Evaluation

I established this project as a means of improving my narrative/visual skills as a result of a wide range of narrative research into film noir/comic style/sonnets/rhyming couplets; and research into the Illustration styles that typically accompany these genres of narrative. I first researched the devices used in film noir script writing and found the premises of 'impending doom' and 'grim failure' evocative of my narrative, yet improves upon my original text, as the emphasis on sexual obsession and violence make the text more emotive than my original. I followed this by researching visual techniques used in film noir and found that shadow placement particularly emotive to accompany the text as the menacing shadows reflect the character's 'impending doom' creating more drama within the text. I experimented with comic style images and found that the dark outlines and hatched tone give an extra intensity and show a sense of foreboding succinct with the narrative. Another path of a solution was romantic, realistic images evocative of images typically put with poetry. Although it only captured the romantic sections of narrative as a single picture, I felt that by setting it in a backdrop evocative of film noir coupled with comic Illustrations highlighted the narrative elements of romance and violence perfectly. Therefore, in this case, I felt that my image is best suited with my narrative rather than an image evocative of film noir. I felt that this diverse style of image making has improved the meaning of the narrative, making it more evocative of violence and emotive. So, in this scene the story is more compelling visually and written.

For my comic style narrative, I first researched Frank Miller's narrative in his graphic novel series 'Sin City'. The voice-over style I found to be not as passionate as poetry influences. However, the grimy realistic tone I found to be an interesting and diverse take on my text. In my image making I found that realistic images typical of poetry to be highly passionate, although not succinct with my narrative. I found that comic Illustrations are better suited. So, in this case I haven't challenged the misconception. Instead, I have found that a different style of text and image making would produce a more emotive and compelling story.

Thirdly I researched sonnets and found poems such as 'Upon the Crucifix' by William Alabaster highly emotive and used this influence to produce a passionate piece of text. Typically only single scenes/images accompany sonnets so I experimented with this device and found it more fitting with the text than comic book images as without being in sequence they lacked the romanticism of my sonnet. I used a singular image and a decorative pattern reminiscent of William Blake in his plates for his rhyming couplets to highlight the compassion in the text. Although, I altered the contrast to make it more film noir appropriate as I took influence in my image making. I felt that this combination of realistic images associated with poetry combined with a film noir take shows the romantic premise to the sonnet. Yet, the backdrop gives a sense of foreboding shown in the narrative, challenging the misconception that images should only accompany text of that genre.

Finally, I researched rhyming couplets and found that as they are poetry in its simplest form, they can appear simple and false. However, I used Edgar Allan Poe to influence my text to produce an emotive poem that draws the audience's attention to the rhyme and yet shows a sensibility to the text. I found that William Blake's small, detailed images using symbolism and colour evocative of the text to be unfitting to my narrative. Instead, I found that realistic images fund with sonnets highlighted the romantic elements of the text, combined with film noir influenced images fitted with the morose last verse. This for me has challenged the misconception that images should only accompany text of that genre as I feel this combination of diverse styles of image making highlights all aspects of the text.

Through this development process I found that I challenged this misconception in all fields apart from this comic style narrative/image making. I then used this information that I had gained to re-style my original piece of narrative using both comic/film noir and sonnet influences. I used sonnet influences in a pice of text to accompany realistic images to highlight the romanticism of the narrative. However, although they are highly emotive I found that they lacked the violence and desperation that comic/film noir images show. So, I chose to include a sequential narrative that expressed the dramatic crime style/morose tone effectively. I feel I have used my research to produce a more compelling story visually and written.