ITAP 6/Production & Outcomes/ influence & reactions

As we've learned in this Itap lecture the Illustrators time and place has great effect on the content and outcome of a work. The word for this point is called "Zeitgeist" which describes the spirit of the time. The following examples shows how the the "Zeitgeist" influenced Illustrators, Directors and Costume Designers.

We all know Batman who changed throughout time. Batman changed his appearance during time. The oringinal comic figur of Bob Kane is muscular and wears a grey costume with a yellow belt. the mask and the cape are black and blue. 

Scatches of Batman by Bob Kane

Batman Comic Cover by Bob Kane

In the Batman series of the sixties the style of the hero and it's helper Robin kept in the Comic style.

Also the look of the Film from the 60's combines the comic style and very much the spirit of the time. The bright colours of the scenery and the costumes fit into the era.
In the late 80's early 90's Batman was made into another film by Tim Burton. The main character is darker than the film in the 60's but the figures are kept overdrawn. The spirit of a time can be recongnized by things like the hairstyle of actors. Have a look at the Michelle Pfeiffer's haircut and the oversized blazers which were modern by then.





The newest interpretation of Batman is in a some points different. The Director Christopher Nolan created a Batman who was never that dark and serious. Much more violence is involved and the villains remind of psychopathic killers.

Batman's costume changed to be more like a knights armour. Completly black and dressed in a futeristic knights armour ready to fight against evil.

ITAP 5/ Development of Ideas and Structure in Moving Image.

In this ITAP lecture we got tought about movie structures, how to develope a story and a character.

I chose to explain the film "I've loved you so long" which is an independent film from France, written and directed by Philippe Claudel.



The film is about the live of a middle-aged woman called Juliette (Kirsten Scott Thomas), who deals with guilt, punishment and judgement being released from prison after a 15 years sentence. The film describes her way to rehabilitate and to obtain redemption.

The structures of movies are in a 3 act structure; Beginning: middle: end, with no need to stay in the same order.  In this movie 3 act structure is shown but not as in movies where theres a hero solving a problem and a happy ending is predictable.
"I've loved you so long" is almost in the same consistent atmosphere. Nevertheless, beginning, middle and end can be found in this example.

In the first act Juliette is collected at Nancy airport from her sister Léa. Juliette came to stay with Léa who lives in a house with her husband Luc, his father and their 2 adopted daughters. After the arrival of Juliette, Luc and Lea have a discussion about Juliettes stay and by then the audience knows she was in jail for murder. The mystery what the reason of her sentence is hidden.
Luc is supersticious about the moving in of Juliette and fears the safety of his children. The audience soon discovers she was in jail for the murder of her six-year-old son.

The second act is about the confrontation with society. She tries to find a job and isn't surprised to be avoided by some interviewers. Having been abondend by her parents, friends and society, Lea is at first the only one who stands behind her with termlessness and persistance.
Juliette soon finds a friend in her social worker and gets introduced to Michel (Laurent Grévill) who is a collegue of Léa. She relys on Michel who used to work in jail. She finds out that her social worker who had depressions took his life.

In the third act Juliette slowly starts over again and gets a daily routine. She starts to enjoy life in generel through work, reading, visiting art museums with Michel and meeting friends of Léa.
The mystery of Juliette's action reveals through her sister who accidently finds a laboratory report and a picture of her nephew. This report shows that Juliettes son had terminal cancer. Léa confronts Juliette with what she had found. In the end Juliette tells her story.

Juliette as the Protagonist/main character is a very reserved, chain-smoking middle aged woman. She radiates grief, hopelessness and seems to be unpredictable.  The Antagonist is also Juliette because she causes the conflict in the family. She stands in a constant conflikt to herself and to others. The charakter is not trying to explain or to find any excuse by her actions. She doesn't expect people to understand her because one way or the other she was guilty.

ITAP 4/ Reflective Visual Journey

The way a Visual Communicator comes up with their ideas, is to do something at first. A white paper wont give an answer and so it is important to experiment. We learned that the right brain is like a child at play- playful, curious and innocent.

The left brain is clarifying, organising, editing, selecting what was done.  What do we see? What does it mean? What is useful?  Both brainparts are constanly operating together. A Visual Communicator starts to do something in the RVJ with an intention. An idea needs to develope and can start of in many different directions. The outcome is not the most important whearest the way to the final piece creates further ideas.  Awareness of how the 2 halfs act together can help us to create something and helps to allow ourselfs to experiment at first and not to be bigoted. 

The first brief i received had the titel "looking at the Overlooked". To explore the locality of Birmingham from a different aspect and show a wide range of different techniques. I went to Digbeth the industrial area of Birmingham and took fotos of singns and buildings. Birmingham to me is an interesting city that needs

to be explored.  Below you can see pages of my RVJ where you an see a picture of a sign taken in Digbeth. Not the typography caught my eye, it were the squares around it that reminded me of stiching. I started stiching random forms which you can describe as being playful and experimental. Some of the forms developed to be letters. Also transparacy paper was used and the effect of being see through had an interesting effect. The effect to see how it is done, the unperfect  look of it.

Melox Marvels sign in Digbeth
The forms below the letters reminded me of stiching.

letterform through stiching, by Christiane Matz

stiching on transparant paper, by Christiane Matz

The word unexpected came into my mind. Birmingham is often "overlooked" just like the brief described it with it's title. The first buildings i saw were at new street which are grey and full of old high-rises. Behind all these grey buildings are beautiful victorian houses are hidden. The architecture is multi-facated and therfore interesting. A lot of constructions are going on in birmingham so that the "undone" stiching look  works very well for this projekt. also the fact that it is an instalation which needs light so you can see all of the lines has an unexpected effect to it.

The final outcome, by Christiane Matz