Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Photo Series Self Portrait Project | Navdeep Sanghera

  Behind the Works of Cinema Poster Designer 



Untitled 1

Untitled 2

                                                                                               Untitled 3


Untitled 4

My photo series Behind the Works of Cinema Poster Designer is inspired by Cindy Sherman's works based on her Untitled Film Stills, and the idea of photoshooting our future. I created myself as a future key artist. I wanted to take the creative director approach in shooting these photos with a cinematic effect and showcasing myself in the future working in my dream job.

The four-photo series is a day in the life of a poster designer. 

In Untitled 1, I am watching the movie that hasn't been released, to critically understand the film, plot, characters, and the story build-up. This is a movie theatre inside of the workplace, for fellow employees to get a thorough understanding of the movie for the poster they will be creating. After viewing the movie more than once, is when you can start picking up on details of the director's cinematography style, script style, and post-production effects (if utilized). My process to achieving this photo was simple I went into Photoshop to darken the image to focus on the TV and then me. The photograph has a calm ambiance but shows my attentive care and intrigue in cinema. 

Untitled 2, is located at working in the studio, with a warm cozy feel to it, I want to work in a setting where I can decorate and renovate to my appeal. A great-looking studio would definitely persuade me to enjoy working on concepts at work rather than at home. In this photo, I am brainstorming concepts for how the movie posters could look- jotting down ideas, gathering inspiration, sketching thumbnails, character analysis, etc. I also showcase studying from other artists currently and from the past, as learning is always part of life and getting better at making designs. I place magazines of cinema because of my love and interest in the creative process that goes into filmmaking while doing work.

In Untitled 3, is the meeting with the boss/head director. I will be communicating and explaining the ideas I have created for the movie posters. I find this stage important because to be a good poster designer I must be able to present my ideas well, speak clearly, be willing to handle critique, and collaborate with others on movie posters. I enjoy hearing what people have to say, and their opinions and judgments based on the design. 

Lastly, Untitled 4, is the end of the day, when I pack my portfolio and clean up my desk to head home. The spectator might assume based on low lighting I must be sad because of the mundane job. On the contrary, I happily end each day with passion and excitement for the next day. When you have a strong passion for a certain career you will always want to see what you are capable of creating and challenging yourself to be better. This desk area is what I aspire to have, better than my current situation. Being economically in a better place with a loving career. If I want to maintain this lifestyle, I am willing to work hard and put effort into turning these photos into my reality. 

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How Carrie Mae Weems Rewrote the Rules of Image-Making Megan O’Grady


Looking through the Black Photographers Annual, she saw her future in artists — mostly men — who looked like her, who were doing the kind of work she wanted to be doing, and in 1976, she tried New York again. “I came to New York to be with them, to see them, to talk to them, to interview them, to study with them, to become their friends, to see their exhibitions,” she remembers.

When Carrie Mae Weems entered into photography it was only a male-dominated sphere. She recognizes being the only black female photographer series in her learning career. Her output intrigues me, she works with them as colleagues putting gender aside. She wanted to learn the best from her colleagues who shared similar interests. I agree with Carrie Mae Weems, I wouldn't want my race or gender to categorize me as a creator when my output of work matters more. This goes back to my idea, in fear of a male-dominated career in anything, I would want to be treated equally as are my other coworkers in terms of our work and projects in the workplace. I sometimes wonder, when I become a key artist/poster designer, would it be a male-dominated industry? If so, will I face any challenges mentally and socially? I want to have a mentality like Carrie Mae Weems to be able to work with her coworkers despite her being the only female didn't stop her from flourishing as an artist.


The Ugly Beauty of Cindy Sherman Parul Sehgal


Her first series, the landmark “Untitled Film Stills,” 1977-80, featured 70 black-and-white photographs of scenes from fictional films, inspired by Hitchcock and Antonioni. 

I absolutely love seeing her Untitled Film Stills series, now knowing she had re-created photographs of scenes from the films of famous successful film directors makes me more interested in these series. Cindy Sherman definitely enjoys seeing how others would perceive her series. They are imitations of the signature cinematographed style of film directors. As for her acting skills, Cindy goes well into each character treating it as if it was an actual life and carefully considering her next moves that would be appropriate to the character. Cindy Sherman plays the female characters in this series as feminine, matching how women were portrayed in Hollywood in the 1940s-1950s. Cindy Sherman has inspired me to appreciate taking film stills and recreating them, as a poster designer taking pictures is important in understanding lighting on images. Along with my passion for designing movie posters, I am taking up learning broadly every auteur's signature style out of pure love for cinema and hopefully getting the chance to work with a post and/or production team.


The Cindy Sherman Effect Phoebe Hoban


A less conspicuous but equally important legacy is how her work has permanently blurred the line between fine art and photography.

Cindy Sherman is an avant-garde, she explored and experimented with the collision of film stills of the stereotyped characters and placed herself within that character, and as an actor, she acts out her role well to embody the character while combining how she interprets them to be in an act of imagination. We see a continuation of photography used to set up and create an act, to give the viewers an image to think and imagine upon. The Untitled Film Stills series grasped my attention as she directed a narrative for the female character and set up her composition within the frame. I love seeing an artist take inspiration from popular Hollywood films, it is fun to see how artists reenact scenes from films. Poster design takes these basic elements from what they have learnt of fine art and applies it to design, photography is utilized more now for movie posters and with the commercialized aspect has pretty much blended them together there is a blurred line between them.

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