Diploma In Foundation Studies Of Art And Design Evaluation For My Confirmatory Stage : Final Major Project Name: Victoria Miller Working Project Title: “Lights, Camera, Action!: A study of a subject in the form of physical film and in the form of digital film” Project Area: Photography
I set out to use photography as a way into the theme of the motion picture, in both movement and still, using myself as the subject. The research I undertook proved to be both informative and inspiring, and the research showed me the clear stylistic difference between the work of Guy Maddin and the 1950s films of Marilyn Monroe. While I was working on this final project I was referencing the original Statement of Intent and using that as the template for the process of the work. I feel I have answered the challenges that I set myself, and as the work developed I found ways to further advance my ideas which I had not originally thought of. My intention had been to mimic Monroe in terms of wigs, makeup, costumes etc. in a 1950s setting. However as my research progressed I realised that Marilyn Monroe’s success was due to her charisma, personal style and innate star quality, and not only due to make up and props I therefore took photographs that extracted only Monroe’s gestures and body language, stripping away all other content that people would usually associate with Monroe. When I set up the shoot I began to understand the way separate elements of the concept can be explored. The resulting photographs were very successful and I really enjoyed the idea of portraying “Monroe” without physically being “Monroe”. This then lead me to different areas which I could use to further develop my understanding. One of the great pleasures of this project is discovering that by putting all these elements together the final pieces of work showing me as Monroe with
all the accouchements, created images which were almost a perfect copy of the photographs of Monroe. This is what I stated I wanted to achieve in my Statement of Intent. This does raise the question of what does it “mean” to create perfect copies of previous work? I believe that this is a philosophical question that I would like to further explore. The use of the Half-frame camera loaded with physical film, with its sprocket holes and its innate grain structure gave me a personal feel of authenticity. In a digital image world it is an exciting experience to be able to physically touch the image and have physical contact with it. Because of time and money constraints I was not able to experiment further with the tonal contrast, grain structure etc. with the Tri-X film. In the future I would very much like to experiment with physically damaging the film with sandpaper, chemicals, incorrect processing and burning the negative etc. All of this without the use of Photoshop processing! This is inspired by “Decasia: The State of Decay. A film by Bill Morrison” which uses heavily damaged nitrate stock. In my video titled “Marilyn, The True Story” I experimented with video software filters to create an aged and damaged look to the film. To create a sense of “the past” I feel that this processing was successful and I would like the opportunity in the future to experiment more with this and move towards a moving image that is almost completely destroyed. The video was shot in colour and digitally processed to black and white. One of the unexpected and exciting discoveries that I made was that by leaving one brief scene of the movie in colour the nature of the “black and white” image was very much enhanced by contrast with the brief de-saturated colour. Speaking personally, as a creative artist, I have found the whole process challenging, demanding, inspiring and satisfying. I am very proud of my final outcomes and I look back with pleasure at the many processes and work paths that I took to achieve them. I am looking forward to opportunities at the University Of Lincoln Art Department to continue to develop my personal creative skills. …………………………………………………………………………………