Steven Swanborough

Steve came to visit us as a stepping stone to see what work he produces, as well as where we're up to with our projects and some feedback he could give to us. I found that this talk was one of the most rewarding as he seemed most down to earth and willing to help us, as well as understanding to the fact that it is hard as a student to begin in the industry, and he gave us advice on how to approach work after graduation which was helpful. 

He also spoke about having to make your showreel and portfolio stand out, and how he used to go the extra mile to make sure that studios would actually see him, delivering his portfolios etc.

It was interesting how his production process is quite similar to the way we approach a project in the way that he had to pitch some general ideas to the client to begin with etc.

Olympics Project 

Although he discussed a few projects he had undertaken, I found his work with the BBC Sports branding for the Olympics 2016 most inspiring. I liked how he discussed his thought processes with this project, and discussed the restrictions that the BBC had on certain design approaches in terms of their logos. 

He said how although there were restrictions on where he put the design etc. he knew that he had to have the freedom of doing what he wanted first to get it out of the way. I found that this was an interesting way of approaching things, and it overall helped him to undergo the projects.

Project Feedback

As an exploration of my own work, Steve gave some feedback that I found to be really helpful overall. 

Current project feedback - He loved the way in which I had displayed my initial ideas, and how I'd collected some research with the survey etc. he also liked the aesthetic and the strong theme behind it, however he mentioned I needed to develop more into the colour theory side of things which I knew I should delve into. Making sure my characters having been stylised, will still reflect the mood that I want. (Blue skin and hair looked a bit too sad and depressing- perhaps warmer colours rather than having the cooler ones) 

Memory Book Project Feedback- He loved the depth of field and the overall idea behind it and theme, but said that perhaps the soundscape could be developed further to show more emotion as it is an emotional piece, and to maybe add some movement into the images.

Nowness Define Beauty Series

After having discovered the Am I Ugly? Video on Facebook, it lead me to the other series of videos that Nowness have produced in the theme of defining beauty and I've found each one is cleverly disturbing as it shows how strange it is that we have normalised such things in our society such as tanning and disturbing body proportions.


Nowness: Define Beauty 'Degrees of Doneness' from James Lees on Vimeo.

Aesthetic Research

I've been looking on Vimeo over the festive period, about some aesthetics that I particularly like that I feel influenced by, and  I love the graphic and illustrative style animations, 2D and 3D drawings etc. Here's a few I found particularly inspiring.


The 12 Days of Christmas - A Tale of Avian Misery from Blink on Vimeo.
Berry Sakharof - Yareach (Moon) // ברי סחרוף - ירח from Berry Sakharof on Vimeo.


Dontshare from gianluca maruotti on Vimeo.
Blue - CNN from Moth on Vimeo.

Social Media Impacts

When looking on social media itself, ironically there's a lot of posts about the powerful effects it has on society. Here's a few pieces I've found on social media that successfully link back to the underlying problems my animation will explore.

Am I Ugly? - by Nowness
A video that is going viral on Facebook is this video posted by social group Nowness. It shows the distortion and brainwashing of young girls due to media elements. It's shocking how young these girls are and the impact that media has had on them, how they speak of how fake beauty is more important than natural beauty. Although these are acted out clips, they are real life opinions of young girls who have been impacted by the beauty industry. It makes the audience feel uneasy and disturbed which I think is a successful outcome with the editing of distorted clips and sound effects together.


The Video below is a video I found on Facebook declaring how zombified the human race have become through the aspect of social media and technology. I found this linked successfully back to how I've made the characters in my animation be lead by another force and be almost zombified themselves.

Survey

After having made a mood board on the overall issues that people face with body image pressures, I decided to produce a quick survey of females from other courses as well as my own to see what their outlook was. I wrote out 6 multi choice questions with allowance of extra comments if they wanted to make some. Here are the results of the surveys and other comments that those who took part made.

Body Image & The Media.

• Which form of media do you think influences body image the most? (Options were Magazines, TV Adverts, TV Programmes, Music Videos and Social Media)

1/10 Answered Magazines

9/10 Answered Social Media 

• How often do you compare yourself to others? (Options were Never, Sometimes, Always and Most of the Time)

5/10 Answered Sometimes

4/10 Answered Most Of the Time

1/10 Answered Always

• How often do you alter or add a filter to your photos on social media? (Options were Never, Sometimes, Always and Most of the Time)

4/10 Answered Most of the Time

1/10 Answered Never (but interestingly this was only because she doesn't upload photos on her social media account) 

5/10 Answered Sometimes

• How often do you feel self conscious about your body image around other people? (Option again were Never, Sometimes, Always or Most of the Time) 

5/10 Answered Sometimes

3/10 Answered Most of the Time 

1/10 Answered Always

1/10 Answered Never

• What age range do you think is most vulnerable to body image pressures that the media produces? (Options were Below 16s, 17-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41+ or everyone) 

A lot of the people who took part ticked a few different age ranges so here is what there was in total.

Below 16- 3

Everyone- 4

17-20- 4

21-30- 2

• This was more of an open question so I could see what they listed as the main pressures. If you could list 3 main pressures of body image what would they be?
• To have the perfect bum & boobs
• Kylie Jenner perfect make up
• Fashion
• Having a fresh face
• Having pretty, well kept hair
• Appearing feminine 
• Body Weight
• Appearance in general
• Fashion/make up trends
• The 'perfect shape' maintaing it
• Eating the right foods
• Small waist, big bum
• To not be overweight
• Stereotypical hourglass figure
• Creating your body image to impress others not necessarily to please yourself
• Face and skincare
• What to wear and why
• Lifestyle
• White teeth

Girl Model- Documentary

As an aspect of research to my project, I watched a documentary on Netflix about modelling and the pressures of the body image involved. The documentary was following a New York based model scout, who travelled to Russia to collect girls to send to Tokyo for more modelling opportunities. I think it was interesting that the culture of modelling is so different there, and their aspects of beauty is very different from ours.
A Russian scout said in the documentary: "The ideal age to start modelling is 5 or 10 years old, if you're not sure what age to start them modelling, start them young."
In one shot of the documentary, it was interesting to see that there were hundreds of girls being rounded up in a room like cattle and people checking their skin, measurements and skin etc. The American scout explained that for Japanese success, the models she was looking for had to bypass her own aesthetic of beauty, but fit with Japanese ideals. The Japanese ideals in the beauty industry is youthful looking girls, with a cute look, they can't be too tall and have to have clear, fresh skin and big eyes. In the background you could hear some girls being dismissed for being too fat, too spotty or too tall.
Throughout the documentary it follows a 13 year old girl Nadya from Siberia, who is chosen as one of the models to be sent to Tokyo. She is described as having the 'prepubescent' look that the Japanese market favoured. However her trip to Tokyo doesn't go to plan and finds the aspect of modelling very pressuring and has to lie about her age, with Japan not legally allowed to model under 16 year olds.

Black Mirror - Nosedive (2016)

Black Mirror is a series of standalone sci-fi fantasy episodes on Netflix, created and written by Charlie Brooker. A particular episode that I felt was relevant to my project so far is the episode 'Nosedive' where in an alternate reality, society makes you rate others out of 5 for wealth and a good reputation.
I think it's a good concept as it's a fear of many that one day our entire existence will be based on our virtual expectations of one another. Especially with social media aspects like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, a lot of modern day people seem to consider many likes and retweets as more love and more popularity. Brooker has built on this fear by producing this episode where your entire existence depends on whether or not people like you and you're rated well, it shows that the characters are forced to live fake lives in which they pretend that they are happy in order to impress each other for a good rating.