Month: September 2017
foundation 2D project 2 // research
With Assignment 1 done, we have been immediately briefed for our next assignment: Forrest Gump!
So the first thing we had to do: find movie quotes. And I had just the most perfect ideas in my head. I have recently been in love with musicals; and there have been a few really good ones that came from movies, or were made into movies. So I decided to find quotes from Heathers (1988) and Hairspray (2007).
One thing I like about these two movies are how they tackle various societal norms in the 1960s and 1980s. In Heathers, they made use of black comedy to talk about how suicide got overly popular in creating some sort of emotional sensation. Despite the movie representing something from the 1980s, I still felt like it was something relevant in today’s society, as if nothing has changed in the past 50 years.
Here are some of the quotes I have picked. In order to better understand the quote and how i interpret it, I will break the keywords down to aid my search for pictures.
And pardon the language used in some of my quotes. I like how direct it can get sometimes.
HEATHERS
J.D.: Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling.(Heathers, 1988)
J.D.: The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven.
(Heathers, 1988)
A quote that resonates deeply in me; as someone who has difficulty blending well into places such as school. JD basically mentions that different people will never truly be friends with one another unless they were dead, and thus making any sort of interaction among various cliques impossible. As a loner in school, he lives with his own set of values, often stubborn and unwilling to change himself, and often blamed society for the problems that came his way. He had wanted to blow up the school in an attempt to prove a point to his concept of ‘society’, as if society had done him wrong by being the way it was.
In a way, I had thought that it did make sense; I didn’t agree with how most of society worked outwardly, where nobody truly understood one another. Someone would commit suicide, and everyone would make a pity post on facebook in some sort of attempt to prove that it wasn’t their fault, and that they ‘had been there when the victim had been alive’. He wanted to change that; he had wanted to get rid of a generation that thrived on being superficial beings.
So here are some of the keywords I picked out and explained further.
Different Social Types
I’d see this as different stereotypes in typical American high school fashion. There are the nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, band geeks, goths, etc. I’ll separate them into more iconic parts that represented these groups of students in school. I’ll also attempt giving an animal representation to each group. Of course, they are not accurate depictions of said groups; just how I’d like to see them in a 60’s context.
Nerds:
Commonly associated with glasses, books, sweater vests, brains and buttoned shirts with bowties. Otherwise, there were also gaming nerds, who were associated with laptops, game consoles and headphones, or generally introverted/lazy. Possibly linked to dolphins, pigs, etc.
Jocks:
Commonly associated with varsity jackets, good bodies, sports, or could possibly be looked at as generally bigger dogs such as golden retrievers/German shepherds.
Cheerleaders/Popular girls:
Prim and proper. Commonly associated with makeup, slim figures, pompoms, and gossip in the girls toilet. Could be seen as either cats, or snakes.
Goths:
Commonly associated with skulls, drugs, cigarettes, metal accessories, etc. Could possibly be associated with animals such as vultures, reptiles, etc.
I will stick with these 4 main stereotypes for now!
Get Along
Getting along could mean a lot of things. But simply putting in this context, it would mean living together in harmony with everyone in a society.
It could be represented by hugs, handshakes, or hearts. Wow, so many Hs. Just like how there are three Heathers.
Typically, getting along can be represented by peace. Peace can be seen as doves, the peace symbol, Earth as a whole, nature, etc.
Heaven
Heaven is commonly represented with clouds, pearly gates, halos, angels, gods, and so on. To be honest, that’s just a very typical setting given with religious annotations and context given to it. Would there by any way to truly explain what Heaven is? Each religion had their own variation of this, so maybe I could try mixing this up a little?
Besides the idea of clouds and an eternity of good times, Heaven, in other religions, could be represented by a temporary place of sensual pleasures, before being reincarnated. It can also be explained as paradise, where there are gardens, and families reunite happily over lots of foods and drinks.
Heather Chandler: Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Teresa?
(Heathers, 1988)
An iconic phrase in the movie; that eventually got used in the musical as well. Heather Chandler looks in disbelief at Veronica Sawyer, as if she had just said gibberish. She then makes up an equally as crazy sentence, in a whole sense of sarcasm. And I live by sarcasm and irony; thus explaining why I want to use this quote. Bless Heather.
Heather, being the Most Popular Girl In School™, had her influences in all corners of the school. Her word was Final, and if she didn’t like what was going on, she could change it because everyone listened to her. She had her looks, and she had her charisma and she was only a junior in high school.
This gave her all the right to be a mega bitch, and she could do anything she wanted. She could curse all she wanted and she could grab any boy and have them smitten with her.
Mother Teresa
Aside from the obvious vulgarity and the even more painful description of being plunged deep with a chainsaw, she mentions sarcastically; the idea of her seeming in any way like Mother Teresa.
In a sense, Heather was like Mother Teresa. If anything, she had the charisma that was similar to that of Mother Teresa, how she’d be praised for things she has done, but also criticized by a minority for her various actions. But given her general lifestyle, it was probably better to say that she was an anti version of Mother Teresa.
Besides the usual holy things that could be associated to Mother Teresa, I could also make it seem a little more devil-like. Or just anything that went against how Mother Teresa would have been like, in all sense of Catholic Christianity. Of course, there should be limits to how I do this, because this is going to be on a tote bag. Can’t get too political here.
Chainsaw
Chainsaws have been linked to DC’s Harley Quinn and generally just manic pixie girls in skimpy cheerleading outfits for the longest period of time. It’s funny how it got referenced in such an old movie; as if it was also a thing in the past to have chainsaws on cute girls.
Along with all these obvious points, I also want to show how Heather Chandler was basically a snake in disguise, given her rude attitude towards Veronica whereas she remained disgustingly nice to most others. (Nothing against snakes, however. I love them.) Snakes were commonly represented as someone who was very cunning and two-faced, especially in many western cultures.
Penny Pingleton: I am now a checkerboard chick!(Hairspray, 2007)
foundation 2D project 1 // final
So here are the final six emotions for project 1! I will put an interpretation of my own emotion, along with its original meaning.
uneasiness: fear
Interpretation:
A bubbling feeling of being unsure, anxiety, and all-out discomfort. There’s something out there ready to get you or pull you down, and as much as you try to fix whatever you can, you know it will still screw you up somehow.
a feeling of anxiety or discomfort.
Tool: milo can + ink
hopelessness: sadness
Interpretation:
It feels as if no matter whatever you did, no matter how much you tried, the effort would still come out as worthless. You end up giving up before you are even halfway there, and the results are as is.
a feeling or state of despair; lack of hope.
Tool: various attempts made previously (cut-up), collage
exasperation: anger
Interpretation:
A muddy sort of emotion, when you feel like a bundle of nervous anger. However, you cannot do anything. You cannot move, you cannot speak out. As people walk by and comment about it, you sit there in irate silence.
a feeling of intense irritation or annoyance.
Tool: sanitary pad + calligraphy ink
amazement: surprise
Interpretation:
Somewhat bewilderment, along with surprise. A constant state of stupefaction, it feels like a whole lot to take in, and you just consume it slowly, let it digest.
a feeling of great surprise or wonder.
Tool: dirtied wet tissue + inked up piece of newsprint + leftover sanity pad
contentment: joy
Interpretation:
A calm, satisfied feeling. I wanted to portray the gentleness of contentment, how it pats you on the back like you did a good job. How it makes you feel full after an evening meal and you walk along the beach, a breeze goes by and it’s cooling and soft.
a state of happiness and satisfaction.
Tool: block ink + baby powder
infatuation: love
Interpretation:
A crush; a pure, quick crush. It comes by fast, and it plagues the mind of the beholder for weeks, months, or even years. It gives off the sense of youth, with its energetic behaviour. Infatuation is pure, but also mature. It starts out as lust masked as puppy love, and cut deeps into one’s heart.
an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something.
Tool: toothpaste + cut-out with razors
Recent Comments