SPP 3 - Catalogue Entry

For the first part of my Successful Principles and Practice 3 module I was to produce 8 images which could be used as catalogue entries for the Multimedia 2009 end of year exhibition. These catalogue pages are to be seen as a represenatation of myself, my skills and my aspirations within the multimedia industry, therefore I created various background images which I felt reflected my interests and style of work, these images also showcased images from some of my best work. I also had to write a 1000 word rationale report about the images I had selected and my general skills and career aspirations.

Here are the images below:

Successful Practice 3 - Catalogue Entry Rationale

Over the past few weeks I have been gathering up and assessing the various work I have produced throughout my time at university in order to create a catalogue entry for the NTU Multimedia exhibition 2009. The purpose of this catalogue entry will be to showcase my work and skills in order to show to employers and further my career as a multimedia practitioner.

Throughout the three years that I have been studying multimedia I have been given the chance to experiment with all sorts of media ranging from animation to web design to audiovisual production; however in my second year I chose to focus primarily on audiovisual production/film. Through studying audiovisual I have been given the chance to work through every phase of film production from pretty much every position in the industry including director, cameraman, writer, sound, editor and art production; this has allowed me to evaluate myself and which aspects of audiovisual media I enjoy the most.

Therefore after much thought I have managed to narrow down my main skills and interests in multimedia to four main areas; these are audiovisual production, visual special effects, digital art and corporate identity design.

Regarding audiovisual and film production I feel confident in all areas of the subject including scriptwriting, production planning, camera work, direction, lighting and sound, however my main skills and interest lie in the post-production phase. This phase involves editing, visual effects and sound production. I see this as being one of the most artistic phases in that it gives you the ability to manipulate and transform some basic footage into something more visually spectacular. I am confident with and enjoy using programmes such as Photoshop, Premiere, Aftereffects and Fruityloops to add various artistic visual and audio effects to film and am keen to exercise these abilities in my future career whether working with music videos, film, advertisements or visual art nightclub displays.

Corporate identity design is another aspect of multimedia which I find extremely interesting. During the first year I worked on creating an identity package which would brand and help promote the NTU Multimedia course by use of a website, logos, promotional video and leaflets. This would allow me exercise a variety of different skills as well being creatively flexible to design multimedia products for a variety of different companies. I particularly enjoy the design process of creating an identity solution which would promote and sell a company or product most effectively. I am currently working on an identity product for nightclub promoter and would hope to do more of this in the future.

Digital art created using Photoshop, Illustrator, photography and sculpture is a skill which I discovered at art college prior to studying multimedia. Again creating surreal and colourful imagery is something that I would happily pursue a career in.

Therefore terms of career aspirations I would most likely want to work in audiovisual post-production or graphic design within film or television, preferably producing work that is visually impressive such as in the horror and fantasy genres. I would also be keen to work in the music industry taking care of art production that may be required with promotion. Scriptwriting is also something I would to work on in my spare time, maybe writing surreal horror comedy scripts similar to Jack Frost, about a killer mutant snowman, or Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

The images I have carefully selected for my catalogue entry I feel reflect my interests and general style of film making. Some of my main interests are drum n bass/jungle music, urban culture, wildlife, travel, surrealism and horror movies. The images I have used to produce my introduction page combine all these interests and therefore the style of my work. I have produced a dark and edgy, though colourful, urban background along with characters combining wildlife and urban and pop culture to form surreal comic horror figures. I feel this sums up the style of work perfectly.

The screenshots and images of my work I have used also reflect the surreal horror related side of my work. I have again used a blend of light and dark, combining colourful imagery with figures of dark horror; for instance the screenshot of the clown lying in bed with the colourful disco light in the background I feel represents the essence of my work – dark, comical and colourful. The images also show off a variety of different skills relating to artistic design in graphics, visual effects and art production in film.

In terms of artistic design there are many films and work of arts that I appreciate and take influence from, however the more famous practitioners would include Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Robert Rodriguez, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These directors have all overlooked the art production and design in films that I wholly respect. In particular I appreciate the dark surreal sets and character design of films by Tim Burton such as in Beetlejuice, Batman Returns or A Nightmare Before Christmas; I would say my work is fairly similar to his style of film making in terms of the dark and surreal feel. Quentin Tarantino I appreciate for his quirky and surreal scripts and art production mixed with some ingenious editing techniques in films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. John Carpenter for his frightening use of lighting and camera work in Halloween. Robert Rodriguez for stunning visual effects artwork in Sin City and Planet Terror; these make incredibly inventive and effective use of digital special effects to create two films which make a impressive visual use of darkness combines with colour. Finally Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their ingeniously surreal and controversial sense of humour used in South Park and Team America, I would take much influence in my work just from the pure insanity of their ideas.

Overall I hope my catalogue entry and showreel will help place me in a company which is creative visually and idealistically with no boundaries to design and thought process allowing my ideas and artwork to flourish.