Bringing Elements Together

The end point I am working towards is a final merging of these fragmented parts of animated sequences into a visual narrative that encompasses all my thinking and working. This will probably begin by gradually bringing together type studies and light studies with parts from the image sequence. Just as the book is a stitching together of voices and stories that fall within and outside of this starting narrative - the final motion sequence will stitch together fragmented parts.

As the choreographer of this somewhat vast and unwieldly narrative - I am becoming acutely aware of my role. At times I feel as though I am piecing together clues that I have constructed in a deliberately disjointed/fragmented manner. I am seeking a visual solution, a solution that creates connections between these parts, a logic to the seemingly illogical bits, a flow to the staccato rhythm. The meaning will only come when the pieces are put together.

Sudden Clarity

I suddenly realised the animated adaptations of "The Black Dahlia" were really my chance to test out how suspense can operate visually. If my pre-existing definition of suspense is a simple tension between two states/conditions - then I want to use these small animated studies to test this out. I need to work with the relationship between two elements at a time and see how far I can push the ensuing friction. First; letter and light. How can one element affect the other? How does they compete? Reveal each other? Conceal each other? What is the possibility in this interaction?

Book

I am rethinking my approach to designing this book while the book itself is still in the embryonic stage of being developed. I realize my way of making the book is not reflective or true of the content and purpose for this book.

The book was a chance for me to deal with content; the formal qualities of the motion sequences were overcoming any communication objective. The book would allow me to work intricately with the language; define voices or points of view and then let them speak on the page. Creating letter-press type for the Anne Sexton quote gave me a real sense of the words – the physicality of them and the impact they can have when they are broken apart. While I am also happy with the visual outcome from this process – there is a preciousness to these words on the page that is restricting my ability to combine them with other voices and letterforms.

I feel this book needs to be physical manifestation of the mental ‘piecing together’ that is occurring. This book is a recombination and reconstruction of voices; it makes sense that it is physically put together in this manner and readers can see that process. I am now considering collage, hand lettering, cutting and overlaying as methods to make this book.

Reflections on Image Sequence

Working on a purely black and white image-based mini-sequence for “The Black Dahlia”, I was able to experiment with pre-existing conventions of detective/crime narration. The protagonist’s point of view in a detective narrative is the frame through which the reader/viewer gains access to the story. My adaptation of Ellroy’s novel is very much concerned with my take on detective narratives; that they are about an interplay between the perspective of the detective (as framer of content) and an elusive truth, epitomized by the figure of the murdered woman. My main objective in building this sequence was to primarily convey the perspective of the protagonist, allow us to both see this character, and see what he sees. A secondary interest was to see what I could learn from visual clichés of detective narratives. And the constant underlying interest; how can one imbue a sequence of images with an underlying tension/suspense?

























CONSIDERING PROTAGONIST POINT OF VIEW...AND CLICHE

In trying to create the presentation of an‘objective’ point of view, I sensed this was an impossible task. Nevertheless, the objective of this sequence was to provide visual cues to place, character and plot. I opted for archival images presented with no layering; tension was created only through the juxtaposition of one image to another, and the interplay between sound and image.

I approached the creation of a visual language for this sequence in the same way I would pick a tone for a character to speak in. This man is, by appearance at least, a typical homicide detective, his tools are those of interrogation, observation, and deduction. This explains the surface ‘clarity’ of these images in terms of content and presentation.








We see the detective.
We also see what he sees; remnants of the murdered woman:








Still, there is an elusive sense of yearning inherent to this detective character that needed to find a tonal quality in this sequence. This is more a tinge than an actual colour – built through pacing of the images (irregular), cropping of images (also slightly irregular), and the soundtrack. In this way, the character/emotion of this character, and therefore this sequence, is very much under the surface. This is in direct contrast to the layered red sequences – which are pure emotion on the screen.

When attempting to create a visual perspective for the detective protagonist of this story, I began by considering the clichés that operate in many visual adaptations of crime narrative. The most obvious is the use of extreme close-up – both of faces/eyes and forensic evidence. I presume this is done to mimic the intention of the investigator, to get closer, to get inside the truth, to see more clearly. I began to realize this is in direct contrast to the archival crime scene photographs that I have been analyzing – where the focus on the evidence results in the body/centre of attention being on the periphery of the image. These images are usually mid or long shots; presumably to give a clearer perspective of the scene as a whole, rather than one detail. I was curious to explore the shift between near and far in this sequence – cutting from close up and mid-shots of the same image/evidence. This is the beginning of building a type of suspense, the frustration that results from being at a distance from what one wants to see.

SEQUENCING

As I work on building these motion sequences fairly intuitively, I am beginning to notice different visual systems and mechanisms operating within each. Rather than try to make sense of different visual rules of logic within one meta-sequence, I have begun to separate these elements into unique sequences. In this way two distinct sequences have begun to form, both working with the same elements (light and letterform) but working with interactions between the two.




CLICK TO VIEW


CLICK TO VIEW








This is a fascinating and somewhat counter-intuitive process for me. While an image of the overall structure is buried deep in my thinking, I am avoiding this as my starting point now. I am approaching the building of these 10-second sequences as pieces that will constitute various one-minute sequences, that will in turn be re-combined to form a more final sequence. Building from parts to create the whole for me is a little de-stabilising but also exhilarating. It allows me to find points of interest and play them out in their own sequence, even if their connection to the final piece is as yet, unknown. While all these mini-sequences are built from the same core elements, the letterform, archival images, and light – the hierarchy of these elements to each other shifts from piece to piece. What is really interesting is finding new ways for elements to work in each piece. While I had an original idea for how light might work, when it interacts with colour or a new image, it begins to behave differently and communicate in an unexpected way. I am learning about how visual narrative can be generated and structured from the inside out through this process.

SEQUENCING WITH COLOUR

The earlier sequences added the extra layer of colour. As I considered how I could create suspense in the first stage of the one-minute sequence, I considered the obstruction of one image by another. This was naturally occurring as I worked with large letter-pressed letterforms and an image of a woman in a red dress. The framing created by the form and counter-form of the letter was working to conceal the image beneath in a very beautiful and evocative way. Interestingly, the red dress began to look like other things when glimpsed beneath the heavy black letter frame; a splash of blood, a mark on the floor, a piece of fabric, an old movie poster. The colour was also operating on a more emotional level that I enjoyed. Rather than using layering to gradually reveal words from the original narrative, the gradual revelation of this red dress carried a stronger emotional undertone and sense of tension. As I continue to build this one-minute re-telling of “The Black Dahlia” – this red dress is becoming as much a clue as a verbal cue from the novel. I am able to build a real sense of mystery around hints of this image. This sequence might work best as the emotional flavour of the final piece – it operates on a more intuitive level than anything else; more to be looked at than ‘read’.

Texture and Tone

I am playing with different methods of giving type a sense of texture on the page. Using transfer might be a possible method to work with type and image on the page.

New Thoughts

As I begin to reconstruct the story of "The Black Dahlia" in these new six sequences - I am considering the power of point of view as a structural and emotive story-telling device. Looking at real LAPD crime scene photographs, I was struck by how compelling these visual constructs are, and wondered why. There is a constant tension in these images, between the viewpoint of the narrator (the detective, the crime investigator) and the scene itself. While the photograph is a purely informational, objective view - the subject matter is wholly human and tragic - a murder victim. There is a sense of searching in the eye of the detective, an attempt to quantify what one sees, measure evidence, document the residue of the crime, arrive at some sort of truth. But countering this is the voice (the almost voiceless voice) of the murder victim. She is like a beckoning, haunting melody that sits underneath this enquiring stare of the detective.

I realise every crime/mystery narrative is based upon this tension between the detective and the deceased. In "The Black Dahlia" it is quite a literal tension - the detective Bucky Bleichert is obsessed with the dead girl Elizabeth Short, has almost fallen in love with her. The story is told from the point of view of the detective - all AFTER THE FACT. He is the audible voice, the framer of the story. He records facts and tries to piece together the facts of the murder, of the mystery. The murder victim haunts the entire story, she is the presence the detective seeks out. He attempts to pin down her intangible mystery by piecing together physical evidence.

I am approaching the retelling of this story as a sort of dialogue between these two persons, these two voices. While we as audience only hear the detective, her presence is audible beneath it. The detective seeks to uncover something unseen, the mystery of her murder. She is the obscurer of truth, by virtue of her being dead and therefore, silent. He speaks but she doesn't respond. There is a juxtaposition of objects of objectivity (measuring devices, cameras, notebooks, news clippings, actual frames) with the victim's clues - her still foot, a shadow, a look in her eye two years before her murder.

In this way, the final sequence will embody the tension of every murder mystery.

Commentary

I have decided to start this by selecting a piece of content – a text that will generate a process of exploration of how different visual systems can be layered to construct a new adapted form of an original story. As I am interested in exploring the effect of motion and light on type forms – I have planned to create 5-6 ten-second sequences that would function as teasers for Ellroy’s novel “The Black Dahlia”. I selected this novel for numerous reasons – Ellroy’s writing style, multiple plot lines, the era (1947), the location (Los Angeles), and the fact that the novel is based around a true event, the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short.

I plan to build three versions of these 5-6 sequences – each one relying on one visual form to recreate some aspect of the original novel. This allows me to try out different levels of adaptation, moving from highly abstracted forms to communicate information/content, to more literal forms. These letterpress studies were the start of creating the literal alphabet that will be used to construct the skeletal narrative of the sequence. That is, the opening quote Ellroy uses to begin his novel:

“Now I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, my first lost keeper, to love or look at later.”
- Anne Sexton

This line of poetry will be broken up over the 5-6 sequences – function both as image and text, it has to be read but also create the viewing plane.

THE BLACK DAHLIA