Constructed Narratives

Framing is important for all areas of photographic work, including film. You decide what you want your audience to see, you are also choosing what you don't want them to see which is also important to a narrative.

Constructing a space  is a conscious decision of what you want to place on the scene

• What's in the frame?
• What takes place within the frame?
• Where?
• Why?
• What is the purpose?

It's about controlling the intended messages

Set design is up to the director to decide what goes in it, even though someone else makes it

Mise en Scene means "placing on stage", it's the arrangement of everything in a scene, also think about the camera work - what focal length, what lens etc

The Graduate Opening Title Sequence 

How is the director introducing the main character?

• Sound is important - Simon and Garfunkel 'Sound of Silence', very solemn tune. "People talking without speaking" the main character does not speak but his face and body language speak volumes. 
• From the start of the sequence he has been told exactly what to do, he does it without question - looks used to it
• Life in a fishbowl (end of sequence) - limited space/options

Paul Seawright

SECTARIAN MURDER

Sectarian Murder revisited the sites of Sectarian attacks during the 1970's close to where Seawright grew up in Belfast. The texts are from newspaper reports at the time and document the murders of innocent civilians, killed for their perceived religion. Reference to Protestant or Catholic background was removed from the text. (Seawright, n,d)

The initial thought of the photographs is that of everyday life, the places look mundane and almost boring. It isn't until you read what's below the images that you realise that these places are not ordinary, and that they were scenes of gruesome and horrific murders. It makes me wonder about the human mind, we turn a normal scene (that we first thought of as mundane) into a place of great interest because acts of violence happened there.

Thomas Demand

Makes sculptures out of cardboard as part of the set design, once he photographs these scenes he destroys the sculpture so that all you are left with is a copy of the original. 

The video above is Thomas Demand talking about one of his projects about the White House, within the video he says that the likeness “stops at any kind of detail” so he “always try to stop when it gets too much about how it really is”; we know what the set depicts without it having any detail which is what he aimed for with this project. “The set was meticulously constructed from cardboard, paper and confetti. It is devoid of humanity; and certain details, like the stars of the American flag, are oddly missing, creating an unnerving atmosphere.” (Tate.org.uk, 2008)

Sam Taylor-Wood

Sam Taylor-Wood's "Still Life" is a significantly poignant piece depicting a bowl of fruit rotting over time, signifying life to death. Although a beautifully controlled composition I do feel that it is a bit obvious, when the fruit decays the light dims, to suggest the light fading within someone. However, this does not mean I do not like the piece; even though it seems fairly literal the audience can easily relate; everyone goes through this cycle.