Final Major Project Portfolio

Steven Parry (1013022)

EGRD6002: Summation & Production 13/14 Between The Lines—Communicating the aesthetics of everyday journeys on London Underground

Proposal After travelling for many years daily on London Underground to commute, when I worked in central London, I have recently become aware and open to aspects of the tube that just passed me by each day. In the rush to get a seat to get to work, amongst the worry of the trains being delayed and thoughts of the working day ahead I feel that this beauty was lost. When I say beauty I am talking of the things that I just didn’t notice or took for granted – everyday objects, patterns hidden artwork, colour schemes that guided me without even thinking, the wonderful clean, crisp iconic and quirky (diamond point) font that is used (Johnston Sans).

I want to give a platform to these aspects and show them in their context using graphical communication in order to highlight them. I feel that by isolating the aspects will give them the prominence they deserve and hope to inspire curiosity and a different way of looking while travelling on the tube network.

Medium—I aim to explore several mediums some that I am familiar with, photography and digital manipulation and some that I am not, animation, film making, sound editing. I wish to use this project not only to communicate but also to challenge myself with new things. I feel this will hopefully enrich the end result. I aim to produce a short film/animation and a printed publication to accompany the film.

Audience—My target audience would be of a general age range but it will possibly suit a more adult audience—commuters on the tube and people who are interested in Transport For London. I would like to see it as an experimental piece of work that communicates its message in a way that is unusual and interesting and could see it potentially in a public place of the same context i.e. The London Transport Museum.

In order to achieve my aim I will research relevant fields to the methods and subject I am covering. This will expand my knowledge and hopefully give the project greater depth.

Contents Section 1—Research, Develop & Experiment Starting Out Audience research Visual research Research into animation Slight change of approach Bringing the idea to life

6 11 14 22 24 30

Section 2—Film Production & Design Putting it together Finer details Creating an introduction Trying variations Creating opening titles

34 40 48 50 53 56

Finished film

59

Adding sound

Section 3—Publication Design & Production Enhancement of the film Format research Planning the book Digital version testing Printing

64 66 68 74 82 83

Finished publication

84

Creating the content

Evaluation & Bibliography Evaluation

90

Bibliography

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SECTION

1

RESEARCH DEVELOP & EXPERIMENT

STARTING OUT Getting permission I felt it was necessary to pursue the right avenues in order to get confidence as I aimed to be filming for some time on the tube. My research led me to understand that it wasn’t allowed to film on the tube without a permit. In order to get a permit I applied with a proposal and paid £50.

Above—My Permit to film on the tube network

Although it was possible to film on the tube secretly, having the permit made me feel far more confident in filming in the open areas. It was also very important to have this permit as I aim to approach the London Transport Museum as a potential audience and it wouldn’t look professional if I produced a film without permission to them.

I felt somewhat overwhelmed at the beginning there was such a huge network in front of me and so many possibilities of action.

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Research To get a feel of what could be done with journey communication I looked at a number of artists who worked in this area. I referred back to Richard Long who documented his own personal journeys. I also revisited Martin Parr’s work to get a bit more inspiration and ideas of portraying the everyday. Most notably with him his use of highly saturated colours, I feel this an effective way of bringing attention to something and I could use to highlight my own findings. I also referred to past student projects of a similar theme to get ideas.

Left—Dan Hawes book Journey Collective

Looking at others work helped greatly in opening my mind to ideas and possibilities, previous student work included animated journeys showing the rush hour to showing comparisons between the underground lines and nature. I also kept up dialogue with friends and peers which led to ideas.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Time Planning I looked at the time left for the project and divided into areas of activities that I would need to do to help me complete the project. I never stick to these rigidly but it really helps to get a feel of what time there is and what is the best way to use it.

Above—My time plan from my sketchbook

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More specific subject research To look deeper at my subject area I visited the London Transport Museum a number of times and took note of design aspects and styles such as posters and carriage designs. I also looked at books that depicted the underground—maps, design and Platform For Art which gives a platform for artists to display their work on the underground system.

Platform For Art

London Underground Maps

London Underground

This amazing book showed me how London Underground seems to be very positive about art/design and ideas and promoting them on their ‘canvass’. The Platform for Art initiative invites artists and communities to submit pieces and ideas that could eventually be featured within one of the stations —artists such as Cindy Sherman have had work commissioned for PFA and had them exhibited on a disused platform in Gloucester Road Tube station. I was particularly drawn to the 2007 project by Rut Blees Luxembourg: Piccadilly’s Pecadilloes.

I found this book interesting and inspiring looking at the design of the maps and systems – I feel there is so much to the underground design wise that is taken for granted – most notable thing I took for the book was the idea that a book format could follow the underground map dimensions this could be used as a grid in the layout, another way of subtly showing the beauty of the the system and design in a publication.

Beautiful photography and candid shots of passengers this seemed very relevant to my ideas.

I noted the positioning of images, cropping etc to make a feel of a journey in parts.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Artists who depict Underground journeys I found Ewing Paddock on the internet, an artist who depicts passengers in the carriages of tube trains. I note the vivid use of colours and also how he uses the background to enhance the subjects activity. The vivid use of colour is what I feel I could use to enhance my everyday findings. Later in the project I contact Ewing for some audience advice and he gave me a very positive response. http://www.ewingpaddock.com/

Above & left— Inspiring images from Ewing Paddock’s series of paintings

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Audience research This is the reply to my email from Ewing Paddock. I sent this email when I had an outcome to my project much later in. There is some great advice and contacts for a potential audience which I intend to pursue.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Audience research As my intended outcome is aimed at commuters and the general public I felt it was wise to approach the London Transport Museum. I spoke to a number of people to find out who I should contact to submit any final work and received an email contact.

Whilst at the museum I noted video installations and could see my final film in the same output medium. There was also a current exhibition on carriage artwork I took note of the people involved in the exhibition to contact later for advice on audience and to see if they may be interested in showing or seeing my work.

Above—A video installation—maybe a potential medium for showing my finished film

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Above & right—Some of the names and projects I took note of to contact who may be interested in the project outcome

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Visual Research—the Victoria line If I am honest I have to admit I do feel nervous walking around the claustrophobic tube network taking photos which may capture people. I set out to take pictures at every tube station on a whole line both on the platform and outside each station I chose the Victoria line.

Above—Photos I took on my journey on the Victoria line

I explored an idea of documenting the network both above and below i.e. doing the same journey on a bus and documenting but I didn’t really feel that it would come to anything maybe a map of both above and below ground in pictures, however it didn’t fit in with my original concept.

This exercise was good for getting me moving, exploring and searching for things of interest. I took many more photos than those above and in the post production I started to think of ways I could enhance the aspects of the images that I want to give focus to.

This can be done with a variety of tools including: Cropping Blurring and focusing on the key areas Converting to a sketch and keeping the focal point as a photo.

Converting to grayscale and keeping the focal point colour Zooming to the area of interest Using text Drawing on the photos

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1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Idea Mapping I set out some mind maps of the kind of things that I could focus on and some ideas of things to produce which helped again keep me open to possibilities. I kept notes of lots of ideas. Some of these led me to explore further, like the sounds and the floor patterns.

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Above & Left—Idea notes from my sketchbook

Due to the discussions with peers and my research into similar work, my path is narrowed and directed and I really feel that I want to show the aspects of the tube both everyday and unnoticed plus everything that is designed and blends into the journey unnoticed and give it prominence by motion graphics, sound and film. I went back into the Underground to look for things that fit my intention.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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More exploring on the tube With more ideas of what to explore I set back out on the tube to actually film this time—with my camera around my neck I filmed on several lines, in the station on the carriages and on the platforms. I aimed to get things like the tube coming in from the tunnel. I got random unexpected things like buskers which had a nice feel with the music.

Mini project—filming across the tube lines I set out to cross each line in one day and film each station and train—I want to cross each line as I want to use aspects of the whole network in my outcome i.e. all the colours for each line as this will show many differences.

Above—A still from one of the films I took on the tube

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Scrutinising the films—looking for things to use I went through each film and made notes of the times of aspects that I felt maybe interesting—like sounds of trains, announcements—people walking in formation as the train pulls in. I felt these could be cut and used in some way.

Above—Notes that I took from each film

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Looking further for things of interest I carried on going into the Underground filming and photographing and recording sounds that seemed interesting and that may be used in the project. I note that the more I go out the more things I start to see that just usually pass me by. For example things like the hypnotic sound of escalators and the movement of shadows and lights on the escalators.

Above—A still from one of the explorative films

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Above & right—A selection of photographs from my exploring the Underground project

The results were interesting I had some material that could be enhanced graphically. I now felt it was necessary to look more at experimental films and animations to get ideas and inspiration.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Research into animation I came across Max Hattler a German animator who is best known for the animation Collision. A kind of Kaleidoscope of flags, representing East (Islam) and West (USA) more its a statement on the conflict between the two ideologies I believe, but its the way the animation is put together that I like I like the ‘choreography’ the simple graphics that form a story or a narration, this is something that I feel could be considered for my ‘story’.

These animations opened my eyes to the possibilities of animating some of the aspects of my journeys—I had to get learning some animation software.

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Lynda.com basic After Effects I started training in After Effects from Lynda.com and made notes into a mini book for reference. Now I have a good basic grounding in starting AE projects, creating shapes and basic animations. Mostly I have realised that After Effects is going to be a great tool to realise my idea of the visualizations of patterns colours etc. that I have noted on my journeys.

Above—My reference book for After Effects

1—Research, Develop Experiment

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Slight change of approach Although the animation seemed exciting I feel with my experience it may be a bit beyond my abilities in the time I have to create a full animation however there are aspects of animation that could enhance the outcome which are useful to know.

Crit recommendation After a crit/tutorial it was suggested that I look further into an idea I had in the first semester, filming and creating a split screen of multiple aspects or journeys. I wasn’t going down this route as I felt it would complicate my new ideas—however I decided to try it out. I took note of a previous student who filmed bus journeys with interesting effect. I wondered if this could be an enhancement to my project Things I looked into that helped inform my new experiment: Structural Film Making Rush Hour Hollis Frampton

Test filming the whole line from start to end To do a test run on this idea I set out on a journey on the Northern Line starting at Morden and ending at Edgeware (the whole line) and filmed the whole journey.

6th Feb 2014 Morden to Edware Click Images to view

Above—Experiment 1—part of the journey speeded up—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhnjESsJ7es

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Above—Experiment 2— the whole journey speeded up 15 times—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ mqh0r-D_xk

Reflection The framing of the film was very jerky due to the motion of the train.

I noticed that the camera position was changing slightly as I was turning to face ‘interesting’ things. I feel that in the playback this seemed jerky and unbalanced especially when speeded up.

These journeys when speeded had a comical feel like ‘Benny Hill’ which distracted somewhat and is not the feel I want.

I noticed the view from the window worked well, the colours merging with the speed. In the speeded up version the train stops really stood out compared to the speedy movement.

The speeded noise sounded a bit like Mickey Mouse which was not a good thing.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Developing the test journey Taking into account what I discovered from this test film I decided to shoot a section of the journey again—this time with a better framing and a steadier camera: Click Image to view

Above—Filming the line with improved positioning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_vcwIQwZ4

I like this film better, firstly my reflection doesn’t show in the window due to the divider between the windows. I don’t want the view distracted with my reflection. I like the three seats opposite me as it feels more balanced and centred and also allows for more passengers to fit in the shot—mostly though I like having a large area for the window as this is the most interesting part of the footage, especially when speeded up—I like the kind of cycle feel of the station stops. It adds a kind of pace to the film and is a way of showing each stopping point really clearly. The stops really stand out at this speed. So I am pleased with this effect as it is showing an ordinary event (stopping at a station) and making it stand out.

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Although the second experiment I feel was more interesting and controlled I don’t feel it’s communicating enough in terms of my project. I need a new approach so start looking elsewhere.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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More research: Time—lapse I look at some films on journeys most noted the speeded up version of London to Brighton in 1953 was good to watch not too different to what I was trying previously. I went back to the idea of time—lase. I looked at a number of videos on time—lapsing to get tips, I felt this may be a better medium as I could show a whole journey in a short time but without the comical effect.

Click Images to view

Above—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkRiOfwxPR0

Above—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0En-_BVbGc

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Trying a time—lapse I set my camera to take a photo every 25 seconds (as this was the amount of stations on the line) and stood at the end of the carriage near the door to the next carriage. This gave me a great view of the whole carriage and more importantly the people moving in and out as a whole rather than just the odd passenger sitting opposite.

Click Image to view

Above—A version of the time—lapse. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pkaFkNl7GfA

I am pleased with this result. It has a great perspective, shows the whole journey quickly without the comical effect, it shows the details of the carriages, the patterns and the colours that I want to highlight and it shows the people moving in and out, the busy periods in the central area.

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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Bringing the idea to life Now I have a way of filming lines from end to end in a way that seems to work both in time and look, I now plan to go out to photograph every tube line from start to end.

The plan of action I want to show all of the journeys playing at once in a grid so the whole tube network can be seen at once. This is the best mode of display, I feel, as it allows the comparisions of differences to be shown clearly.

The Lines

There are eleven main underground lines (DLR and Overground don’t feature in the Underground lines in the corporate literature I got from London Underground so I wont include them).

I choose not to film the Circle Line as I am filming lines from end to end and this line has no end technically (although I change my mind later in the project due to recommendation).

I also think about dropping the Waterloo & City Line as it only has one stop and with just nine lines I have a nice even number for my grid of journeys, but I do think its important to have it included for terms of completeness so choose to photograph it and think of a way of getting it in the grid.

Times

I planned to go out at different times so that I could capture rush hours as well as less busy periods.

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Finished Photography Now I have all of the lines finished I have over 1600 stills to work with and animate into a time—lapse film.

Above—Some of the 1600 stills I took on these journeys

1—Research, Develop & Experiment

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SECTION

2

FILM PRODUCTION & DESIGN

PUTTING IT TOGETHER Creating the animated films I now finished filming all of the London Underground lines from start to end—I had not filmed the Circle Line as it has no start and end point and all my journeys have a beginning and end. Now I want to animate the stills and get them in a formation so they are all playing together to show all of the differences. I mainly refer to the below books for technical guidance.

Tidying up the photos I explored ways of creating stop motion and settled for Adobe Photoshop.

I tested out the first film and noted that the images tilt due to the motion of the train. This creates a very jerky feel and with a number of films playing together just looks too confused. I go through and straighten all of the images—this creates a border around the images that is bigger in the images with more tilt. I decide to use this background with the colour of the line to identify the line.

Above—Stop motion without stabili frames—https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pkaFkNl7GfA

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ized /

Click Images to view

I feel the films are better with the stabilized effect but want to get rid of those large border gaps so try using frames and test out with the year group which they prefer.

Above—Stop motion with stabilization and odd borders—https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AhvMITphPRI

2—Film Production & Design

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Border tests I placed a number of films with different border sizes in Facebook and asked the group for opinions.

Above—Stills from two of the films I tested

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Above—My post for comments on the films

The feedback was varied some liked the wobbly journeys and some liked the borders I took note of peoples opinions and decided the border that I think works best is the 8mm border—it contains the film nicely, removes the frames from slipping out of the screen and doesn’t obscure too much of the information.

2—Film Production & Design

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Grid test To place the films I need a grid so I try a number of different grids some with larger gaps and some with none to see which makes the films more comfortable to view.

The grid with gaps works best for the films that have no borders, the coloured borders and the gaps I feel makes too much contrast and looks distracting. I’d use a no gap grid for bordered films and a gapped grid for non bordered films.

Above—Different grids

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Further considerations Picture quality My research led me to believe that HD would mean a film size of 1280w by 720h. To get the best quality for the films I tried making films in a number of sizes and scaling them down to fit the 1280 format. The larger films scaled were clearest so I went for this.

Time intervals between frames I tried a number of different gaps between frames. Some worked better than others, some made it too quick and some just made it feel like it was plodding along. After trial and error I settled for a gap of 0.35 seconds between frames it has a nice pace not too quick or slow the information in the films is still evident. People agreed when shown.

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Finer details—colour scheme In order to make sure I had the correct colours of London Underground I got hold of a copy of their corporate colour palettes. I now had the correct RGB and CMYK values for each colour so I could output correctly both on screen and print

Above—A page from the London Transport colour scheme document

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Finer details—typeface

i

For clarity I want to use the famous typeface used on the Underground, Johnston Sans but as it is very expensive I took at reproduction version (I did try to see if the university has a copy that I could use but it doesn’t) I found two, P22JohnstonUnderground and londontube P22johnstonunderground worked the best—the ampersand was much truer to the original and as I was going to use this for the station signs (roundels) it was important they were as true as possible.

Above—The letter ‘i’ from P22JohnstonUnderground typeface

2—Film Production & Design

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Roundel creation As I have a series of films I want the viewer to know some more about them so I decide to create a version of the roundel station sign and use one at the beginning of the journey and one at the end indicating the start and end stations. Now I have the correct colours and an adequate type face I make these in Photoshop using vectors so they are crisp edged.

Above & below—Roundel creation in Photoshop

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For clarity I recreated the aeroplane sign that is used on the Heathrow Terminal 5 sign so that it is as true as possible.

2窶認ilm Production & Design

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Using the roundels With the station names created I place them at the beginning and end of the films. When each line finished the end station appears and eventually all of the grid is full of end station names. I like this as all of the journeys are in scaled down time they all finish in the correct order they would in real time so the films are showing which line is longest and shortest in time duration.

Above—The grid filling with roundels as the lines finish

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Creating an acceleration The films are now starting to take shape and communicating what I intend.

The films start off too quick though, going straight in at full speed doesn’t feel natural. So I try lots of different sequences of time increments at the beginning and end of the film to give a feeling of pulling off and slowing down. It feels far more natural and journey like now.

Click Image To view

Above—A film with the acceleration and slowing down effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3I-5dt9HRw

I tested the videos on a number of people and all felt that they were improved by the gradual increase and decrease of speed, it felt more natural and correct.

2—Film Production & Design

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Critical feedback After attending a feedback session with Mike and Billy Kiosoglou I took note of a number of suggestions. The colour backgrounds are too confusing and overkill. The roundels may be better smaller. A single screen journey running on from each other may be better than the grid. The wobbly borders are a bit off putting. and that I should do the Circle Line for completeness.

Mike tended to disagree with Billy’s suggestions in part. Ultimately though I will try these recommendations and see what others think but I think I’ll have to go with my own instinct in the end.

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Adding a new tube line Taking the feedback advice I filmed the Circle Line which now means I have eleven lines and an uneven grid. So I try some grid alternatives for this problem.

I felt the best solution was the middle example with the spare segment at the bottom right. It feels more balanced than the others also I can use it somehow—maybe to show colours or other information related to the journeys.

Above—Trying grids for eleven sections

2—Film Production & Design

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Creating an introduction to the journeys I now had all the journeys in their grid playing at the right speed and with acceleration. Taking into account all of the short films I’d seen when preparing for this project they all had some kind of lead to the action.

It wasn’t adequate to just leave it starting out as journeys in motion.

Initially I had the station names fade in with colours as an intro but this was seen as out of time with the pace of the journeys. I planned out on paper a storyboard showing an introduction.

Left to right—Stills from the sequence of the opening intoduction to the films

Pop up introduction to the films After an initial opening graphic of a door sliding, the blocks of colour appear (above left to right). The blocks of colour represent a line and are in the same position as the forthcoming film of that line in the grid. They appear in the order of journey length i.e. Waterloo & City line first as its the quickest followed by the next and so on. When they have all appeared they each change into the start station name of that line. They then pop out of the animation and an animated door closes. The films then start.

The spare roundel in the bottom right was still to be considered.

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I showed this to Simon Last who agreed it felt more in line with the motion of the film than the original fading transition I had of the colours and station signs. I felt this worked well it was fast paced like the forthcomming films.

It seemed to set the mood.

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Adding sound I knew roughly what sounds I wanted. The sounds of a journey. The doors opening, the beeping and the pulling off of the train etc. I went back on the tube with a digital recorder. I got some good sounds to use that were just as good as the ones I found on the internet that you had to pay for. I now cut them in Audition and faded out and in and tried some mixing this was a new program for me so I got some basic training from Lynda.com.

Above窶認ading in and out the sounds of the doors to get a more clean natural feel rather than a sudden burst of sound

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Click Image To view

Above—The finished prototype for the intro with sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZemsShIE6Q

The sounds worked well and I managed to get them synchronized with the film. There was still a gap which I intended to fill later by mixing in other sounds that fitted.

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Tweaking the films The films are now starting to take shape but I do not like the end where all of the station names come up. It looks clunky and distracting to what is going on, so I try leaving the last frame frozen—the empty carriage. This works really well as it shows each empty carriage as the journey finishes and the patterns and colours are really obvious.

Above & right—With the last frame frozen and the gap problem corrected

The films look so much better finishing with the empty carriage, I felt, but due to the uneven border problem the gaps were really obvious when all were static (circled in red above). I went into the original film and shifted back the last frame to a better position now the border gap was gone it looks much better.

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Trying variations Taking some of the suggestions from previous feedback, I compared the films with coloured background to ones on black backgrounds (below).

The colour backgrounds seems to drown out the action and makes the colour in the carriages (the aspects identifying each line—which I want to highlight) fade away. I feel the coloured backgrounds detract from my original intention and the black backgounds emphasize the colour identity of each line. I decide to use no colour in the background of the films.

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Single film variation Playing the films back to back single mode made the run time much longer.

I looked around for some music or song that could fit and chose ‘This City Never Sleeps’ by Eurythmics. It has references to the Underground and felt in time with the pace of the stop motion. (The blank gap at the beginning of the below film is a space for the titles) Click Image To view

Above—The full screen single journey version—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnNFLKitxzk

Feedback from the group, Billy & Ally It seems that the majority of people preferred the single video journeys rather than the grid—because it had more focus on what’s going on—but the grid version is more true to my original aims—i.e. comparing and contrasting the different lines in a way to show the identity differences and other differences.

I feel the grid version may work better projected at a very large scale so the individual journeys maybe seen more precisely.

They both communicate different things. The full version I feel is more voyeuristic. I like both but will go with the grid version as it fits my intentions of the project.

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Filling the spare segment I tried a number of things in the spare segment. Colour blocks that change when a journey finishes. An animated roundel with all the station names and a grid of coloured roundels that appear in the same position as the films as the films finish. I liked this as I felt it indicated the identity of the line finishing.

My preferred solution, the middle example above, was seen to be distracting with all of the fast paced action of the film. I agreed with this and opted for having a single roundel that changes to the colour of the line as the line finishes (top). I think it needs something in there to fill the gap and this is much less intrusive and still has a link to what’s going on.

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Creating opening titles To make the film more professional I decided to add in opening titles to give it a beginning. I looked at opening credits of films and looked at Saul Bass as he creates kinetic typography that I feel could fit the fast motion of the films. I called the film Between The Lines as it referred to the tube lines and the saying ‘look between the lines’ which seemed relevant to the project.

Above—The opening titles to Psycho by Saul Bass

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Influenced by the Saul Bass titles I created a couple of sequences (left to right). The colour one I felt was too flat and uninteresting it reminded me of Trebor Refreshers sweets. The black and white version was better and used more lines so was faster paced but I felt it looked like a label.

Final titles I tried a non—kinetic title (below) and extended the words with lines to give the feel of tube lines followed by my name and a dedication, fading in with sounds of entering the station, gates beeping and station announcements it felt right as a build up to the films, the start of a journey.

2—Film Production & Design

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Final tweaks Due to the scrutiny and adaptations I feel the films are working better. I presented the final version at a tutorial and there were a couple of things to iron out. There was long gap at the beginning between the opening credits and the animation only about a second, but the gap was enough to make the viewer notice it. I edited the sounds and the titles to remove this pause and the flow was much better.

Simon Last suggested leaving the end of the film with all the carriages frozen and not have my original ending of the doors closing in time with the last film finishing, he felt he wanted more time to ponder as the films moved so quick. I tried this using differend pauses at the end, for example with 15 seconds, then the closing of the doors and next I tried just leaving it completely frozen with no closure. However it just didnt feel right, eveyone seemed to be expecting something to happen and wondered why the film just stops. It felt incomplete, I felt It need closure so I reverted back to the original were the doors close. I placed a copyright sign at the end really just to indicate the end.

I agree that the film moves quickly and there may not be time to take it in, but if it were on a loop (and this ending would allow a loop) this would mean people could watch again. Also I aimed to have a publication which will allow the viewer to focus in more detail on the finer points.

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Finished film

Click Image To view

http://vimeo.com/90742222

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Film in context

The film displays in devices and laptops and is accessible on Vimeo—a link is provided in the accompanying publication.

* Ipad image taken from Google images

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Above—A mock up of a small scale video box as seen in the London Transport Museum

The film works small scale and also, due to its high definition, works projected onto a wall or screen at large scale.

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SECTION

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PUBLICATION DESIGN & PRODUCTION

ENHANCEMENT OF THE FILM Purpose of the publication Originally I planned on having a publication that works with the film by showing the journeys in maybe a flip book style or strips of stills showing the motion of the journeys. However with some reflection I feel that the publication should work to enhance the film—it should show some of the detail that the viewer may be missed in the fast paced film. I want it to explain what the project is about then just follow the flow of the film and give more detail of imagery.

Format research—Bookbinding workshop I attended the bookbinding workshop to see how the book may look bound in hard back, this allowed me to try a couple of test spreads.

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M

Above—The book I made and a layout I tested

I tried out a format for A4 and A5. I chose this size because it matches the dimensions of the tube map. The book binding looked nice and neat, the stitching was tight and I prefer it to staples, it felt more professional and polished. I’m not sure whether hard back would suit the publication context. I just get a brochure feel when I think of the Underground—white glossy paperback similar to the station signs and the tube maps.

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Format research: books To get a further feel for format and layouts I looked through and took notes on books such as Basics:Format, Grids and Type & typography it gave me ideas on what could be achieved and got me thinking about the feel of the book. I also referred to the UCA end of year books for layout ideas.

Above—Some books I referred to

Format decision The book I feel should be like a programme, a brochure as it is an accompaniment to the film. I see it as a soft back publication, glossy and white to reflect the Underground image. I start looking at brochures and programmes from my own collection to get a feel for layouts and appropriate materials.

I look at a number of books for inspiration and London Underground (to the right) gave me lots of inspiration. I decided to make the book like a journey. Using my own images of the corridors, escalators etc. to communicate each stage of the journey.

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Planning the book I watched over my film to see what I could include and reflect on. I want to show the whole eleven journeys in a grid over a spread of pages this will show the different colours of each line in a different way to the films.

I then want to go into each carriage and show the key aspects—patterns, colours etc. in a way to give them real attention.

Above—My layout plan to get an idea of where things may go

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Materials & size I went to Rymans and the London Graphic Centre and looked at lots of paper samples. I knew I didn’t want a too heavy paper. I wanted it to feel like the programmes I’d seen. I settled for brochure paper, satin finish 120 gsm. It was just right had a kind of magazine, brochure feel. For the cover I went for similar but slightly thicker paper to make it different. I decided to do A4 but will try A5 also. I feel that it needs a large format to get over the detail and give it more impact.

Above—The paper I use for the publication

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Grid I like to work to a grid and chose a twelve row by six column grid. This allowed for the spreads where I planned to show the grid of images from each journey (below) and also was very flexible due to its amount of cells.

Above—Using this grid throughout allowed for flexible placement of images

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Typeface I planned to use P22JohnstonUnderground as it was very similar to Johnston Sans. However it worked better as display type rather than body copy as it felt too bold in the main text. So I opted for Gill Sans for the body copy as this was similar to Johnston but finer. I still used P22Johnston Underground for some headings and slogans where it worked.

Above—Testing out the typefaces

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Creating a cover Going for a simple design that fits with the style of the Underground map; white background, line colours and line shapes. Using the title I created for the film for consistency. I extended the lines from the front to the back to give a feeling of movement. Although minimal I feel it has an Underground feel and that’s what I want to convey.

Above—Trying out different styles of the lines

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Above—The front and back cover I used

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Creating the content—Main journeys In order to stay true to the feel of the film I decided to show all the journeys in a grid so that all of the different aesthetics could be seen easily. This covered three spreads.

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Above—Two of the three spreads depicting the journey of the lines

I’d read in the Basics:Layout book that extending the pictures to the edge of the page gave a feeling of continuation for a series of pictures. As these spreads continue over multiple pages and depict a continuing journey I followed that advice and extended the images to the edge of the page. The different aesthetics between the lines stood out nicely I felt.

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Creating the content—Into the station To give the feel of a whole journey, I looked through the many images I’d taken throughout the project to select the ones I felt best communicated this. I used pictures of key parts of the journey like the barriers and drew lines on them to enhance the feeling of movement, then escalators and then platform images. I used full bleed on some to give a feeling of being drawn into the picture.

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Above—Two spreads of the journey into the station

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Creating the content—Showing the detail The point of the publication is to give the viewer the opportunity to look at some of the aesthetics in greater detail. So the main content led to eleven images—one of each line. I tried a number of things to highlight the patterns, for example overlaying and image blends with patterns, but ultimately I settle for the Schindlering effect where I desaturated all of the non—relevant aspects to give a strong contrast for what I want to highlight. I think this works well to show the key differences.

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Above & left—Trying different layouts for the images

I experimented with different layouts for the main images, spreads with two images and spreads with a single image. I ended up going with the layout on the right as I felt the image needed to be on its own to get full attention. I spread it into the opposite page slightly because it seemed to drowned out with with space when it was on a single page.

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Text to link the sections I created some text graphics to link the different sections. I wanted a feeling of energy and things being hidden and brought out so I tried to give the feel of something coming out from the background.

Above—The text image I used in the publication

I tried out different ways of making the text appear comming out from the hidden, using patterns, shapes etc. I felt the top one worked best, it felt more connected to my subjest due to the tiles used from the actual patform. The other experiments (left) felt like they were comunicting pretty patterns and didnt work.

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Checking the layout Now I had all of my images and spreads I checked how the spreads worked together. I moved some (as below highlighted in red). This spread didn’t feel appropriate next to the calm set of images that followed, it had too much energy feel to it so I moved it before the grid spreads above where it felt more appropriate. I created a more calm piece of text to go in its original place to fit with the mood of the adjacent images.

Above—Altering the position of the spreads

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Digital version testing Now happy with everything, I publish online at Issuu. I showed the publication to peers and people who use the tube and took notes of things that could be improved. It was recommended that the split map I used to indicate my journeys (pages 6-7) could be improved—the lines originally had no station names, it was seen to be incomplete and I agreed and added them which improved its communication and look.

The finished publication can be viewed here: http://issuu.com/stevep2011/docs/between_the_lines_final Click Image To view

Above—Digital publication on Issuu

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Printing I decided to print the publication myself as I have access to a good quality A3 printer and materials. I did a test print to see how it looks and made adjustment due to some of the images coming out darker than on screen.

I also test printed in the smaller A5 size but it didn’t have the same impact as the A4. I felt it needs big pages for the big images to stand out, especially the full bleed images.

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Finished printed publication

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EVALUATION ‘Look Between The Lines’ is an expression I feel links to a major part of what I have been taught and encouraged through my time at UCA—to look further, beyond the everyday, explore for things of interest amongst the mundane, ordinary and overlooked. So I feel it is apt that my university Final Major Project is based on this concept.

The foundation of my project was set in semester one where I explored a variety of different everyday scenarios and recorded my outcomes. This really opened my eyes to ways of communicating and giving a platform that gives ordinary scenarios a different perspective.

Taking this further into the FMP was a challenge— finding ways to expand on this and communicate something else meant I had to delve into more research and exploration, which benefited my knowledge as well as the project.

I wanted a challenge with this project, so I embarked on new media (film, sound editing and animation) as well as sticking to more familiar areas such as photography and layout. I took note from advice at the beginning of the project that it was unwise to take on something completely new (media wise) but felt confident that I could achieve my goals with a mix of new and familiar media with appropriate training.

Another challenge was the scale of the project filming each line from beginning to end was quite exhausting and also I felt very conscious on occasions standing in awkward positions for up to an hour and a half in the carriages, however I felt more confident afterwards knowing that I’d done something out of my comfort zone.

The one thing that am I glad I did was try a new direction, with recommendation from Mike, instead of focusing on pure animation of my findings it was suggested I should explore further my split screen approach to documenting journeys

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that I tried in semester one. I had no plans to do this up until this stage but it changed my direction slightly in away that I feel made my communication more interesting as it added a new dynamic—the hustle and bustle of the commuter movement to the journeys as well as showing the different aspects of design of each line clearly. I am used to sticking to a plan rigidly so this change was a new thing for me and showed me how important it is to keep open to things.

The work has been challenging and rewarding lots of refining and polishing and I took every opportunity to get feedback that was provided that I feel has enhanced my outcome.

I have learnt lots about my practice, firstly that I am capable of a large self initiated project and secondly were I feel my skills and passion lay. I would consider I am multi—disciplined designer, who explores ideas. The main area I enjoyed was selecting the photographs for the publication and telling the story with images. I enjoyed most parts of this project but I think the publication is were my skills and passion lay most.

I am pleased with my outcome I feel I have communicated what I set out to communicate in a way that challenged me and taught me new things about myself.

Now I have finished I will concentrate more on getting the work out to a potential audience. I have already started enquiries with the London Transport Museum and have a list of contacts to explore from an artist I approached at the end of the project. So hopefully the work will be seen by more people in the future.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Leonard, Neal and Ambrose, Gavin (2013) Basics: Idea Generation. Swizerland: AVA Publishing Laferla, Jane and Gunter, VA (edited by) (2004) The Penland Book Of Handmade Books.

New York: Lark Books Long, David (2011) London Underground Architecture, Design and History. Gloucestershire: The History Press Dillon, Tamsin (edited by) (2007) Platform For Art. Art On The Underground. London: Black Dog Publishing Dobbin, Claire (2011) London Underground Maps. Art Design and Cartogrophy. Farnham: Lund Humphries Ambrose, Gavin and Harris, Paul (2005) Basics:Format. Switzerland: AVA Publishing Ambrose, Gavin and Harris, Paul (2012) Basics:Grids (2nd edition). Switzerland: AVA Publishing Baines, Phil and Haslam, Andrew (2012) Type & typography (2nd edition). London: Laurence King Publishing Stoller, Bryan Michael (2008) Filmaking For Dummies (2nd edition). New Jersey: Wiley Publishing Inc. Purves, Barry JC (2008) Stop Motion Passion, Process and Performance. Oxford: Focal Press James, Jack (2009) Fix It In The Post. Oxford: Focal Press Welsh, David (2010) Underground Witing. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press

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Exhibitions Richard Hamilton—Tate Modern Poster Art 150—London Transport Museum A Carriage through Time—London Transport Museum Richard Deacon—Tate Britain Steve Sabella—Fragments The Photographers Gallery

Films Sherman, Gary (Director) (1973) Death Line Landis, John (Director) (1981) An American Werewolf In London Smith, Christopher (Director) (2004) Creep Hitchcock, Alfred (Director) (1960) Psycho

Websites http://www.jonathanpigram.com/investigations-into-documenting-journeys.html (accessed Feb 2014) http://gd13.gdnm.org/ (accessed Feb 2014) http://www.lynda.com/member.aspx (accessed Feb and March 2014) http://www.ewingpaddock.com/ (accessed March 2014) http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ (accessed Jan, Feb and March 2014) http://www.richardlong.org/ (accessed Feb 2014)

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