Assessment Item 3: Online Research Presentation

Telling a story in pictures. How do you communicate narrative, mood & setting without resorting to dialogue, sound or music? How, in short, do you communicate visually?

A lot of the effect that colour has on us is subconscious. It speaks to us on a deeper level – calling out to our hidden emotions and painting a vivid picture, telling us all we need to know without speaking a word. Not only does colour have this effect, but it is also something that an audience can take away with them – when it is a noticablely employed in visual texts, we can come to associate it with a particular character, time or place. A second viewing of such a colour may trigger our memories back, e.g. personally, I don’t think I can witness any person wear an item of purple clothing without reminissing back to Gene Wilder in ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. The colour in that film was outrageously bright and exciting!  Thefilm makers appropriately incorporated colour into their project, using it to highlight characters and places, as well as using it as engulfing element that draws the whole film together and gives it this playful identity.

I tried to capture something similar with the three stills that I shot. They depict not so much a narrative, but rather offer insight into the place and characters through the use of colour and grading. Lighting was also significant in the shooting of these photographs, in that it allowed me to capture certain colours in certain ways, and in doing so, it gave new life to the subjects, their location and what they’re able to represent. The colour red I wanted to use, and I did so sparingly on the shots, with it being the colour of the girl’s lips, and the logo on the brunette’s dress. Red is a magnificent colour in that it holds so many connotations, so it is capable of being read in a number of ways. It draws ones mind to danger, pain and agony, thoughts of blood, evil eyes, fire and panic (‘red alert’). At the same time it also fills you with thoughts of love, desire, a heartbeating fast in someone’s chest, roses and passion. Although these two connotations are very different, they are similar in the way that they both represent something strong, something fierce. I think we’re safe to say that red is not a mellow colour, and it tends to get a rise out of people when used powerfully (e.g. the blood in Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd, the ruby slippers in Victor Flemming’s  ‘Wizard of Oz’).

The red that has been employed in my shots serves to highlight the mischeivous, cheeky and troublesome characters of the girls. It presents an image of adventure, excitement and seduction. It tends to stand out in the images because it is the only ‘warm’ colour used, and contrast’s with the cooler greens and blues that make up the background. Also, because it appears on the girls personally (be it their lips, or the dress) it becomes exclusively theirs – a representation of them alone, and not something in the background.

The other colours, although less confronting, do well in illustrating their surroundings, and creating a particular mood for the shots. The blue of the shadows in the last two shots give the photographs a somewhat icy element. They also seem to show that it is a particuar time of day, perhaps early morning, or around twilight. These colours do not appear in the first shot – but the background of that one, being a pastel green, is also quite dulcet and unimposing. The lighting on the first shot is also warmer, showing the girl’s hair and skin tones in a more yellow/orange light. With the change of light and location from the first shot to the next two, one might imagine that time has elapsed between shots – and create a narrative to explain the discontinuity. The browns and dark greys in the last two photographs allow the vibrancy of the two girls to be highlighted. The environment of lifeless grass, disgarded tiles, and a vandalised wall are highlighted as being ‘unloved’ not only by the wreckless state in which they appear, but also due to the more subdued colours which give a lackless life to them. Again this contrasts with the firey exhuberance and cheeky, adventuresome vibrancy of the girls who appear to be so separate from this location in a personal sense, but physically well within it.