I’ve always taken massive inspiration from cinema. One major film that I feel really shaped me as an artist was ‘Fight Club’. Directed by David Fincher it was really dark and visually striking. I’s only reflecting back on my practice now that I can apriciate how big an influence it plays. I have also worked with motion and video shooting music videos whilst undertaking the Ma. I guess that although not shot directly for the Ma it shares them same sty;e as my images for the Ma and is an easier introduction to explain how I’ve drawn from cinema in my work ( comparing motion to motion and then to stills).
As the narrarator of the video above de constructes Fincher;s stylstic choices and use of devices he talks about how Fincher delibratly avoids any sign of human cameras. In that he means all the cameras are locked down on tripods or machines that smoothly control the camera. There are no ( hardly any) jerky camera movements that tell the audience that a human is in control and thus given them a feeling that they are there or in a chase ect. Rather Fincher locks everything down into a different world where the viewer is looking in and we are concentrating on the tiny parts of the frame. If there was a walking pov shot with camera shake in a scene we would be thinking of all kinds of information that would detract form the intended visual message.
You can see this in the music videos that I’ve shot throughout the course of the FMP - -
I feel that I’ve adapted Finchers attitude to camera work. Normal rules don’t apply and by aiming for a smooth and non human approach with tripods and gimbals the viewer is in a different realm and we look at the scene differently. I like the way that Finicher allows the camera to be anywhere and everywhere, it gives us a new set of rules on which to interprete waht we see.
I am aiming to split my work up for the final submission into 2 parts, one being the editorial style portraits and the other the Fincher / Wall inspired cinema narrative images. Funnily enough I’ve also noticed that I tend to shoot naturally in landscape format probably for that reason, that I’m drawn to working with video as well and see it as a fluid extension of stills. Essentially the same work.
I really like the idea of experimenting with text in the work above. I made a version with text on as part of a social media campaign. I wanted to use lyrics from in the video to make people notice and question it. If people took a second to stop and look at it then I feel like it would have served its purpose to gain attention to the project.