Patrick Connor Online Sketchbook

UCA Online sketchbook Extended Diploma in CMPT

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Artist Statement

Name: Patrick Connor

Course: Creative Media Production & Technologies - Year 1

Medium: Film and Digital Print

Artist statement: When we were real is a conceptual short film that on the surface looks at a group of teenagers becoming friends over the course of seventeen days. The chance encounter of the main character Cassie and Bobby her soon to be loving best friend takes Cassie down a path of no return experiencing what Bobby considers to be the checklist for a teenager but their encounter with Luna an aggressive yet fashionable girl and her mute Italian boyfriend Noah crafts a friendship that could never break. However, the true meaning of the film is found inside the human mind. When we were real looks at  the story from a landscape of seventeen chapters all named after common experiences in anyones life such as chance, but this story how the true meaning of your identity is forever changing with small or large events that redirect the person you are, wether that is being shielded because of death or growing confident because of wealth. I attempted to show people that identity is not a thing that can be photographed or crafted as your identity is its own self, it shifts and changes constantly never truly crafting a finished project, you are truly unique as you will never cease to augment and change as a person. That to me is the true beauty of the story I’ve crafted.

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Final Evaluation

This project has now truly reached its end and although I am finished I doubt this si a project I can simply leave behind, not only is the concept drawn from personal experiences but the ideas and memories I've had during this project are some of the best I think I’ve had. Although my time management was questionable throughout I have seen now that it’s important to keep toying with an idea and that it is okay to turn arduous and simply think ‘I hate this I’m doing something different’. 

Throughout the project my opinion has widened and I think I can finally grasp why art is around, and thats what I did with my short film. Although it began as the most clean cut narrative story idea I realised that filming is still an art and therefore has to be treated as such which enabled me to develop intricate and different characters and develop a true meaning to my story in a allegorical sense beyond a plain narrative. 

Though my themes may be slightly complex for myself to craft at this point that is why I think I may come back to it as I will be able to grasp it better in the future with my own experience. Overall though it was tricky at points and I gave myself a lot of work I am happy with the outcome of my final posters derived from my photography and my final storyline too.

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Project Proposal I am uploading this as I somehow forgot to upload it at the beginning of my project.

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Vaughan Oliver Poster Response 

Although on the surface comparing them is like comparing water to a sandwich the connections are there. I looked at Vuaghan Olivers history with making posters etc. for musicians and derived more of a rough look pairing uncomfortable colours to make it look shall I say more messy than as clean as a Saul Bass poster and although I love these I just think they look too much like a band poster which is most likely not the best choice for a movie poster.

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Saul Bass and Vaughan Oliver Poster Final Response

I have chosen these to be my final set of posters going forward as I wanted derive most of it from classic Saul Bass posters but also add the rough quality of his work by adding cluttered letting and distorted pictures. This I feel works with my video as it is the idea of forcing someone to get a meaning by giving them too much information. I overall also just really aesthetically enjoy how they have came out as a final set of posters

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Final Practice Scene

The following is my final cut of the first scene that would potentially feature within the movie.

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5 Possible Final Trailers

This is one edit of two or three I wish to experiment with so I have multiple final trailers I am happy with but this is me toying with multiple ideas for the trailer I think personally I am happiest with the original as a piece but I did play around with changing the soundtrack, removing the bars and removing the poem.

No Widescreen Bars

No Poetry Trailer

Second Soundtrack Choice Trailer

Third Soundtrack Choice Trailer

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Peer Evaluation by Joshua Rai

This week Paddy has completed 5 pieces of research based on artists, a musician and a director. He has also created a movie poster with a flashing variation for his film. 

The poster has a great adherence to design values. Its a very clean and minimalistic design, featuring the work in progress title that is subject to change ( When We Where Real is another option that is being discussed that i personally think is much better, and gives off a kind of Enter the Void/Requiem for a Dream ). His research isn't bloated  and provides a quick summary of why he likes their work and a breakdown of what their work is.

The impact of his poster is that its meant to be kind of trippy in the colour, but that helps to make it stick out, and with the bold typography for the name, it is very easy to make out what the poster is saying. The minimalistic design conveys to me personally as the viewer that the film is more indie than a blockbuster.

Paddy’s plan going forward is to research further into the use of cinematography in classic and contemporary films. He will also research and respond to classic movies posters ( 80′s classic posters e.g Blade Runner, Rumble in the bronx ). Over the next couple of weeks he will be filming scenes for his trailer and crafting his final poster designs with his chosen title. Focus group will be made to see what impact the scenes have on the viewer and to test out poster designs to see which one is best. 

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Crywank Soundtrack Research

Pardon the name but his work is rather impressive, though he is rather small scale he tackles issues in his music in particularly ‘Song for a Guilty Sadist’ is perhaps my favourite choice right now for a song for my trailer as I feel strong bonds with music, I believe it can add, take away meaning and exaggerate another meaning. The song mentioned above is a song about his own experiences with sexual aggression and how he hates doing it because he doesn’t feel he should do this to a woman who loves it but she says she wants it so he is struggling with a section of his identity, is it right to do as the one who loves you asks or is it perhaps more right to deny it for their safety. It’s depressing I’ll be honest but it applies, it attaches to the meaning I want to focus on of creation and destruction.

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Edgar Wright Visual Arts Research 

Edgar Wright is by far one f my favourite directors of the modern generation, he is perhaps the only modern director who uses visuals to add to the comedy of a movie, his work in transitioning and visual comedy is unique and clearly has strong ties in the silent movie era, he can turn an otherwise mildly funnier scene into a more entertaining scene by using transitions and even using things like specific camera pans to illustrate humour within a scene. It’s a refreshing thing to see in the modern era with many visual comedies recently feeling stale and awkward to try and get a laugh. I definitely want to look into his use of transitioning for my video piece, his work is rather remarkable and a good highlight of his work is below:

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Mid point Evaluation

This is my mid point evaluation towards my project and to start off honestly I feel like I haven’t been doing enough, being to stuck in a script and then deciding to change my idea so recently has definitely set me back but I still feel like all of my research applies and I will finish tis project it is simply a matter of scheduling and next Monday and Tuesday I am filming for the trailer of which I hope to make multiple versions so that I can experiment of the holidays and right now I am hoping to research more into artists for the posters and cinematographers for the shots I want to use in my final trailer, it’s going to be  long ride but I feel like I can do it and also I am impressed with my ability to craft ideas for posters thus far, although I would argue they are cheesy in some sense it shows that I can respond too artists, such as my practice posters which I derived the idea from the style of Saul Bass who uses text intertwined with imagery to create a simple yet meaningful poster that draws a viewer in with bright colour and simplicity. I hope to make posters in the end however that look more alike to the style of Vaughan Oliver, beautifully blended into the background as his work is to reflect how the ideals in my poster have been clear fro years to people but people still seem to ignore them in their everyday lives. I just hope I can truly make posters that express the identity of a character to show the viewer clearly what exactly is going on inside they minds, as the characters Cas and Bobby are both dealing with death when they meet, Cas of her grandmother and Bobby of his baby brother. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a film idea so I hope I can effectively show that through my trailer and even artwork fro the film.

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Ben Drew (Plan B) - Pace Research

The reason I’ve chosen to review Ben Drew is due to a tip from Jazzy to look into pace within my trailer and experiment with holding and showing information and upon a closer look it is clear that the trailers fro Ben Drew's film use pace heavily, effectively flashing images at the viewer rather than showing much more like regular trailers. This fast pace is a good way to exaggerate the film feeling and still quickly show the plot to the viewer but although it is impressive I’m hoping to use this idea in two formats, one like his own and one more alike to the Star Wars teaser Trailer and it may sound generic but the teaser purposely held back information to allow for a better reaction in the cinema from viewers, where as Plan b uses speed to show the viewer more. I hope personally to use both techniques crafting two interweaving ideas that show the artistic meaning and the frontal meaning of the movie.

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Saul Bass - Visual Design Research

Out of all of the artists I have chosen to study Saul Bass is by far my favourite and has been since I began being interested in film. He created some of the most famous movie posters in the world after crafting them for all of Alfred Hitchcock's films. His style is extremely original and is now frequently imitated as he made simplistic clear posters that often only used a colour palette of two or three opposing colours. I used this idea in my practice posters that i produced yesterday for me myself and you but twisted it to fit a more modern style of using multiple shades of one colour. His work is bold, bright and noticeable and I would argue for the purpose they're made its what makes them timeless, they’re clear and they stand out, you are effectively forced to look at them.

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Vaughan Oliver - Visual Communication Research

Vaughan is most well-known for working on album art for The Pixies and The Cocteau Twins but in general his work is rather amazing, his use of multiple formats blend effortlessly into what is some extraordinary work like the above. His use of colour in my opinion is often impressive as he makes good use of a small colour palette and even though is quoted to of said that he found typography uninspiring in school he makes wonderful use of it in his work and even his lesser known work is impressive, what i like about his work is how it’s extremely urban in style and you could see it fitting in on a wall as a poster and thus creating album art he creates work that seems like it should exist, like it was already there.

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Saul Bass Response One 

I was toying around with restructuring my idea this weekend after being inspired by the lecture on VISCOM last week and adding that to a new name for the film, I have decided to produce a set of poster ideas and a trailer, so my final product is effectively about launching a film, I chose this due to time restraints but I do feel like it means I can also do a lot more with my work.

EDIT: I have changed the name for a second and final time with it now being When we were real.

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Scene 0 Very Rough Edit

This scene is definitely not finally cut as I can already see some clear flaws but the rough edit is promising.

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SCENE 5 – Fear

This is the part in the story that shows that Bobby isn’t the perfect guy or some rare entity, Cassie discovers some things about his personality that worry her. Today is the anniversary that his last girlfriend dumped him and left him to wallow in his own mess so he wants to use today’s topic of destruction to teach her a lesson. But soon enough Cassie gets scared and runs off into a park…