Rebecca Louise Todd . BA Fashion marketing & communication, Level 6, 2017- 2018 . 6FAMK003C Visual Arts . CWK2 . Chiara Legittimo, Gina Ripoll, Anna Mary Rowe . 975 words
A Breathless Jump to This is a legend of the creative process undertaken in order to create “A Breathless Jump to Masculinity”. The editorial is based on a blend of characters from the 1960 film “Breathless”; these characters being Patricia and Michel. The aforementioned title includes aspects of the movie – as well as the title – as to give the reader an idea of where this editorial has come from. “Breathless” referring to the movie title, “jump” referring to the jump cuts used by Jean Luc Goddard throughout the film and “masculinity” the styling decision made for the sake of the editorial. Each to be discussed further in the coming sections. Breathless follows the lives of petty thief Michel and his relationship with aspiring American actress Patricia. Their complex love being shot in a scattered, space and time confusing manner in order to distort the audience’s perceptions. The use of jump cuts created in the editing process, allows for gaps in time in which the audience becomes perfectly aware that they are just an audience. This same editing manner creates a disconnection between characters and the bigger problems in their lives, whilst focusing on seemingly unimportant details. Patricia is portrayed mostly as a strong working woman and on the other hand in many ways it appears that Michel needs Patricia. The former is styled as to align with her personality, with a bobbed haircut, printed tees and sporting jeans and shirts and the latter being styled to fit in with the time of men’s fashion in the 1960s. The movie was a success in its challenging of common ideas at the time in cinema and society.
pretation of jump cuts in the editorial. This was originally the main theme. However, as styling came into play, so did other aspects adapt from the film. It was decided in the process that a more masculine look would be used in place of Patricia’s fairly feminine and dainty look. It became a blend between key pieces from both characters – Michel and Patricia. Michel’s key pieces including a trench coat, men’s hat and men’s shirt, and Patricia’s including high waisted jeans, striped tops and the sun glasses. These were styled as to give a balance between the two throughout.
When we talked, I talked about me, you talked about you, when we should have talked about each other.
This new look too helped the model choice decision. The original model chosen was a boy cut blonde haired, pixie looking girl, with a more masculine touch in the form of piercings and tattoos. Her look transformed the creative idea of the editorial, which began to overshadow the focus of the editorial. This model fortunately or unfortunately, turned down the job and another model was found. The final model, very unlikened to Patricia was still beautiful, natuBased on an in-depth analysis of the film conduct- ral and dainty; however far less blonde and boy ed prior to the editorials production, the decision cut. Alas however a more focused editorial on was made to focus on the adapted use and inter- the movie was believed to have been created.
Masculinity
As the styling, characters and editing were chosen as the key takings from the film, the studio became the location of the editorial as to not distract from these elements. The studio allowed for specific artificial lighting to be used, much unlike the actual film lighting that was used in 1960. The lighting used was a key light, without a soft box, as to give sharp shadows on one side of the face. This light was distributed through a metal lampshade so that it was focused on the subject. This was balanced with a soft boxed fill light which was placed on the adjacent side as to give light to the entire subject yet not over power the key light. This lighting scheme allowed for sharp and clean shadows seen in the final editorial. Being the photographer of the shoot, with little photography experience, the lighting played a key role in ensuring high quality aesthetic and professional photos. The photography follows a simple subject full frame approach, from different angles in order to add to the jump cut approach that was intended. A mirror shot can be seen in one of the chosen images. It was an experiment with angles and distortion as to align with the movie’s use of distortion in an adapted still shot way. That shot in a way can be seen as a jump from reality to perception or vice a versa. In the editing phase, the executive decision was made to keep the model fairly untouched and natural in keeping with Patricia’s naturalness and the organic way in which the film was originally created.
It’s silly, but I love you. I wanted to see you, to see if I’d want to see you.
A Breathless Jump to Masculinity
Model: Nora Madariaga Photographer: Rebecca Todd Stylist: Rebecca Todd Assitants: Javier and Zdenek
The main editing came through in the way the editorial was laid out and what story this would portray to the reader. In shooting, certain shots were taken in anticipation of the layout scheme in mind, therefore the juxtaposition and jump in time can quite clearly been seen from one page to the next. However, others were not seen in this same way, so a less organic placement was conceived. The editorial layout to those unfamiliar with the movie may seem repetitive, however, the editorial is meant to portray the juxtaposition of positions side by side in order to give the same illusion of time and space that jump cuts created in the film, with the viewer questioning what happened between each shot but at the same time being able to see a movement from one to another. Overall A Breathless Jump to Masculinity based on the 1960 film Breathless, laid out to be published in Another Magazine, as it aligns with the magazines clean, modern and artsy style – was researched, analyzed and planned in the hopes that the viewer is able to understand the process that went into the idea for the editorial and in the hope that with all these aspects, outlined above, coming together is portrayed well.
Breathless.Breathless.Breathless.Breathless.Breathless.Breathless.Breathless