Ferris Bueller's Day Off: The Opening Scene - A Critical Response

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Directed By John Hughes 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off directed by John Hughes is now considered a classic 1980s film, it includes classic Hughes themes 'the philosopher of adolescence, whose credits include "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty In Pink." In all of his films, adults are strange, distant creatures who love their teenagers, but fail completely to understand them.' (Ebert 11/06/86).  Buellers Day Off uses the main character to speak directly to the audience this creates a kind of intimacy between the audience and Ferris as he gives his thoughts directly to use and make us feel we are with him throughout.  He takes us on the journey and this journey is a real ride.  A great day off school, a feel-good movie that makes me certainly wish I was young again!  

Also, it is a movie of its time, the 1980s, Adam Smith writes: 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off is, in fact, an unadulterated celebration of what it's like to be young white, middle class and well-heeled in mid 80s America.' (Smith 01/01/14).  Times certainly have changed but there is something interesting as we are treated to the idea that consumerism is great and how we did aspire to have the things that Ferris experiences through the day, posh car, the best restaurants.  

This is obviously a feelgood movie and all the kids are essentially alright which is why as a viewer we enjoy experiencing it, movies are an experience we feel with the characters, through the magic of editing, music diegetic and non-diegetic. 'John Hughes, the writer and director of "Ferris," was an obsessive music fan who cemented the legacies of several artists by building film scenes around their songs.' (Smokler 14/09/16).  

I saw this movie at the time and have seen it again later and I think it has stood the test of time well.  But perhaps I have a nostalgia for what I saw as a simpler age where mobile phones didn't exist computers did not connect to the internet and we did have a home phone and used it.  We went out with our friends and perhaps we were not so watched over (in many ways) as we are now.  Imagine no social media and then imagine the freedom that affords you...

In terms of what I really get out of this work in relation to my own is that it is the kind of thing that I would find incredibly difficult - something feelgood, happy, a little movie of joy... that is why I admire this as it has qualities that I would find incredibly difficult to emulate! The filming of the scene is very straightforward in terms of the shots used such as close up to the medium shot, shots of the TV, the Sky representing exactly what the character is saying.  The editing is fairly quick to keep this moving forward quickly and keeping the narrative flowing.  Again this makes us feel as if we are on the journey with the character.  As with all works the artist/media producer needs to find a connection with the audience and my overriding response is that this connection is very well executed here.  In my own artworks, I do find it challenging to find that connection and ensure that there is some universal meaning that will connect people to the work. 

References

Ebert R (11/06/86) Rogert Ebert Reviews: Ferris Bueller's Day Off [Online] Available From: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ferris-buellers-day-off-1986 (Accessed 11/11/20)

Smith A. (01/01/14) Ferris Bueller's Day Off Review [Online] Available From: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/ferris-bueller-day-review/ (Accessed 11/11/20)

Smokler K (14/09/16) Secrets of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off Soundtrack [Online] Available From: https://www.salon.com/2016/09/13/secrets-of-the-ferris-buellers-day-off-soundtrack-when-you-can-hear-the-vocals-you-say-oh-my-god-this-song-is-about-cameron/ (Accessed 11/11/20)

 

Pierre Bonnard: Nude in The Bathtub - A Critical Response

 

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Nude in Bathtub (c 1938-41), oil on canvas, 121.9 x 151.1 cm, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. The Athenaeum.

This image by Bonnard is one of many that show Martha, his mistress bathing.  This period in Bonnard's work just prior to the second world war, he spent in France on the coast of Normandy exploring the colour and light.  

Bonnard was part of a group of painters that called themselves Les Nabis, this came from the Hebrew word for prophet.  'Les Nabis used flat patches of colour, and admired Japanese prints and the work of Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was known for experimenting with colour. Bonnard worked in the years following Gauguin's death in 1903 and was directly influenced by his style.' (Tate 2020)

Bonnard was a post-impressionist and intimist and as stated he was highly influenced by Gauguin's use of bold vivid colour.  In this image we can see how he has used bright yellows, purples, blues on the tiles surrounding the bathtub, this colour palette also reflected on Martha's body, the floor the tub reminds the viewer of a bright summers day, the warm colours and French light in mid-summer.  Martha's body is relaxed and this intimacy of seeing he rin the bath that Bonnard shares is the gift that gives to the viewer.  The dog lying on the floor represents loyalty and domestic scenes which is what Bonnard is most fond of produce that intimacy as we are allowed into a private space.  

When looking at this work it feels as if we are a quiet eye looking on as Bonnard did at the person he loved the most in the world, Martha. 'Pierre Bonnard met Marthe Boursin getting off a Parisian streetcar in 1893 and they remained together until her death in 1942, although they didn’t marry for at least thirty years.' (Linely 14/03/19)

As a photographer when I consider this work by Bonnard, I consider how he has used the light and the colour of the light.  The French light here in mid-summer is very distinctive and as one of my favourite place in the world is Cognac, France, I understand this light, it's gentle orange/yellow warmth that permeates the image.  When looking through the lens and photographing flesh this is same light is present.  I photograph often in black and white but in France, I see this light and how it changes through the day and through my lens it touches everything in the frame to create this feeling of intimacy and warmth.  Bonnard demonstrates the pleasure of intimacy, love, his place in the world through these colours.  

References 

Hockley (15/08/18) The Eclectic Light Company, Pierre Bonnard: At home with Marthe, 1937-1943 [online] Available from: https://eclecticlight.co/2018/08/15/pierre-bonnard-at-home-with-marthe-1937-1943/ (Accessed 11th November 2020)

Tate (2020) Eight Essentials to Know about Pierre Bonnard [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pierre-bonnard-781/eight-essentials-know-about-pierre-bonnard (Accessed 11th November 2020) 

Linely N. (14/03/19) Oxonian Review, Marthe [Online] Available from:  https://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/marthe/ (Accessed 11th November 2020) 

Sherwin (25/01/18) The Guardian, Pierre Bonnard’s Nude in the Bath: a woman in the tub or a corpse entombed? [Online] Available From: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jan/25/pierre-bonnard-nude-in-the-bath  (Accessed 11th November 2020) 

Biteable: My Jobseekers Video

 A very exciting day as I have created my very own jobseekers video on Biteable!  Check his out here:

Zoe Van-de-Velde: Jobseekers Video 

In your own biteable video post ensure that you add all of the processes here.  Also, add a small reflection on the success (or not!) of your video.  

Reflection: This video was fun to make and I did it in a limited timeframe.  If I were to improve this, I would add more seconds for some of the film slides so that they could be read and some go slightly too quickly.  Also, I would change some of the colour of the words so that they are easier to read against the background. My son said that the music made him cringe, so perhaps a different music track!  If I were to actually use this in my CV I would pay to get the watermark removed and ensure that this was of high quality for a job application making the changes I have suggested here.

Week Three: Ideas Generation

Here is an example of what would be expected from your initial post on Ideas generation 

Title: Ideas Generation: Exploring the Doppelgänger

Dante Gabriel Rossetti  (1864) How they met themselves 

A Doppelganger is ‘an apparition or double of a living person.’ I first became interested in this concept when I was young and reading ‘Mysteries’ by Colin Wilson (he actually came from Leicester!) The stories he told of instances of Doppelgangers were absolutely fascinating. Here are a couple of stories:

Goethe, wrote in his autobiography that 'one day he was riding along a road in Alsace, having just said goodbye to his sweetheart, when he saw 'with eyes of the spirit' his own apparition coming towards him dressed in a grey and gold suit. (The phenomenon is known as the Doppelgänger). Eight years later, on his way to visit the same girl, he passed the spot and suddenly realised that he was now dressed in the grey and gold suit. He had seen his future self.' (Wilson 1978:380)

'Perhaps the most striking case in the whole literature of phantasms of the living is that of Emilie Sagée, an attractive French schoolmistress who lost eighteen jobs in sixteen years because of her strange - involuntary- ability to be in two places at once. One day, as she was writing on the board, her pupils were astonished to see two Emilie Sagée's standing side by side, both apparently writing in chalk. As Emilie turned startled at the sudden noise, the 'double' vanished. On another occasion, as Emilie was helping fix the dress of a Mlle Antoinette de Wrangel, the girl looked into the mirror and saw two Emilies, she fainted.' (Wilson: 1978:380/1)
There are many many other examples of doppelgangers appearing and strangely I have been followed and approached on at least three occasions by people saying that I looked just like someone they knew. The strangest one was a man who insisted I looked so much like his sister he thought I was her and when I laughed he said I even laughed like her. Also online you can search for your doppelganger and even find works of art that look like you. This fascination with finding ourselves is really quite interesting.

So to create a project using this concept this is where we can start getting really creative. So let's consider some different continuation routes.

Photography

I could do a double exposure project
Slow shutter speed to create 'ghostly appearances'
Simple photoshop to appear twice in the same image

Fashion

I could look at the concept of twins/Gemini and use imagery ideas for the collection - creating perhaps mirror pieces that reflected each other

Fashion Styling & Communication

Fashion shoot using twins/lookalikes as a concept for an editorial

Animation/Comic Art

Create a character with a doppelganger and then create a postmodern adventure - create a comic illustration piece or a short animation film

Film

Use split-screen editing to create conversations with myself

Graphic Design

Create a set of six book covers that were the doppelganger detectives with titles like 'Double Trouble' . 'Twice as Nice', 'Double or Nothing'.

As you can see the concept is far more important so that you can then apply the idea to your subject.


Now it's your turn create a post that explores your ideas first before moving onto creating a milanote for your ideas board and initial research.



References

Wison C. (1978) Mysteries, Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Research Task: Week Six Example

I am not necessarily going to go in order here on my blog but as I am writing the course content I am also providing examples where I can.

So in class, we are looking at what is research? and then three forms of research that we should be expanding upon by application in our blogs.

In class, you learnt that research was; “the systematic investigation into, and study of, materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions”

This is how your post should look however please do not copy my post just use this as an EXAMPLE

Research Class Exercise

Name something you have researched in the past for art, design or media.

I have researched the Czech photographer Josef Sudek

Explain how you researched this

I chose three internet sources that were most useful after looking at over 10 internet sources that contained information about the photographer and his work.  I then read the three internet sources that I wanted to use in my post very carefully and I began to write a post with the intention that I could explain how Josef Sudek's photography would inform my own still life/object images that I was taking for my project.

What facts did you discover? 

• Josef Sudek was born in 1896 and died in 1976.
• known as the ‘Poet of Prague’, was drawn to desolate landscapes, simple, solitary objects and the quiet, unpopulated street scenes of Prague, a city to which he dedicated his whole life.
• Sudek was originally a bookbinder but after fighting in the first world war and losing his right arm he studied photography.
• He was expelled from the local camera club for arguing for more progressive photography that moved away from a pictorialist style. He then set up his own group The Progressive Czech Photography Society in 1924. 
• People rarely appear in any of his work and between 1940 to 1954 he photographed The Windows of my Studio which were his best-known work of still lives and objects within his studio.

What NEW conclusions did you establish?

I did not necessarily establish new conclusions about his life however I looked carefully at his photographs and analysed these to inform my own practice. I looked at composition, tone, his methods of capturing the images, the use of windows, light and shadow. I also discussed the idea of time and how moments in time in a photograph.

In the next three sections, I will discuss research examples from a major project. Therefore to begin I will outline an example of a major project so it is clear the context of the research.

My major project is a short film that uses split-screen called 'Conversation with my walls'. I intend to create a script, storyboard, shooting plan and will edit this using Premier Pro. The finished film will be 3 minutes long.

Research into my major project

My project was about the doppelganger therefore I was interested in suing split screen in a film to convey this idea.  I will research into films using the split-screen effect. These will be: Annie Hall By Woody Allen, Snatch by Guy Richie. Back to the Future II. I will also look at the history of the split screen in cinema on how this evolved and how it is still used in cinema today.


I will consider how social and cultural factors have been exposed (such as in Back to the Future II and Annie Hall) by using split-screen. In Back to the Future II culturally how times have changed from when Marty's parents were young to being young in the 1980s. In Annie Hall it is the culturally and social differences of the families and the characters which are exposed through the split-screen techniques and also talking directly to camera - which is another technique that I am hoping to incorporate in my own film.


Here is an example of Split Screen use in Back to the Future II:

Research through my major project

I will be researching and testing Adobe Premier Pro to use as the editing tool on my project however I will also research other online editing tools for the film. I will try Videograbber and Pixiko as well to test these out.

I will also be creating a storyboard and script so I will use Celtx for the script formatting and for storyboarding I will try out Storyboardthat and Canva.

I will experiment with all of these and create posts to show how I have tried and tested these before deciding on the software I will complete my project with.

Research for my major project

For this area, I will be looking much more deeply at the concept of the conversation so I will research Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Shirley Valentine directed by Lewis Gilbert and her conversations with the wall


Please see the trailer here;

I will also look at Daniel Schreber and Memoirs of my Nervous Illness. These three very different sources look at how we talk to ourselves, think about ourselves, and how in the case of Godot it is what are we waiting for, and sometimes it feels that perhaps we are all waiting in some way for something ...


This is the outline of the research I will be carrying out, through this research I will discover new methods of working and I will explore my concept fully so that I can write my own original work.

Welcome to a New Term: Autumn 2020

 Welcome to a New Term: Autumn 2020.  Normally I would introduce the term by saying that I intend to create a project with the students however I have been doing this now over the years and so I am going to retire myself from the project making and concentrate on giving examples throughout the term of how to use your blog, how to research and how to really develop work in art, design and media.

However, I will begin with an inspirational image from the book The Invented Eye: Masterpieces of Photography 1839-1914 by Edward Lucie-Smith.

Notman Studios, Bake-Oven, Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal

This photograph is by the Notman studios founded by William Notman (1826-1891 - Born in England, but active in Canada from the mid-1950s onwards) His studios created a vast amount of images at the time. I chose this image just for its stillness, the beauty of the man alone sitting by the oven, contemplating.  The emptiness and of the place ads to the serenity, there is no clutter or chaos just these vast empty rooms.  The lighting is perfect with the man casting a long shadow across towards the fireplace and the shadow cast across the floor in-between the bright skylights where the sun is shining in.  The composition with the beautiful framing of the door within the door, the rule of thirds with the man sitting perfectly to balance the image.  Beautifully shot and beautifully still I could contemplate this image for hours.  

I am looking forward to seeing your inspiring images and hopefully, this will tell me something about you and what you are interested in.  

References 

Lucie-Smith E. (1975) The Invented Eye: Masterpieces of Photography 1839-1914. Paddington Press Ltd, London.

Reflection

 Over this term, I created a project that incorporated both digital and traditional skills.  I met my objectives for the project and developed skills in using decal and digital design.  I created this final design ..

I have to say that I do not really like it that much even though the geometry of the triangles really works with the photography and it met my criteria.  I just do not feel it had enough to it in terms of depth and it needed more work to really develop this further.  I would be inclined not to use my own face next time and explore the idea of identity in another way here.  If I was going to do this again I would use objects rather than my face and I would not add the names of the elements here - they would be underlying elements embedded into the image. Overall I definitely will not be adding this to my portfolio as this does not meet my own standards of what I was trying to achieve conceptually.