Question & Answers:
List two specific key relationships between Sam Taylor Wood's photography and film work?
Her photography and her film work relate through the fact that in the set of photographs called ‘five revolutionary seconds’, the idea is that the people presented in the photographs are in such close proximity to each other yet have no awareness of each others presence. And in her film work, for instance, ‘Sustaining the crisis’ (1997) its as if the man is staring at the woman, but because they’re on separate screens, you do not know if he is or not. Meaning that we do not know in both her works whether the people that are together are actually aware of each other. The second relationship is that, the difference between the two mediums is that you see them in different speeds. Films, she does in a very speedy way. With the photographs she give herself time to calm down. So the photographs are the punctuation points in her work process. But she does see them as dysfunctional narratives.
How does the use of multi-screen installation in her work reflect narrative?
In Travesty of a Mockery, 1998, she filmed an actress and her male friend, in an argument. Each of them are on a screen, as the viewer you are in the crossfire of their argument, in something very personal, you feel almost claustrophobic, because the screens are so large. The woman and the man each have their own screen in the argument, and when one crosses the other you feel that they are getting in one another’s personal space, making the viewer even more claustrophobic and the fight more intense, one another shouldn’t step into the others personal space/screen.
What other photographers use film as an integral part of their work. List two with examples?
One photographer that uses film as an integral part of his work in Rankin, he uses film for where photography wont take him. He’ll shoot fashion stills for magazine and also make a film, for instance Gemma Arteton for Elle, Harrods Beauty, Vanity Fair, Helena for Triumph, Jitrois. And many advertising campaigns, Lucy in Disguise, Rimmel, Swatch, M&S, Diesel, Ann Taylor, BBC Three, No. 7. And many music videos, Kelis, Sly Ferreira, Kelly Rowland, Noisettes, Maria and the Diamonds and Robyn. Rankin uses film just as much as photography to create the effects he wants in his work.
Another photographer that uses film is Mert & Marcus, otherwise known as Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, who are fashion photographers strongly influenced by Guy Bourdin. The duo use film along with their photographs to enhance their work and feel. When looking at one of their collections of work for Love Magazine, ‘What Lies Beneath’, their images mirror the short film that is presented with it, which really enhances the provocativeness and breath taking quality, how darkly beautiful and disturbing it is but how cinematic yet raw it looks. They also shoot many magazine spreads from Vanity Fair, US Vogue, W magazine and campaigns from Emporio Armani, Calvin Klein, Mui Mui, Bulgari, Givenchy, Gucci and Stella McCartney.
Research three other Video artists and explain their working philosophy.
Steven Spielberg is a director that is world famous, he covers all genres in his career and has been involved in 100's of movies. Spielberg’s early science fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. In Private Ryan, one of his many famous films, he says: "I simply wanted to create a feeling with the audience of being trapped. The audience is so conditioned to seeing movies rising to a climax and getting some relief at the climax, and I wanted to pass that point of what would normally be called a climax because there was no climax at Omaha Beach." It was thought that this contradicted his belief that you build the tension to make the final relief that much more welcome but: "Well, that, that, that's been my level of film-making with the rare exception of Schindler's List, it's been my philosophy of working the audience." He says "The aims of many of my films, especially my early films, was to transport audiences to new places and in so doing, take myself there too.”
Zack Snyder is another famous director that is known for lamboyant visual style using a combination of dynamic compositions, highly-saturated color schemes and visual effects. He often speeds-up and slows-down motion during action sequences 300 (2006), Watchmen (2009). And is known for slow motion shots of a fist punching a cheek.
James Cameron is another famous director, with films under his belt such as Titanic and more recently Avatar. In high school he wrote sci-fi stories and fantasized a lot instead of doing his homework. An avid reader of science fiction since childhood, he was fifteen when he saw Stanley Kubrick's visionary film, 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. He became fascinated with the whole motion picture process he subsequently watched the film ten times. "As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker," explained Cameron, "It hit me on a lot of different levels. I just couldn't figure out how he did all that stuff, and I just had to learn." Not only did Cameron desperately try to understand how motion pictures were made but also he wrote sci-fi stories and fantasized a lot. It was actually during a biology class in high school that Cameron wrote a short story, which would later become the movie, The Abyss. Cameron doesn't create a film because he is trying to pander to the audience. He does it because he is passionate about it. He's keenly aware that his passions must convert into something commercial, but he doesn't place commerce ahead of passion but his passion is palpable. Audiences can feel it. So is pandering. And audiences can feel that, too.
Show an example of a specific gallery space or a specific site location where a video artist or filmmaker has created work, specifically for that space and been influenced by it.
An artist that has been influenced by a space is Chris Columbus, who directed ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone’ by J.K. Rolling. For the film two British film industry officials requested that the film be shot in the UK, offering their assistance in securing filming locations, one being Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester’s historic cathedral cloisters were transformed into the corridors of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the films of JK Rowling’s first two books – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Many parts of the Cathedral were used in the film such as The East Walk of the cathedral cloisters, which were transformed into the corridors of Hogwart's School. The West Slype doorway - in the Harry Potter films this becomes the doorway to Gryffindor Common Room.
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