ARD504 Influence Boards

We have been asked to create six influence boards to discover our influences, mine are below.

The 1980's

 

Condorman

I think I was at a very impressionable age throughout the 80's and the films that I watched influenced me. Condorman is one of my fondest memories from my childhood, I have always loved Michael Crawford's comedy and to see him in a film was brilliant to me at the time.

Labyrinth

Another fantastic 80's film that introduced me to the fantasy world of Jim Henson was Labyrinth. I was amazed at how the puppets interacted with the human cast of the film and had a personality all of their own. The soundtrack was good too.

Stand By Me

A story about a group of troubled kids on a journey to find a dead body but turned out to be a discovery of their own personality and fears. Many films have since tried to emulate the feel of the film but not really come close.

The Fly

Directed by David Cronenberg and staring the brilliant Jeff Goldblum, The Fly was one of my favourite scary 80's films. I loved the special effects, which were done well then and still stand the test of time today. The mix between science fiction and horror is the ideal marriage of film genre. It is definitely a film that I watched when I was too young because it scared the hell out of me.

Aliens

Directed by James Cameron and staring Sigourney Weaver, Aliens introduced me to a new type of horror. I like that the film is dark and futuristic and has a female lead role in an action/horror/science fiction film. Again I like the special effects and the directors vision of the future. Another film I watched when I was too young to do so.

The Goonies

I think The Goonies is one of my favourite films of all time. I like everything about the film and just like Stand By Me it is about a journey of discovery with a group of kids. I feel influenced by the characters, especially the Fratellis, an Italian crime family. It showed me that even though not the main points of interest they stole the show for me.

Gremlins

I think Gremlins was the first scary film I ever watched, and yet again was too young to be legally watching. Until this point in my life most puppets had been nice and educational and it was a shock to see puppets tearing people apart or being cooked in a microwave.

Directors 

Quentin Tarantino

When Quentin Taratino's films first started appearing in the 1990's I thought his work to be of a completely new standard of film making. The violence and use of vocabulary seemed quite new to me at the time and I liked the way two people could have a long conversation without even moving the script or film forward.

Stanley Kubrick

I consider Stanley Kubrick films to be outstanding in the use of suspense and the music used. In 2001: A Space Odyssey I liked his vision of the future and the robot Hal, and in The Shining I like the emptiness of the house and the small cast used.

Peter Weir

There are many films by Peter Weir that I could claim influenced me, but the main one would be The Truman Show. I loved all of the humour from Jim Carey, the fact that he was living a fake life as the unknowing star of a life long T.V show seemed a new concept for me. Towards the end the film takes a turn from comedy while Jim Carey is trying to escape the T.V show and turns to the first emotional acting I had seen from him. Many people didn't like this but I thought it was brilliant.

Tim Burton

The reason I class Tim Burton as an influence is because I find he has a very distinct style. From Edward Scissor Hands to the Corpse Bride and from animation to live action films you can see his techniques through these films. I like the darkness and sometimes absurdity of his characters and films.

Francis Ford Coppola

I seem to have unknowingly grown up with films that were directed by Coppola. The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now and strangely another film I love, Jeepers Creepers. I enjoy the way in which all of his films are shot, especially Apocalypse now being a raw war film.

Martin Scorsese

Another favourite film of mine is Goodfellas, which is directed by Martin Scorsese. Other outstanding films he has worked on include The Departed and Gangs of New York.

Alfred Hitchcock

The master of suspense himself. I grew up watching Hitchcock films with my Dad. One that stands out for me is The Birds as my Mum has an immense fear of birds. The special effects for the time were brilliant and I think it was one of the first uses of green screen. Hitchcock influences me because of his pioneering methods and that he used to have a cameo in each of his films.

My Family

Jack my son

Being my first born child I found that the influence Jack had on me was immense. He taught me selflessness, patience and self control and gave me a reason to try and better myself. Without Jack I don’t think I would be in university studying towards a better and brighter future.

Evie my daughter

Evie makes me want to be a better person. Even though Evie 'The Bear' is still only young at three years old she makes me smile and laugh everyday and has showed me not to take life too seriously and to lighten up a bit.

Pat my mum

Being a divorcee my mum showed me that when your down you have to get up and get on with it. My mum passed her G.C.S.E's when she was 45 and later qualified as a Nurse and has worked her way up to sister through her late starting career. My mum has always influenced me showing me that its never too late to start something you want to do.

Sian my wife

Sian has always been hard working and a very loving partner. I feel that Sian has taught me tolerance and understanding and the ambition to succeed in the area I have chosen.

Sian my sister

My sister moved to Portsmouth to go to university when I was about 15 years old and I feel influenced by her in many ways including the courage to move away to a new and different place and start a new life. My sister is academically gifted and has been studying for the last 20 years in various fields and this displays to me that education is not just for the young.

Adam my brother

After my parents split in 1988 my brother was the 'man of the house', something he didn't take to well at first as I remember. My brother has taught me that responsibility is something to be embraced and worked upon and that there is no such thing as hard work.

Light and Technique

 

Contre Jour

I have produced many photographs in the contre jour style and find it to be very inspirational. I like the fact that the main subject in the photo is blacked out against the lighter background giving an air of mystery about the image.

High Key Photography

I hadn't really used many studios or models until I started at University and high key photography I found very interesting. I found it to be of great advantage when trying to capture fashion images and wish to investigate this more in the years to come.

Light Painting

Painting with light was fairly new to me when I started college, but since then it is something that I have grown to love. The first time I experimented with light painting I was amazed that you could capture movement on a still image.

Long Shutter speed

I feel influenced by long shutter speeds in the way that you don't know what you're going to capture until the image has been finished. This technique can turn car lights into trails of colour or make water appear as smoke or ice.

Low Key Photography

I find low key photography to add a sense of mood to an image. I feel influenced by this in my own work and have found that a lot of my work is in low key. It doesn't have to be just portrait photography that it works well but also landscape images. Ansel Adams shot a lot of pictures with this dark feel about them.

Zoom Burst

Zoom bursting the lens is a pretty new discovery for me. I like the way in which zoom bursting can change an image to have a surreal look about it and can work well with almost any type of shot. However I find that lights work best.

Music

Guitars

Guitars have played a massive part in my life so far. I started to learn to play when I was about twelve or thirteen years old and haven't put it down since. Playing guitar was probably my first step into the arts and thankfully have always tried to be creative since then.

The Kinks

I grew up listening to The Kinks thanks to my parents and it seems to have stuck with me over the years. The record player at home was always on playing other artists like Elton John, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

Orchestra

The emotional power that is the orchestra has always overwhelmed me from as early as I can remember. The ability to change mood and tone almost instantly is one of the benefits of the orchestra. For me there is no other group of instruments that can portray the perfect atmosphere.

Piano

I have chosen the piano for the same reason as the orchestra. Along with the guitar and other stringed instruments they are the ideal medium to portray emotion and can change from sad to happy whenever you want.

Slash

The reason Slash is on my list is because when I was 16 I stopped playing the guitar for a while and it is only because of Slash and his guitar playing in the rock band Guns n' Roses that I picked up the guitar again to learn his licks. Without him I may have quit forever.

The Beatles

The Beatles have influenced countless artists over the years including myself. In the U.K and all over the world they are one of the most famous bands in the history of music. Through the 50's and 60's they part of a moving trend which practically invented the teenager. Where would music be now without the influence of The Beatles.

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses are on my list for the same reason Slash is. Yet again when I was 19 I lost the want to play the guitar, and it was their second album The Second Coming that kick started my guitar playing. Much of how I play and the songs I write are directly influenced from their music in the style of fretwork that John Squire uses.

Photographers 

Ansel Adams

I chose Ansel Adams for my influence board because I love his landscape work throughout America . The images I like are the ones with massive black skies and huge mountain ranges dominating the pictures and the feeling of scale portrayed within them.

Alberto Korda

Alberto Korda's iconic image of Che Gevara is known the world over, and for that reason he is on my board. I don't really know any of Korda's other photos so it just goes to show that if an image has a message attached to it then it can also work as a symbol. A lot of people are unaware of the importance of the image so they just like it because its popular, like fashion.

Anton Bragaglia

I like Anton Bargaglia because I find him to be a pioneer in early photography. One of my interests in photography is movement within the frame and this is something that Anton Bragaglia experimented with. I also like his multiple exposure shots and I have recently recreated some of his work.

David Bailey

The influence I get from David Bailey is within his portrait work of famous celebrities that he has created over the years. It is almost like your not officially captured on film unless you’ve been photographed by David Bailey. All of the people he photographs look relaxed and I think he captures the personality of person really well.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp is very similar in influence to me as Anton Bragaglia is. He also uses long exposures on his photos to create very surreal images. There is one picture of him sat around a table with what appears to be a group of people, but on closer inspection every person is in fact Marcel Duchamp.

Man Ray

I studied Man Ray at college and found myself to be really interested in his photogram work and his images with light trails using long exposures. It showed me that a photo doesn’t have to be of the standard type like I thought at the time, and opened doors to my creativity that were new and exciting to me.    

Summary

Initially I thought this brief to be of little interest or benefit to me, but upon further investigation I found that I learned a lot about myself and my influences. I have always felt that I never wanted to be categorised by my influences and to have a broad range interests and talents and I think I have proved this to myself through the completion of this brief. My main love is music and I can now see that it goes hand in hand with how I feel about photography and film and how I like to create pieces of work.

It almost feels as if my early interest in music has acted as a platform for the move in to film and photography. I now feel that I am able to bring together all of the elements needed to create something that I am happy with. 

Looking back over what I chose as my influences I now see that I enjoy movement within the frame of a still image, light painting, and in-camera manipulation of the image at point of taking, for example, long shutter speeds and movement blur. And as I expected the driving force behind anything I do is driven by my family and the need to better myself and to find a career that I actually will enjoy doing. 

I have found this brief to be very interesting and important in my personal development as I progress through Glyndwr University.