Final Piece Proposal

In my final piece I am planning to create an interesting and engaging short film that will aim to provoke and challenge the concepts and ideology of fame.

The film will portray all of the archetypes that have been explored of the course of this project.

Throughout this film, I aim to establish visual links between the conceptual and graphical imagery seen throughout the development stages; using colour and lighting effects from my earlier films and aural accompaniment.

Visual elements of this film will encompass my own understanding and will become an allegorical depiction of Fame based off of my discoveries throughout my project.

I wish to incorporate the imagery and editing styles of Ruth Hogben whilst conceptually linking with Millie Brown.

I hope that this short film will generate a concept about the reality of fame.  Fame is not a one sided display of public affection; it is a duality of destruction.

This is the fame.

Plans:

I have chosen to compartmentalise the piece into one film rather than a collection of dections as I feel that my concept should not be designed as a finite idea, but rather an infinite spectrum of possibility. 

The Archetypes of Fame - This will be my way of summing up the entire project. To do this I will create more 'moving portraits' (taking inspiration from my own film "the duality of fame", which contains three moving portraits).  The characters I will depict in these portraits will be the archetypes that I have explored and used as vehicles throughout this project (The rich, the poor, the greedy, the innocent,  the lost,  the conformer, the corrupt, and The famous).  The aural accompaniment that will be playing over this section will be a violin.  I feel that this will be a fitting way to sum up my project as I never set out to find a definitive answer or arrive at a conclusion, but to explore the duality of fame itself.

FILM: The Face

This film is about identity and the persona that is created for people in the public eye to hide behind in order to help "protect" them.

Exploration Notes: Part Two

We are all famous.  It is in my belief that fame is something that is not earned, but rather absorbed.  Fame can be created in a variety of different ways, the way we hold ourselves, the way we dress, the way we talk, e.c.t.

Society cares more about how you can benefit them over your talent and your human worth.  If the public can't gain; they don't care.

We are nothing without our image - the presentation of oneself to the world that shows people what they want you to be over who you really are.

Society is selfish.

This is the FAME.

ARTIST RESEARCH: Liz Aggis

Liz Aggis is a Brighton based artist, film maker, choreographer, dancer and professor of visual performance at the University of Brighton.  She creates work that is performance, dance film, art film, choreography and installations.  Her work is eclectic; taking inspiration from a huge variety of styles and artwork. She is known internationally for her innovative and original work and has received many prestigious awards for her art.  As a dancer/ choreographer and film maker myself, I am extremely intrigued by her films.

One film that I have a particular interest in is a piece by Aggis called 'Motion Control' (Video below). This 8mins 30' film was shot with 35mm film and explores from camera point of view the concepts of entrapment.

"Take one glamorous and aging dancer. Trap her in the real world. Smash into her private reality. Control her movement, contain her emotion. Well, you can try but she has already beaten you to it. With hyper-sound and super smart awareness, submit to this bizarre journey of entrapment.  -Liz Aggis"

I really like the use of panning (at 2:43) as it is taking the movement and taking it further than the human body could ever do - emphasising the action content.

I also really enjoy the three complete different styles used in each section as they give the film the impression of a narrative.

I have chosen to look at this artist as her use of medium and her concepts are extremely relevant to my project and my work and I would like to create some dance films to contribute towards The Duality of FAME.

FILM: Lush

This film is about the concepts of fantasy.  

This film was shot using a wine glass to create every effect.   the opening spot was filmed through a wine glass to distort reality (representative of the warped public view on wealth).  The last scene was created by shining a light through a wine glass to distort the light to create a water effect (Imagery inspired by Ruth Hogben's films).
I chose to use the jazz classic "Lush Life" as the aural accompaniment as I feel that the lyrics in the song and the overall tone are extremely relevant to the concepts explored within the film.

My aim with this film was to create consistent and coherent imagery that could then be structured together well - I feel that I have succeeded in carrying out my intentions with this film.

FILM: Corrupt

This film is about the internal damage that is caused by money.  Greed is a trait held within most human beings, driving them to do anything to get the wealth they desire.  This greed burns inside and smoulders until everything has been destroyed out of "need".    After we die, money lives on.

The location of the film was at the edge of a cliff top overlooking the sea - I increased the saturation of the blues and decreased the brightness of myself to create a strong contrast. This film was shot in 21:9 aspect widescreen to give the film a cinematic effect.

I overlaid the smoke using a digital mask to insert in inside the shirt and to keep it contained in that space.

The visual composition in this film is inspired by Ruth Hogben's  directorial style.  When shooting, I ensured that everything within the frame were on a linear axis.  Using the rule of thirds I sectioned up the video frame to create imagery that was well composed (Sea in the lower third,  subject in the middle, and the sky/clouds in the upper).

FILM: Soon I'll Be Found

This film is about the loss of oneself as a result of fame.

The script for the subtitles was inspired from speech featured in The Crevette Films by Colleen Martin.

FILM: Looks Like This

This film is about being told that you have to look a certain way to gain any form of "success".

This piece is an comment on identity.

To show this idea I drew on myself with a black permanent marker.  I first outline my own skeletal structure (which is symbolic of being told to lose/ gain weight). I then outline my facial features (which is symbolic of cosmetic surgery and alteration to identity).

I chose to use a black pen as I believe that fame is as dark as the shadows it hides behind. Meaning that it's damaging nature is always hidden to the public until it is too late.

FILM: Some People Have REAL Problems

This film is a comment on how the famous complain about materialistic, unimportant things in their lives whilst others around the world are suffering.

The idea for this film derived from the album title from the recording artist Sia by the same name.  This film was based purely off of the title of this album.  The imagery that I aimed to look for was visuals that are shocking and that could appear quite upsetting to watch.  The first draft of the film ended up being extremely graphic resulting in me going back and removing the most graphic imagery.  I did this because the shock value of the film was not my intention and having this footage would have distracted the viewer greatly.  For the final version of this film I made sure to keep the footage upsetting rather than disturbing to keep the viewer focused on my idea.

The visuals of materialistic items are designed to be static - to emphasise their unimportance to the world.

The sound track for this film is a twenty second sound clip, which I looped, that was recorded at the Boston bombings in 2013.  I chose to use this as it generally upsets me to listen to it as I can hear people in pain, Which I hope the viewer will get the same experience.  This aids people to have a greater understanding of the film.

FILM: Gone

This film is about the idea of once your famous, your "normal" identity is destroyed forever.  

To portray this I filmed in a normal everyday location to emphasise life before fame.  I wore a plastic bag over my head to display the lack of identity that fame has caused.   The editing style in this film is very saturated with perfectly timed transitions that form together to create a film that appears static but when looked at closely the subject is moving.

Exploration Notes: Part One

Through the exploration of this project so far, I have developed a greater understanding of the concept of fame.   Our society today cares more about the artist than the art.   We worship, or idolise, people because we have a real need to have leaders; we have the need to follow.  Having "the look" appears today to be more important than the talent that someone possesses. Sex sells.

Society enjoys building up the status of another to then get the “entertainment” of watching them plummet right back to the bottom.  Society thrives on watching people break. We forget that famous people are exactly the same as the rest of us, they are human.  We will only ever see one side of the famous – the side the media choose to show.

We forget that these people are businessmen and women who are manufactured to sell the public a product and nothing more.  We do not have any right to investigate their private lives.

Understanding more about the ideology of fame has helped to inspire new ideas for films to further explore and develop my concept to give viewers a greater understanding of what FAME really is.

This is the FAME.

ARTIST RESEARCH: Millie Brown

Millie Brown is a performance artist who has learnt how to control regurgitation for her performances.  Her process to create art is that she will starve herself for 72 hours prior to the performance - this will ensure that the performance is medically safe for herself.  During the performance she will drink soy-milk that has food dye in order to produce colour.  Before regurgitation,  she drinks two litres of the coloured milk so she can spend more time creating rather than drinking.  she then puts her fingers down her throat to regurgitate the milk onto a blank canvas.

When selling her artwork she refuses to tell the buyer how the piece was created until they have paid for it. She has stated that she does this to "challenge the idea of what real beauty is" - meaning that something that first looks beautiful can come from dark places.

I am looking at Millie's work for the concept rather than the artwork itself.  I personally feel that the idea of challenging beauty is extremely relevant to my concepts of fame. 

A link to one of her performances is below along with some images of her artwork.

Her piece Nexus Vomitus involves her regurgitation practice live to and acoustic accompaniment of opera singers (Patricia Hammond and Zita Syme).

Millie Brown's 'Nexus Vomitus':    

ARTIST RESEARCH: Ruth Hogben

Ruth Hogben is a British filmmaker/ fashion photographer based in london.  She has collaborated on numerous occasions with SHOWstudio (particularly with Nick Knight) and also Gareth Pugh on multiple film project. I have chosen to look into and study her cinematic and editing style as I love the effects that are created as a result in her work.

Ruth Hogben has stated in an interview that she sees her work "as a new way to communicate for everybody...".  This is something that I also strive for in my own work. 

When she creates fashion films she studies the clothes to find different possibilities to utilize in her films.  She will look for angles, pattern, and colour.  Once she has taken note of everything she finds she will strategically find a way of amalgamating them all together into a film. 

In a film that she created in collaboration with Gareth Pugh for MAC (Links to the film and stills are provided below), they used a plasma ball to mirror the clothing/ make up.  The film consists mostly of close up shots of the model that are highly contrasted to the electricity bolt. The clothing is kept on very linear planes for the majority of the films which enables the viewer to see the sleek look of the clothes being displayed.

I really enjoy watching her films as they are pushing the boundaries of modern art film.  She sees shape, texture, colour, and pattern in a very different way to others; by noticing and utilising these she is enabled to create beautiful works of art.

(Ruth Hogben X Gareth Pugh for MAC  http://vimeo.com/75393228)

FILM: The Duality of FAME

The Duality of FAME

This film, I feel, fully represents the overall concept of my project in the clearest way that is physically possible. This film was an idea that I had that was to create 'moving portraits'.  By doing this idea this film could be presented anywhere giving the aesthetic look of 3 large moving paintings.  The two larger screens show the two contrasting sides of fame itself. The left depicting the horrifying reality that is a result caused by fame. and the right shows what the public see.  The center image is representative of the concept that I conceived - the idea that both sides of fame are needed to balance out each other. With just the negative side, No one would want fame therefore it would not exist. With just the positive side, people will become arrogant and as a result people would not like them, causing them not to be famous therefore once again fame would not exist.

Left screen:  This was the hardest of the 3 scenes I had to shoot (emotionally).  During filming, I made myself cry to add more of a realistic vulnerability.  I smeared red paint over my lips to portray how the public tell a famous person how to look.

Center screen: This is the most saturated scene in the film as it is the focus of the film overall.   The reason why I blurred this screen is because I wanted to make a point. The public focus on either the good or the bad but never the 'normal'.

Right Screen:  This screen depicts this happier, more public side of fame.  I painted my teeth gold to give the character a trait of wealth.   The lighting is face on(to avoid any shadows) to show the metaphorical spot light that is beamed onto the famous.

FILM: Destroy

DESTROY

This film looks into the ideology of addiction; particularly the addiction to attention.  To portray this in the film, I created a metaphorical visual of getting 'high' off of attention using extreme blurring effects and tying it all together with an 80's cinematic colour scheme.

Visuals by RHYS CONNOLLY

Accompaniment by Lana Del Rey

FILM: Count The Saints

COUNT THE SAINTS

This film is about the fact that we only ever see one side of a famous person and we will never know the entire spectrum of what is going on in the entirety of their lives.   

This film was shot in one take at 3am and the only editing that was done in post production was cropping the video frame to a cinema-scope format (to emphasise the character being famous) and adding title text at the beginning and end of the film. ALL lighting effects were created live on the shoot.

The light in the film is representative of a symbolic spotlight we all cast on famous people every single second of the day, making anything that is being lit vulnerable and obtainable to the general public. The spectrum of colours that are used to light the film were used to create a pleasant dream-like atmosphere; stressing the idea that someone could see fame as something that is extremely desirable.   The darkness is representing the cover that hides their personal lives, secrets, and everything they do not want the public to see or know. 
The editing style for this piece was inspired by Ruth Hogben's style.  I have attempted to replicate a high contrast between the subject and the background and I feel that i have done this successfully.

The aural accompaniment used in this piece is "Count the saints" by 'Foxes'.  I decided to use this as it aided the dream-like nature of the visuals.  I personally interpreted a lyric in the song -"Love isn't always fair, but that's no reason to be so cruel to me"- as a very good representative phrase of what fame could be to someone; they love fame but sometimes it can really hurt someone.

Visuals + editing by RHYS CONNOLLY

Accompaniment by FOXES (aka Louisa Rose Allen)

VIDEO: PART ONE

PART ONE

This film is a comment on the duality of fame - looking into the benefits and also complications that accompany fame.

Symbolism Explained:
1. metal washing line creates bars to block the way towards a "heavenly place".
2.  Drinking in the red room is symbolic of the danger that comes with fame. Even they know what will happen - they continue to take.
3. Red cup with water is a visual metaphor for fame - water is suggesting purity however, the cup tints it red (suggesting danger).
3.  television effect is a visual representation of the public image that is created.
4. gear 1 - trying to escape fame slowly (gear one is typically used for slow speeds).
5. driving - trying to escape fame.
6. typing is showing the public "hate" on the artist.
7. fish - show something quite pretty and appealing but the rays of light create a sinister atmosphere around the fish (another visual metaphor for fame).
8.  photograph - famous person has been taken away from their personal life.
9. person in rays of light - symbolizes the fans worshiping the famous like Gods.

10. silhouettes with clouds - visual representation for fame (shadows represent fame, clouds represent success).

-Statement of Intent-

Fame is the complex and destructive driving force that gravitates towards a distorted idea of success. At the start, fame appears desirable; it give the false indication of wealth. Once fame has been achieved, this once perfect perception then transforms and disintegrates into a powerful force that distorts and destroys reality.

The reason that I am investigating this theme is because I am extremely intrigued by the idea of fame; what fame is, how fame is achieved, and how fame can cause the downfall of a person.

We are nothing without our image. Without our projection. Without the hologram of who we perceive ourselves and others to be, or rather, to become in the future. 

These factors all amalgamate together.

This is the FAME.