Cindy Sherman | Film Stills

In my tutorial with Ellen Nolan I mentioned that for one of my photography pieces I would very much like to create film still style images, from this it was clear that the work of Cindy Sherman was very relevant to what I want to create.

Cindy Sherman's work titled 'Untitled film stills' 1977-1980 very much takes the approach of looking at how women are depicted in films on TV and in magazines in a way of looking at how women can be stereotyped. She has said in her work she doesn't see herself she she's a character that she has portrayed usually from famous films. I very much like this work she created I feel it depicts women in a way they are portrayed in films, despite these all being staged and purposeful created to look like film stills they are extremely convincing, if you were to show these images to someone who didn't know this work of hers or her herself for that matter I don't think they would be able to tell that these are not in fact actual film stills.

I have/will be taking inspiration from this work in the way that I want to create not only a film on this particular unit but I would like to create my own 'film still' images without actually creating a film for my digital piece, these images are very cinematic despite not actually being taken with a filming camera which I feel is incredibly well done and despite being very deceiving. The images in this series are in black and white which is what I would like my work to be shot in as I feel it fits in with the theme of film noir which I would like to carry through all of this work I think the lack of colour in the images gives a deeper sense of mystery particularly if the story goes down a darker route with atmosphere. Not only this but it gives verisimilitude in the sense that in the 1940's images would have been in black and white as colour was only just being attempted at this time. I feel the authenticity of this is important so I would like to experiment with this in black and white film despite this not being my strongest area, however if I feel this was not successful in any way then I will be carrying this shoot out in digital and attempt to create a series of images of this style.

Image source one: http://tristonrobinson.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/cindy-shermans-untitled-film-stills-and-postmodernism/ 

Image source two: http://imageobjecttext.com/2012/01/19/in-the-kitchen-with-cindy/

Sin City | Film Inspiration

After deciding I want to look into doing a  film and being very interested in the filming style of film noir, and similarly the style of Sin City directed by Frank Miller, I wanted to have a closer look at the way the film is shot and how this is perhaps shown to the viewers. Sin City itself was taken from a Graphic Novel so for this reason it's imagery is very similar to that of the novels being very dark with stark points of colour running through the entire film this makes the film very cinematic and atmospheric much like that of Film Noir, for this reason I feel they run hand in hand with each other and work well with my idea of creating something similar, from watching this film more recently again it has given me inspiration to work in black and white perhaps starting to shoot in colour to see how they might compare.

The opening scene of Sin City is one of my favourites 'The customer is always right' I find this to be very dramatic and running with the theme of a melodrama, putting characters in danger and leaving the viewer in suspense of what might happen next. The tense atmosphere of this scene is something I would like to duplicate in my own work with the vulnerability of a female and a strong male character by her side perhaps completely contradicting her character and clashing with tension in perhaps a highly sexualised manor? This for me is coming from watching film noirs which have a surprising twist either at the end or maybe only having it suggested throughout.

To carry on my research I will look into silent films, and watch some more Film Noirs for inspiration I recently purchased 'Kiss me Deadly' an old film noir which I would like to take inspiration from.

Film Noir | What is it?

For my work I am very interested in the style of film noir, and using moving image to portray my narrative, I like how these films are very Atmospheric, by doing this it adds something more to the image and gives a stronger idea of what the characters may be experiencing through the film whether it be using this or dialogue.

Film Noir began in the 1940's when inspired by numerous screenplays being written based around crime fiction. The storytelling was highly stylized and very theatrical. Often the imagery used within Film Noir was taken from the earlier era of German expressionist cinema as many of the early noir film directors came from Germany to Hollywood. Film Noir explores various chapters covering many themes such as physiological, lovers planning murders corrupt policemen etc. This style film was admired by many and audiences responded to the more adult orientated type of film certainly by end of the second world war. In 1946 the films were recognised for being visibly darker than your average film and much more cynical for this reason they were given the title of "Film noir" its literal translation being "Black film". It is still heavily debated whether film noir is a film genre in its own right, however a style of film consisting of doomed romanticism, lost innocence, corrupt cops etc is still generalised in this way today.

Despite being popular and being used a lot, This is the sort of theme I would like my story to take, I feel it would fit well with the brief, given that the nature of these style of working are quite mysterious without giving too much away, From this I will continue my research into film noir and the styling of how to place together my narrative.

Some Popular Noir Films:

• Double Indemnity
• Gun Crazy
• Touch of Evil
• Kiss me Deadly
• Blood Simple
• The Big sleep

Part of Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder  in 1944

Initial Idea

Since my first lecture I've had my mind set on doing a short film as my digital part of this unit, As the film industry is something I would like to go into I thought it would fit well for my CV as well as give myself some experience with using a film camera as well as my DSLR.
I am very interested in the film style of Film Noir I like how the films are very atmospheric and dramatic, the monochrome adds a little more to the film which is what I would like to incorporate into my work.

General Idea's from first Lecture:

• Film Noir style film for my digital piece
• Use film stills to create my photographs?
• Images will be in style of film noir
• Black and White shoot
• splashes of colour?
• Sin City - Film style / Graphic Novel
• Short film
• Collaborate with film students

From this point I will use these bullet points to further my research into each area and hopefully come up with a more thorough plan of what I would like to do for both the digital and printed pieces.

Creating a Narrative

To be able to create a narrative you need to consider all components needed in order to create a successful narrative in our first lecture of the unit this was broken down for us to be able to make sure we cover all aspects when creating our own.

Narrative Strategies - Types of images

• Textual Narrative
• Visual narrative
• Still image
• Moving image
• Text as image
• Image and text
• Tableau image

Narrative Structures - The way a story is told

• Linear
• Random
• Open ended/Closed
• Repetition/permutation
• Flashback

Narrative Types - Style of the story

• Documentary
• Fiction
• Scientific
• Theoretical
• Poetic
• Personal/Diary

Visual Narrative Structures - How the narrative is presented

• Series of stills
• Sequence
• Image with Caption
• Text and Image

From this lecture I want to look at classic works of Fiction such as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland to get an idea of the way in which these Narratives have been told, I feel doing this will allow me have a deeper understanding of what I need to do to create my own narrative.

First post | Narrative Unit

For part of my photography degree I needed to create a blog for my work on my current unit Narrative. On here I will be posting my research and any work experiments I may be doing in the process until I reach my final idea. This blog will work along side my research journal as an online diary of what I'm currently doing.