Monthly Archives: October 2016

Project 2 – Forrest Gump: Ideas and Process

Hello all. For this project, I have taken some reference from the move, Alice Through The Looking Glass for my quotes. The four quotes are:

“I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.”, “Where am I?”, “You cannot escape time.” and “He stuck us all at one literal tea time.”

Since this movie is sort of a twisted version from the original story, I thought that it would be interesting to have a twist to my project as well. Instead to using the vintage and western concept, I have decided to use some Chinese references to my images. It all started when I gathered some inspiration from a professional chinese performance I saw in China once. There is a specific name to it and it is called “變臉”. Basically, it consists of a performer who usually wears a traditional chinese costume and with a swift action of his hand, he is able to change his mask on his face.

To give a clearer picture, here is a video of how it is like.

I thought that the idea of changing his masks is like changing different sides to him, which I thought was pretty relevant to my quote, “I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.” Hence, this kick started the Chinese concept to my project.

I’ve chosen the design aligned to the quote mentioned above for the totebag. It was really interesting as to how we coated our silk screens and imprint our designs on it such that we can print it on bags or on paper.

photo-26-9-16-4-29-10-pm
photo-3-10-16-3-00-54-pm photo-3-10-16-3-02-06-pm photo-3-10-16-3-02-08-pm

Trying it out on paper first! photo-15-10-16-2-10-37-pm Attempts 1 and 2.

The other quote from the movie like  “He stuck us all at one literal tea time.” reminds me of someone who has a dictator-like quality to him and someone who has the authority to order peasants around and whatnot. Hence, aligned to the Chinese concept again, I thought of using images of emperors or kings, just basically individuals who had power during the olden days in China. Other images used would be anything related to royalty or being majestic.

The third quote would be “Where am I?”. This quote to me is a representation of entering into the dimension one is not sure of. In the original movie of Alice in the Wonderland or any renditions of it, there will this very iconic scene of a long table with a very generous amount of food, sweets, and desserts. I can’t really find a picture of it but I found an imitation of it in an MV of  a song called “Twenty-three” by IU. This MV also follows the concept of Alice in the Wonderland as well.

iu

Source from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Gtm4-Ax2U.

I feel that there is something fantasy-like when it comes this, like entering into a magical world with food that you’re not sure where they’re from but they all seem very appealing at the same time. Hence I decided to use this concept to the quote. Just that I added a twist to it by separating it into 2 styles – Chinese and European to add a little puzzlement and confusion in the design itself. Since that is what the quote is all about.

I have another design to the same quote of “Where am I?” This time I wanted to add a mythical creature to my designs since this quote is, as I mentioned, very fantasy-like to me. Hence, aligned to the chinese concept yet again, I used the picture of a dragon. This was also inspired by Studio Ghibli film of “Spirited Away” as they have the characters of dragons as well.

Source from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/462322717974213615/

The last quote will be “You cannot escape time.” When I read this quote it feels like there’s a very monster-like characteristic to the subject of time. Like a monster that catches you and you’ll be engulfed by it. I decided to design this with an antique clock as the subject, giving a mysterious vibe to it accompanied by the entrance gates of a temple as I felt that it gives a very authoritative and majestic quality to the clock itself.

So there you go! My ideas to the designs themselves.

Project 2: Play with me

Hello all! As seen from my work, the genre is Supernatural but with a slight twist of it not being scary. I thought of having my pictures from the perspective of a spirit at home. Hence, many angles are how I imagine a view of a ghost would be like – stealthy, from high angles, close-ups (since ghosts are aware that humans are not able to see them and it’s alright going up close(?) and a great angle for portraying emotions by the eyes) and probably some blurred photos as they might be moving fast as well. Also, many photos consist of vignette effect since they are the first-hand view of the ghost, sort of like the view you see from the viewfinder.

While thinking about the 90 photos, I had an idea of making the photos grainy and with a slight green tint to make it look a tad eerie. I took reference from this photo which is a scene from Lethal Weapon 2.

4cc5a17bf91ea01ccf8e6f1bb5cd64f3the above photo’s from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/283656476502231460/

untitled_01-14and this is my own version of a bathroom scene

Recently, I’ve watched a short film by Royston Tan called Popiah. Although the concept of the film is nothing scary or supernatural related, I was really inspired by the cinematic sound effects that are very distinct especially the one in the opening scene – characters shredding the skin of fruits and whatnot or the clanking of porcelain plates. Since we had the advantage of adding sound effects and music, I added raw and probably sounds that we hear everyday at home to add realism to the photos. Also, I really liked the dark tonal effect in the film in general which I thought would be quite appropriate for my photos as well. Not sure if I’m right but there’s a slight vignette effect to some of the scenes. If you’re curious about Royston Tan’s film, I’ve put the video below for reference.

The main concept of my photos is the expression of loneliness portrayed by the spirit as it is unable to be seen. Hence, the 3 main occurrences in the photos are results of the spirit dropping hints to the human of its existence. Its intentions are not evil and harmful. However, as humans, we all fear of things that we do not understand of. The main character expresses fear in the photos which can be seen in several close-up photos of her eyes. The photos end off with the existence of spirit being ignored. The toys in some photos are meant as non-sequitur to portray a sense of eerie as well.

Here is my video! Pardon the quality as it became like that after I converted it to suit the format that Youtube accepts!