The Genius of Moving Image (PART 2)

1. What is the role of the cinematographer in filmmaking?The cinematographer is a role made up of two key elements, he is the visual aid of guiding the audience through the film how the director evisioned it and also controls the lighting and composure to form the story.

2. Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand-held camera in the film China Town?
Polanski prefered to use a hand held camera to shoot the film because it created an intimate moment. He wanted that ‘voyeuristic’ look. Also it was much easy to handle and control and he was able get different angled shots, made everything alot easier to shoot.

3. Name two films which use colour in a symbolic way and describe what they suggest

- Days Of Heaven (1978)- Directed by Terrence Malick.

This film was filmed only using natural lighting, and even when the sun sets he still liked the skys magical soft light (just light and no sun) this only lasted about 25 minutes but he filmed scenes in this time to give it a more beautiful touch.

- Goodfellas (1990) - Director Martin Scorsese
Goodfellas is a typical example of strong use of colour, throughout the whole film evidently is the colour red. It can be associated with blood, sex, violence, suffering, and passion. All strong key elements of the film and its represented through a red tone works very well to set the mood of the movie.

4. In the film 'Raging Bulls' why was the fight scene filmed at different speeds?

It was filmed at different speeds because it could control the audience's feelings, drawing emotion where intended and slowing it down so you could feel what the character himself was feeling.

5. Who is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now and what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storara is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now. He wanted to create contrasts with the lighting and believes that photography is a single art, like painting or writing just that cinematography is a common art because several people are involved with it with the director leading the way.

The Genius of Moving Image (PART 3)

1. How did Bjork and Chris Cunningham collaborate on the 'All is full of Love' video?
Chris Cunningham and Bjork were introduced through friends in London, he loved the track and had different visions for it himself as Bjork wanted a 'mini film' in the form of a music video
Bjork and Cunningham first met through friends in London. He loved the track and wanted to create a different vision. Bjork had her own visions of what she thought the video should include. Cunningham came up with some suggestions and Bjork loved them because Chris always loved things to do with engineering and robots he came up with the idea of the video and she loved it. 

2. What techniques were used on the 'Portishead' video to create the unusual slow motion effects?
The young boy and woman in this video were placed underwater and filmed floating. This helped to create the slow motion hair movements, and distortion of clothes and faces. They were then superimposed onto an alleyway-street scene without the water, to make them appear like they were floating.

3. What other music video directors have gone onto direct feature films they have made?
A good example of this would be David Fincher who came from working directing in music videos to directing dark, stylish feature films for example 'Seven' and 'Panic Room' he directed and was involved in many more.

4. Which famous sci-fi film did Chris Cunnigham work on before he became a director?
He worked on a film called 'A.I.' before leaving to pursue a career as a director.

5. What makes his work different or original compared to other similar directors?
Having worked as a special effects artist in the film industry it gives him an edge to what is possible and can expand on normal expectations. He also edits them in a strange, errie way works with sound for that creepy edge to it. He works continously for a long time to exceed his own expections and pushes himself towards a new direction.

The Genius of Photography (PART 6)

1. How many photographs are taken in a year?
80 Billion photographs will be taken this year alone.

2. What is Gregory Crewdson 'Modus Operandi'?
Gregory has a disconnected relationship with photography conventions, instead he has his own art director and camera operator and they work together to recreate and portray a single photograph and work it much the same way has a movie. He is only interested in the actual image. He will to a series of multiple exposures and digitally combine to make final image, selling them approximately $60,000 each.

3. Which prints command the highest price and what are they called?
Photo prints are worth a lot more when the phoographer has made and developed it themselves closest to the time the picture was taken. The Pond Moonlight by Edward Steichen was the most expensive photograh ever sold, $2,600,000 was the final bidding price!

4. What is a fake photograph? Give an example and explain how and why it is fake.
You need the negatives of the photo to prove that they are not fake.

5. Who is Li Zhesheng and what is he famous for?
He was a red army news soldier, who was a photojournalist in the 1960s - early 70s who covered the Cultural Revolution.

6. What is the photographers 'Holy of Holies?'
British photographer Martin Parr joined to be a photojournalist in 1994 for a prestigious agency Magnum - known as the Holy of Holies. However his photos were said to be meaningless but he had to battle to bring his distinctive brand of photography into photojournalism.

7. How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Walls photography?
Ben Lewis thinks that Jeff's photography took photography back to the 19th century and did not re-invent but took it back to painting where everything is creative, the people and light contruct the meaning. He brought in theory elements, how men and women look at eachother and about racial stereo-typing.

8. Which famous photograph was taken by Frank Mustard?
'River Scene France' which was said to be taken by Camille Silvy a french photographer however it was actually taken by Frank Mustard. Camille Silvy aranged where the people should stand, changing the sky and leaves to be artifical but didn't actually take the photo just manipulated it.

The Genius of Moving Image (PART 1)

1. List two specific key relationships between Sam Taylor Wood's photography and film work?
- She uses people and their emotions to narrate a story for both photography and film
- He own feelings and emotion have a powerful meaning and personal message. Its all highly emotional scenarios to provoke different social and psychological meaning.

2. How does the use of multi-screen installation in her work reflect narrative?
It reflects a narrative by allowing the audience to piece together their own interpretations instead of a specific story being dictated the viewer can relate and conclude other narratives.

3. What other photographers use film as an integral part of their work. List two with examples?
- Gregory Crewdson, an American photographer who takes inspiration from films and recreates his photography as a staged film set/scenes. They show drama with a cinematic element. As a photographer he takes influences from such films as: Night of the Hunter, Vertigo and Blue Velvet.


- Tim Walker, an English photographer who is a successful fashion photographer. Takes inspiration from film and has gone onto film directing. He made a short film called 'The Lost Explorer'.

4. Research three other Video artists and explain their working philosophy
* Andy Warhol who was a controversial visual artist in and explores the relationship between celebrities, artistic expressionism and advertisement. He was a film maker in the 1960s and he made a series of silent, black and white short films. Between 1963 and 1968, he made more than 60 films, he was very experimental with film and devoted his energy around this art.

* Tim Burton is an American filmmaker and artist, and is most famous for his dark, quirky themed movies such as Charlie and the Chocolate factory and Alice in Wonderland. His work is expressed through artistic visualisation which he had discovered in his childhood and brought it into art and cinematic recreations to his films from imagination. His unique style of thematic fantasy life and emotional core that is captured in his work, creates a sense of feeling of being in a dream mode of his and takes you on a visual exagerrated story through any of his films.

* Alfred Hitchcock a British film maker and video Artist, he conveyed many techniques in the thriller and psychological genre of their time, he has a distinctive recognisable direction in film and often portrays anxiety, fear and empathy are evident features in his films. The idea of being harshly treated and wrongfully accused is frequently reflected in his films and this stems from his childhood growing up with a strict father.

5. Show an example of a specific gallery space or a site specific location where a video artist or filmmaker has created work specifically for that space and been influenced by it
King's cross station Harry Potter. Very iconic place and they even have a trolley sticking out of platform 9 3/4 there permanently as a tourist attraction.

The Genius of Photography (PART 1)

1. What is photography’s “true genius”?
Over 170 years, photography has intrigued us, delighted us, outraged us and provided many other emotions by showing us the secret strangeness of the worlds appearances, and that itself is photography's 'true genius'

2. Name a proto-photographer:

Henry Fox Talbot

3. In the 19Th century, what term was associated with the daguerreotype?

The term 'mirror with a memory' was associated and it fixed images on a mirrored metal plate, light is reflected and produces one of images. Unique!

4. What is the vernacular?
A snapshot taken by an amateur/unknown photographer who takes shots of everyday life and common subjects.

5. How do you “Fix the Shadows”?
They say in 1839 photography was invented in this year french man Louis Daguerre and English man Henry-Fox Talbot, came out with rivalling inventions to 'fix the shadows'. Fox Talbot was through a camera obscura, (mouse-trap camera) and Louis's creation to fix shadows was using mirrored metal plates. We see Abelardo Morell turn a room into a camera by completely blackening out all light and cutting out just a small hole at the window for the light to come through and project the outside world into the room.

6. What is the “carte de visite”?
Carte de Visite is a process created by a French man, which took portraits where you were photographed 8 times in a rapid sequence.

7. Who was Nadar and why was he so successful?

Known as Nadar Gaspard-Felix Tournachon took photos of up and coming stars of that time, and became famous for photographing them naturally in a studio for who they were, he expressed them as who they were rather than their profession.

8. What is pictorialism
Pictorialism is an artistic creation, rather than simply recording, it can be said to carefully be constructed and resemble paintings.

The Genius of Photography (PART 5)

1. Who said 'The camera gave me the license to strip away what you want people to know about you, to reveal what you can't help people knowing about you' and when was it said?Diane Arbus said this statement in the early 60s, where she often went around the streets photographing unusual people and not the 'norm' to society. Its said that she was photographing people and reflecting her own personality and issues through these.

2. Do photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?
Photographers can tend to prey on vulnerable people because they are out on the streets and capturing people showing their true emotion. These people who are exposed socially and culturally and the person behind the camera can either feel compassion or too drive by their hungry eye.

3. Who is Colin Wood?
Colin wood in 1962 was a young skinny 7 year old boy who was photographed by Diane Arbus in Central Park, she captured many photos of him that day but chose only one shot where he clutches a toy hand grenade in one hand and has a tense claw like hand in the other. She was very curious of him and although he loved being photographed and gave her funny expressions, he was on his own and his parents were going through a divorce, she found it to be a reflection on herself.

4. Why do you think Dian Arbus commited suicide?
She had so many issues and didn't want to be herself that you can see in photos of different people a reflection on herself and her insecurities. Most people did not get her work and was against it, she photographed out of the 'ordinary' people and must have all got too much when she started to become too famous for such work.

5. Why and how did Larry Clark shoot tulsa?
Larry Clark shot Tulsa the way he lived it, he photographed everything around him, what was happening with his friends, taking drugs, messing with guns, violence. He documented close up personal things that nobody else would of at that time (1970s)

6. Try to explain the concept of 'confessional photography' and 'what is the impolite genre?'
Confessional photography is about the truth of real life and the misunderstanding of the world. Its photos with meaning, and intimacy, things that people don't want to know about. The impolite genre is the oposite its photos that are rude, descriptive and quite often shocking and disturbing.

7. What will Araki not photograph and why?
Araki photographed everything and anything that went on around him if your not taking a picture of that moment you won't really remember it so much. He now only photographs what he wants to remember.

8. What is the premise of Postmodernism?
Our culture now is so saturated by the media and media models of how people live and we believe thats how the live their lifes but its all made up by the media myth. It goes against the idea of portraiture because going into a studio all dressed up is not really revealing your character or identity.

The Genius of Photography (PART 4)

1. Why did Gary Winogrand take photographs?
Gary Winogrand was an American photographer who took photographs to see what the world looked liked photographed.

2. Why did citizens evolve from blurs to solid flesh?
Life of the street moved too fast for the long exposure time and technology back then wasn't good enough to capture the movement on the streets. The very first street photographs taken were posed by as time went on a technology changed people evolved from blurs to solid flesh.

3. What was and is the much misunderstood theory?
The misunderstood theory in photography is the 'decisive moment' first coming onto the scene by Henri -Cartier Bresson, many photographers start with this theory but the real message was to capture something unexpected and believe you saw a interesting and special event. When you believe you see it!

4. Who was the Godfather of street photography in the USA
Gary Winogrand was the godfather of the street photography scene, things always were happening when he was around.

5. Who was Paul Martin and what did he do?
Paul Martin was a British photographer, who took a hidden disguised camera to the beach. He photographer the influence the sea had on the Victorian population and it showed them enjoying themselves.

6. Who said 'When I was growing up photographers were either nerds or pornographers'?
Edward Ruscha once said growing up that photographers were either porongraphers or nerds, but showed that there was no real social value to someone who had a camera and took photos that were about things rather than people, not the human drama on the streets but the backdrop and surroundings, surface rather than soul.

7. Why does William Eggleston photograph in colour?
He photographs in colour as colour is more powerful, colour can bring the image together as it can describe more things and twist the whole content's meaning.

8. What is William Eggleston about?
Hes very mysterious and quiet in his ways, his photographs and thoughts stay unexplained, however he calls his photography democratic and at war with the obvious.

The Genius of Photography (PART 3)

1. What is described as one of the most familiar concepts in photography?
'A decisive moment'. Henri Cartier Bresson shot a decisive moment in Paris, only taken in a fraction of a second this has become the most well known concept and transformed the face of photography.

2. Should you trust a photograph?
"Trusting a photograph was probably a huge mistake from the beginning".
3. What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?
It was compact, quiet and present in the moment aswell as gliding through the photograph

4. What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of christ?
George Bernard Shaw said that he ''would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot''

5. Why were Tony Vaccaro's negatives destroyed by the army censors?
Tony Vaccaro photographed the war being a soldier himself and use to develop his own negatives in soldiers helmets but because he photographed dead men, they were destroyed as the world was not ready to see such images.

6. Who was Heinryk Ross and what was his job?
Henryk Ross was a Jewish photographer. He spent four years in a ghetto in Poland. He documented what really happened there. As well as working for the nazis's, where he also documented production of goods, sold to their captors, he was also invovled with the design of identiy. He thought it was his responsibility- even though risking his life and families, to document what really was happening at the camps/deportations.

7. Which show was a 'Sticking plaster for the wounds of war', how many people saw it and what cliche did it end on?
Opening in New York 1955 and By the year 1964; 9 million people had gone to see the millions of images of the show 'The Family of Man'. The cliched ending was W. Eugene Smith's photo of his two children walking out into the light, meaning the beginning of their sentimental journey through life.

8. Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?
Black & white in his eyes kept everything as a tradgey and rather than keeping this as a tradgey in shot in colour to over come the already tragic element of war.