Forrest Gump – The Beautiful Mind

The Beautiful Mind

In the movie, John Nash enrolled into Princeton University and did not attend any of his classes. Instead he went around looking to prove different situations with mathematics. This was what he said to reason his absence in class.

 

Idea 1
Idea 1 (diff background)

Key words:

  1. The spiderweb representing the dull mind because in places that are abandoned and untouched for a long time there tend to have many spiderwebs.
  2. A broken light-bulb with an explosion in the background to represent the destroyed creativity.
  3. The class is represented by the worm; refering to the bookworm. And the hammer to break the light bulb – destroyed creativity
  4. the sheep’s eye because sheeps are followers representing the lack of originality.

This design is also too hard to read so it was rejected.

Idea 2

Okay. So let’s restart the thought process…

Creativity is often represented by a light-bulb or colors of the rainbow. (because when I googled ‘creativity’ that is all that pops up) The idea of a light-bulb does not really work because you cannot tell whether it is switched on or off. Also from Idea 1, the use of a broken light bulb did not work out too well.

So I settled for another source of light – a flame.

Classes… When I think of classes i think of teachers, books, whiteboard, blackboard, projectors, students, school uniforms, stacks of notes etc. I could have a classroom setting which would be much easier to distinguish. In idea 2, I used a student sitting at his desk to refer to being in class.

And for the ‘dulling of the mind’, I place a hand in a pinching action about to extinguish the flame.

Idea 2.1

Idea 2 has all the elements needed however, I feel that the “Classes will dull your mind” part is still not quite right. I tried an already extinguished candle to show the dulled mind. Also removing the hand and adding a whiteboard with maths equations all over in reference to the film.

(At this point I realise I have been replacing the heads all throughout my first few other quotes. But this is the only way I know how to translate the quote.)

Idea 2.2

I also thought the “destroy the potential for authentic creativity” part was lacking. So I changed it up a little bit. There is another student in the back with his candle lit, meaning his creativity is still alive in contrast to the student seated at the table whose light is blown out.

The trees in the back ground is to contrast the outside and inside of the classroom. Then I thought the background is a little too much as there is not much ‘breathing space’. I am not sure…

Idea 2.3
Idea 2.4

I switched the direction of the student behind because they are suppose to be from different spaces. And maybe their clothes should be different because wearing a uniform is associated to being in class.

Idea 2.5

I don’t need to plant the candle on the person. just someone extinguishing the candle flame.

Idea 3

I had been replacing a lot of heads and thought I should move away from that idea. Simplifying my idea 2 to just the significant elements – candle, hand, math. Does this say “Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity. “?

More like math kills creativity.

Idea 4

I re-interpreted the quote- John Nash was trying to think out of the box/ classroom and be original which led to idea 4.

Idea 4.1

Then I tried making a juxtaposed between inside and outside the classroom. The design became too cluttered with too many objects. It is too messy.

Idea 5

So then I did only the inside. I wanted to show a woodcutter cutting down a light bulb to reflect the destruction of idea. The use of the woodcutter is to tie into the human figure element that I wanted to carry on throughout the series. Idea 5 is still too complicated and due to time constraint I was force to submit this.

Comment:

Basically the idea is there, the design is just not resolved. Therefore it does not tie in with the other 3 designs. Joel did a good job interpreting the quote. He used books to represent classes. But personally I feel that books represented education more than classes. As the class that John Nash mentioned referred to being enclosed in the classroom listening to the lecturer. He wanted to go out and look for his own original idea therefore a single educational element could not display the meaning of class for me. Thus the usage of a box because thinking out of the box. If I have more time, I would give it more thought and hopefully create something better.

Prev: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/ytan149/forrest-gump-paranorman/

 

Author: Ying Hui

Hello :)

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