I decided that I didn't want to make a book about how to make a book, because I thought I could do so much more with this brief, rather than just going for the easiest, most obvious choice. I created a mind map of initial ideas, which I then presented to a group of my peers during Interim critiques.
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| As you can see I have thought about several extremely different ideas. I initially thought about producing a food themed book, perhaps on dolly mix, or having grass icing details, although I wasn't sure what the content of this book would actually be about. I then remembered a very interesting book I saw which was made by one of the 2nd years for their "Speaking from experience" brief, which was all about the do's and don't's of Graphic Design. I remember it standing out to me being a very strong colour theme of green and white, with almost a watercolour style pattern to some pages, and others being a block of green colour, with bold Helvetica style white text covering the page. This book is one of the most memorable designs I have seen, unfortunately when I trawled through all the 2nd years blogs to try and find the book in question, I couldn't find it on any of them. Another of my ideas was to base the content of my book on a film, as this would be very easy to get content on, and I wouldn't even have to do my own research, as there is a lot out there for all the films ever created if you look hard enough. My initial film ideas were Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, as this was such an inspiring film, and I immediately had the idea of printing lots of little fish all over my book. The next film I thought of was Mortdecai, as this was the most recent film I had seen, and was incredibly funny. However I don't think this is such a good choice as there isn't really a distinct style to the film which I could reflect in the aesthetics of my book, except possibly for the shots when Mortdecai travels from country to country, and the name of the city he's landing in pops up from the Earth in 3D lettering. The final film I thought of was Drive, starring Ryan Gosling. I thought of this film because it has an amazing soundtrack, and a very distinct look to it that would be really interesting to try and portray in my book, especially coupled with the soundtrack too. I thought about perhaps using blood spatters in my designs as there is a lot of blood involved in the film. I wanted to include the lyrics from some of the songs from the soundtrack in the book, perhaps as quotes, but then I got the idea of dedicating one or two pages in the book to a specific song from the soundtrack, and producing illustrations from what's happening in the lyrics of the songs in the style of what is happening in the film at that moment, for example if someone had just died I would use dark colours, however when it's a happy part, for example when they go to the river, I could use light colours and smooth lines, rather than jagged aggressive ones. I still wanted this book to be in the theme of the book I saw from a 2nd yearGraphic Design student, so I thought about producing the illustrations using continuous line drawings and bold watercolour splatters to add colour to the illustrations. |
Interim Critique
I presented my idea for Drive being the content of my book, and how I was still a little stuck for exactly what the content of the book was going to be filled with, as all I had at the moment was quotes from the lyrics of the songs, and I got a lot of really constructive feedback. I twas suggested I could write about how the film was actually produced, such as the sets and lighting for example, as this is a major aspect of the film. One of my peers also suggested I could produce a theatre programme, which often details a brief synopsis of the film, but then also talks about the actors and the soundtrack and any interesting aspects of the film itself. This could be a really effective way of including a lot of key aspects of how the film is made, without having to write an essay and analyse every part of the film in detail. However this would still require me to do a lot of my own research, which would take up time I would prefer to use designing the layout of the book, as this is what we are assessed on. My tutor also suggested I produce a visual companion guide, such as you can buy for iconic films like Star Wars or Batman for example. This would also talk about the director and the set and lighting as well, in a similar but more detailed way a theatre programme would do. However again this would still require a lot of my own research. Another idea was suggested was that I just use an already existing review of Drive for the content of my book, as the content doesn't have to be my own work, as I am not assessed on the content. I could also type up an interview with one of the stars in the film or the director as well, which would also get an analytical but more informal view of the film. This also wouldn't require a lot of my own research, as the review or interview would already be out there, all I'd have to do was copy it or type it up and place it in my book.
The Film
To refresh my memory of Drive before I started planning my book and it's aesthetics and content, I re-watched Drive again to refresh my memory of it. I screen-shotted key scenes or shots that I thought were particularly interesting or produced key imagery that I could use for my illustrations of colour scheme for my book, however when I went to look at them once the film had finished, they had turned out all grey, even though I had watched it from a DVD, which I presume is something to do with the copyright of the film I was unaware of. These was extremely frustrating as I had taken rather a lot of screen shots I was planning on analysing and taking bits from to use for my designs. When I came to watching the film again I wrote down the times of key songs or key parts of the film, perhaps where slow motion was used effectively. I thought this would make it easier to refer back to later on, so I wouldn't have to watch the film all over again. I also found that hardly any of the songs from the film had lyrics to them, so I could still use lyrics as a small part of my book, however it will only be able to be a small part, and I won't really be able to draw illustrations based on what is happening in the songs because there isn't much to work with.
On the DVD extras section there was a 40 minute interview with the director of Drive Nicholas Winding Refn, which talks a lot about the making of the film and how it started out, which was really interesting, so I thought about typing up this interview to use for the content of my book, which will give me a lot of words to work with, without having to research a lot and type it up from scratch. In the interview it also mentions another interview the director had with BBC Breakfast about Drive earlier that day, so it may be worth looking at that interview as well, and comparing which one would provide me with a suitable amount of text to work with, but it also interesting and details the film clearly as well. I could perhaps produce illustrations based on what Refn is talking about during certain point of the interview, however still in the style of what is happening during the film at the point he is talking about. I could also produce illustrations based on what Refn is talking about in the interview, however produce them in the style of the film and how the imagery evolved and changes in a chronological order rather than randomly, which may reflect the story of the film better.
Film screenshots:
I decided to take screenshots whilst I was watching the film as I thought this would be easier to look back on for references than going back and re-watching the film again, skipping to specific parts.
The shape of the film itself is wide and short, more so than most other films, with a lot of the shots using up the maximum width of the screen as possible, perhaps this is something I could take into my designs.
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