Study Task 2 - What's the story? Cont.

I had a busy weekend in Sheffield over the weekend and decided to take a few photos of churches I went by with the little time that I had.

University of Sheffield Drama School (formerly Glossop Road Baptist Church). I find this spire interesting as it belongs to a building that is no longer a church, and is therefore an "odd one out" with the rest of the images I have taken. And makes the need of the spire questionable.

St Mark's Church 

A Church in the distance that unfortunately I did not have time to get any closer to.

Study Task 2 - What's the story? cont.

I went out and took more photos at St John's church, the oldest church in Leeds city centre:

However it was unfortunately closed due to a "lack of volunteers", so I was restricted to taking photos of its exterior, which I still found to be quite photogenic.

I then took photos of the spire of St George's church as I thought it was potentially quite important to get the exterior of my locations as well as the interior. 

This allows greater reflection on what I see when I enter the building as I can compare and contrast impressions of the building before and after entering the structure.

While doing this, I found the spires and architecture of the buildings themselves to be quite nice to look at, feeling that the restriction I faced at St John's church might not have been so bad after all, inspiring me to appreciate the outside of the buildings.

Study Task 2 - What's The Story? cont.

Visit to St Anne's Cathedral:

My next destination to collect research was St. Anne's Cathedral. 

Some more sketches of "church life", done at St. Anne's Cathedral, showing the various people that I observed going in and going about their business, most of which was praying.

 What I like about these sketches:

• They are documentative
• They contrast greatly with the drawings done at the carol concert in terms of the mood they convey
• They show a more traditional view of who goes into a church/what people do

Towards the end of my sitting, this man walked in with a crazy hair style and so I did several quick studies of him because of how interesting he looked.

Study Task 2 - What's The Story?

The 5 potential questions of further enquiry I brought to the group tutorial were:
-What are all the different piecesored clothing people wear at the shopping center?
-What was the man in the red suit's story?
-Is the church hiding a secret by forcing people to buzz in?
-What did the man in the church mean by "the elves would do the killing"?
-Was that kid in the shopping center bunking?

The tutorial was spent discussing the possibility of following the question about the man in the red suit, but when I showed the sketches I had done at a Christmas Carol Concert at the church I re-visited, it was suggested I followed that.

So for my further research I think I will continue to look at churches, taking photos, drawing from life and researching their histories and other interesting historical facts.

I don't yet have a question or set intent with my research, but I think something to keep in mind will be to compare what I see, as this may help me come up with one.

Visual Language Study Task 4 - Shape and Texture cont.

For the collage tasks of visual language I'm setting up a comical battle between a giant Galapagos tortoise and Marine Iguana, similar to those seen in Japanese Kaiju films such as Godzilla. For this, I have also designed a title logo:

Logo designs in both english and japanese

Japanese logo text cleaned up in Adobe Illustrator, took a lot longer than I hoped it would have due to having to re-trace and adjust every character, but worth it in the end.

Both posters coloured on Photoshop with completed titles. I've noticed Japanese movie posters generally have much bolder text, and is not often similar to the same fonts/type we get in Western posters

The 6-page parody epic that is Nigel VS George. 

OUIL405 Study Task 1 - Find a seat.

My three seats were:
-St. George's Church
-Fab Cafe
-Starbucks in The Light shopping centre

Key observations at St. George's Church:

• They are setting up for Christmas and for a contemporary carol worship band that weekend, overheard a woman saying how excited she was
• Probably the most modern church I've been to
• Everyone here is in such a good mood and is happy
• "Altar" looks more like a stage
• I had to be buzzed in to enter, which was odd

Key questions:

• What did the man mean when I overheard him say "The elves would do the killing"?
• Was everyone here happy because they're Christian, or is that just circumstantial?
• Is that worth thinking about?
• What kind of church buzzes people in?

I was given a booklet of facts by Brian, the church caretaker - he told me that the church was build in 1838, suits 1600 people to accommodate the growing Christian population and changing environment, there is a large student population, the crypt was opened in the 1930s, but is now used as a soup kitchen for the homeless, etc.

Key Observations at Fab Cafe:

• Smelt like a mixture of urine and lager
• Was playing Tim Burton's Batman
• Full of memorabilia
• There was a pub quiz going on that night
• Round 2 of the quiz was Harry Potter themed
• Guy sitting next to us was determined that "Bono" was the answer to every question.

Key Questions:

• Where do they get all this memorabilia?
• How much would it all sell for on ebay?
• I wonder if anyone comes here just to watch a movie?
• How many people here are regulars?
• Should I apply for a job here?

Key Observations at Starbucks:

• Cash lady had a very squeeky voice
• Everyone goes to Starbucks in pairs
• There's an ordinary loking guy with an oversized full red suit under an overcoat
• 12:31pm - A tall formally dressed woman meets the man in red suit
• Many people walk through this shopping centre multiple times

Key Questions:

• How did they get those huge dangling Christmas decorations in the middle of the roof?
• What was the man in red suit's meeting about?
• What was in that mysterious long package that guy in a high vis jacket was carrying?
• What's in that one window with the light on?
• Why is the Starbucks logo a mermaid?