FICTION; A TELL TALE HEART; PROCESS AND REALISATION

INITIAL DRAWINGS 

Taking inspiration from Victorian Theatre, miniature theatres such as Dracula, Edward Gorey, and elements of German expressionist theatre. I began this project by looking at detailed ink drawings, with exaggerated features and detailing. I focused on characterisation based on the characters behaviour in the story, and my own assumptions of them based on this. 

DEVELOPMENT; MODEL BUILDING

  I was happy with the black detailing of these pieces, but was concerned as to how this would translate into a set design. I looked began completing more research into Victorian furniture design here, to begin creating a 3 Dimensional set. 

3D Victorian Bed. 

Beginning to put the set together, I wanted it to be series of layers which were able to be looked through, much like the Victorian Theatres I looked at for the research. I chose to create a richer house, which would allow me to be more detailed in terms of furniture and wallpapering. 

 

With the set done, I then began to arrange and shoot the scenes I wanted, using three different types of lighting, a torch, a spotlight and candles, to create mood and shadows. 

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT; PHOTOGRAPHY

The above images were shot using the candles for lighting, I thought this worked really well as it added a soft lighting which created sharp shadows.

The above pictures were taken using the spotlight. I felt this gave me too much light and either limited the shadows I wanted or gave me shadows I did not want. Re position of the spotlight gave me similar issues. 

Experimentation with shadows. I found that although it was an interesting technique, I also found it to be difficult to define the shadows in contrast to my detailed backgrounds. I felt some of the effectiveness of the close up shots of detailed illustration would be lost with too much shadow play.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT; DIGITAL EDITING

After choosing my best images I began editing to create my own cover, experimenting with text and editing techniques. 

I had the idea that my final outcome could have been a pop-up book which would be landscape, but I had to rethink the final design in order to fit the brief which required portrait orientation:

final front cover

final illustration

final back cover

final book sleeve

REALISATION

I feel this project pushed my discipline toward a range of new media; model making, photography and digital enhancement. I am pleased with the final piece, it looks clean and professional. I would have liked to develop my Photoshop skills further, understanding this piece could be improved with technical development. Furthermore I would have liked to think in more depth about how my book would work commercially, considering audience, purpose and creating a mock-up of the book itself.

CRIT FEEDBACK:

This was my first time using Photoshop to compose an outcome, how could my digital editing skills be improved?  

• Photoshop skills come with experimentation, the more time you spend using the programme the more tools you will discover.
• This piece is very clean in terms of design, you could have been more experimental with your digital editing, focusing less on commercial purpose and approaching the brief from an abstract perspective.

How could I have incorporated more elements of my model theatre into my outcome?

• Your model theatre is well made, and extremely detailed, it seems a shame you only used close up shots for your outcome, I would have liked to have seen shots which fully represented the theatre itself. 
• Again you could have been more abstract with this, instead of focusing on the designed layout of the book-sleeve it would have been interesting to play with scale, using digital enhancement to cut and paste key close up shots, while still incorporating wider shots showing the whole theatre.

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT

• Further experimentation with applications such as Photoshop, try to move more freely within these applications to create something more experimental and abstract.
• Consider audience and brief in depth, in order to come to a stronger concept and outcome.