style is really beautiful in the way she creates these illustrations, and the toned down colours she uses. I think the way in which she's drawn the wolves captures their essence really well.

This piece is different in that instead of the wolf and the girl living side by side, the woman is stepping out of the belly of the beast. It's a much more intimidating piece of work, the woman standing in a challenging stance, striding forward from the wolf and facing away from the fallen creature. She is in a position of power as she moves forward, appearing to have ripped her way out of the wolfs stomach to freedom, and emerged victorious.

Paula Rego

Paula Rego

I have been really interested in Rego's work for a while now. The way she captures her audience is really clever and she positions her characters in the frame in such a way as to make them seem imposing or as victims.
She inspires me both in her painting style which is stunning, and in the way she uses fairytales as influence in her work and reimagines their meaning or the way the story unfolds.

This piece by her for example, is called 'Snow White playing with her Fathers trophies' and depicts Snow White sitting in the forefront of the painting with a stags head on her lap, with her legs placed in a traditionally masculine pose. The stepmother gazes on in anger and jealousy in the background. The stags head represents the failed attempt of the Evil Queen of murdering Snow White and being fooled by the heart of a stag instead of a human one. For me, the painting also gives reference to Red Riding Hood due to the over whelming use of red in the painting and the stag giving reference back to the forest, as well as the green on the curtain behind her.
The fact that Snow White has her feet placed on a cushion implies the youngness of the girl, as in the original story she was supposed to be around 14 years old. In addition to this there is a strong contrast with the white of her dress hinting at purity and innocence, offset by the severed stags head and the red surrounding her.
Her gaze is also quite important in the piece as you can clearly see her turning away from the natural direction of where the rest of her body is facing and gazing over her shoulder with a strong challenge in her eyes. She has also very deliberately been faced away from the stepmother in the background, as if she is not worth her time, and as a statement of defiance.

Snow White playing with her Fathers trophies

Rego's painting 'War' is one of my favourite pieces. The artist stated it was inspired by a photo in a newspaper from the early stages of the Iraq war. There is heavy symbolism in the piece, not the least of it being the two main characters have heads replaced with rabbit heads. Reasoning behind this may be that rabbits are an animal associated with running away, they are the prey not the predator and they are also painted white a symbol of innocence. 

A meaning that I'm not sure Rego did on purpose or not, or if it's me reading too much into the piece after reading too many fairytales but I feel a strong association with Alice in Wonderland for this painting. The main part is of course, the white rabbits in the centre of the work. Also the main character wearing a blue dress, as the character does in the story implies in my mind a connection. 

The colours are also quite bold, blues, oranges, reds and yellows quite prominent through the painting. There are several characters also scattered around the work and it's very busy; there is a lot going on and always something new to see.

Poems and Shorts

I found some quite adult and more complex interpretations of the original fairytales and they're quite horrific at times.

Little Red-Cap

At childhood’s end, the houses petered out
into playing fields, the factory, allotments
kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men, 
the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan, 
till you came at last to the edge of the woods. 
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf. 

He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud 
in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw, 
red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears
he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!
In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me, 
sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink, 

my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake,
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both shoes

but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson one that night, 
breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem.
I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for
what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?1
Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws
and went in search of a living bird – white dove –

which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth.
One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said,
licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back
of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.

But then I was young – and it took ten years 
in the woods to tell that a mushroom
stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe

to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon
to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf
as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw 
the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.
I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.
Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone. 

Carol Ann Duffy 1999

The Little Mermaid

by Anne Widdowson

The Little Mermaid began to chop
Her shimmering tail in two,
And squirmed beneath the axe’s head.
Blood spread across the clammy flesh,
Wet tissue sprayed about her chest,
As she maimed the sticky limb.

The cleft drooled, alien matter,
Not only to us; the girl was sickened
By the mutant fin, felt hatred
For her mongrel blood.
But time for alterations and tweaks,
To correct this monstrous flaw.

She grasped the fragile nerves and snapped;
Scales scattered where the water lapped
Her stinking slab of meat.
Scraps of sinew licked her wrists,
Slimy, hot beneath her frenzied touch,
Her shaking, grisly hands.

The child admired her work, unfazed
By the carnage, the carcass, the sight,
Hefting the chunks like a cripple might.
The pieces oozed and bulged,
Her figure, in her eyes, much improved
Compared to that dreadful tail.

With a sigh of respite and release,
She regarded the newly botched legs
And smiled. Fillets replaced the fin she had,
Hardly equipped to walk on land.
What a pity she’d never stand
On her two new stumps.