My first project for my second year at UCA involved creating a series of photos, a film and marketing all based on a certain painting or piece of artwork. To begin this project, I researched Rene Magritte's abstract paintings including "The False Mirror" which was painted in 1928 and depicts a person's eye completely filled with the vision of the sky. This piece has a lot to offer, from its central focus on the undilated pupil of the eye to the expansive sky reflected in it. Other artists I researched included Dragan Bibin; a modern artist who sparked a lot of interest among the younger generation and Nicola Pucci; an Italian artist with a distinct painting style that frequently combines several elements into a single painting. After many hours of contemplating I decided to base this project around the painting “Corridor in the Asylum” by Vincent Van Gogh.
When researching this painting I came across its very complicated back story. To summarise "Corridor in the asylum" was completed in 1889 and was intended to depict Van Gogh's stay at the Saint-Remy-de-Provence Psychiatric Hospital due to his struggles with mental health.
Van Gogh used the painting to express his feelings about his surroundings to his brother Theo. He was confined inside the asylum for twelve months, during which time he continued to paint until his death. Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890, shortly after completing "Corridor in the Asylum," due to mental illness. The painting employs a vibrant colour palette that contrasts with the asylum's narrow and haunting corridors.
I sketched what I wanted to do for some of my final photos so that I could reflect on my ideas. My first idea was for a low-light entrance with hands emerging from the darkness. My second concept showed a seemingly endless corridor with mirrors and a mysterious covered figure in the centre of the frame. To experiment with various lighting and shadows I went out and took a few test shots with the themes of isolation and solitude in mind. I really liked the emotional impact that these photos expressed and how they represented my two key themes of isolation and solitude.
I attended a photography workshop in the UCA Rochester studio to improve my photography skills. I learned a lot more about how to use a Canon camera efficiently and what settings work best in different situations. I set the camera to manual mode so that I could have complete control over it. I used a light metre to record the light shining onto the models' cheek to determine the proper aperture and shutter speed. Once I had these values, I was able to verify that the ISO was correct. I photographed the model in portrait mode to see the full effect of these settings.
I began taking my final photos that reflect the themes of isolation and solitude evident in my chosen painting. I was very pleased with how my five shots turned out, and I loved the horror aesthetic that they conveyed. My test shots' experimenting with shadows and Rembrandt lighting gave me a much better idea of how to create simple but effective shots. In my final photos I wanted to embrace the power of the mind and the feeling of entrapment.
Once I had completed my final photos I made a storyboard to help me plan out the scenes I wanted in my film. When storyboarding I used a linear narrative with all of the scenes working in order. However, to experiment using a non-linear narrative I cut out each scene and put them in a different order. In my film, I want to convey the two primary concepts of isolation and solitude, thus I made sure this storyboard reflects that. Modern horror movies and fast-paced filmmaking strongly affected several of the sequences I sketched. After I had done my storyboard I was given the assignment of creating a 30-second 'elevator pitch' to assist me in summarising my film. I presented it to the class making sure I kept within the 30-second limit without missing any key details.
Succeeding this, I planned out every piece of work I needed to complete in the final three weeks so that I could manage my time effectively and ensure that I was prepared. In addition, I wrote the estimated time it would take to complete each task next to it so I could see which ones would require the most attention.
By this point it was time to complete my major piece of work for this project; a short film based on the painting I chose at the start. As previously stated, this film is inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Corridor in the Asylum." For the intro, I used After Effects to create a flickering lightbulb by adjusting the opacity of an image of a lit bulb and a dim bulb that I had created in Photoshop. I then made a title card which was created in Photoshop and animated in After Effects. I added an eerie piece of audio to create a horror-style atmosphere to make it more effective. I used Premiere Pro to combine all of my footage and add audio. I used a black and white filter, horizontal Venetian blinds, a wave warp, and a timecode to create a CCTV camera effect in one of my longer hallway shots. To increase the impact of the jump scares, I used sharp and unsettling audio.
My film was completed after many days of filming and editing. The film's title and concept are heavily influenced by "Corridor in the Asylum." I am very pleased with how this film turned out, and I believe it demonstrates my true potential in terms of what I have learned about filming and editing on this course.
To broaden my knowledge of the movies that influenced my film I did in-depth research of Halloween 2 and Insidious: The Last Key. To keep track of the websites I used and to give credit to the publishers I used Harvard referencing.
As part of my film's marketing, I created three posters in Photoshop and one motion poster in After Effects. My first poster included three of my final photos, a rusted border effect, and my title. I was able to give my photos a more dynamic look by using the distort and perspective tools. I created a rusted look on one of my posters using a PNG image, which resulted in an abandoned asylum aesthetic.
To experiment with alternative marketing methods, I created an animated version of my main poster in After Effects. I influenced this piece of work by using motion posters that I saw in public. To achieve the impression of the hands appearing from all angles, I created a new composition of all the hand photos and key framed them to shrink towards the frame's centre. To make it more dramatic, I gradually increased the opacity and scale of the eye photo to simulate it peering through the keyhole and seeing the hands.
Near the end of the project I attended a workshop that substantially increased my understanding of how websites function beneath the user interface. Using HTML and CSS I was able to create a simple website layout with a powder blue background, heading’s, and a link to the BBC website. I found coding a website to be really informative, and I appreciated learning about what goes into creating a website from the ground up.
I utilised Photoshop to display my posters on the Leicester Square digital billboard, an iPhone, and a digital ad screen on the street as part of my marketing for "The Asylum”. I used the quick selection tool and masks to make it appear as if each screen was displaying one of my posters.
To conclude, I am very satisfied with all of the work I have completed in this project and I think it really shows how my knowledge and skills have developed with different media’s since I started last year. For future projects I would like to continue to improve my filmmaking skills and work more with visual effects.
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