Studio Brief 01 - Photo Manipulation and feedback

The aim of these compositions are to create surreal dreamscapes that suggest that these landscapes can only envisioned in ones dreams. Initially the idea was to create unique landscapes through the process of pasting different selection to form a collage of sorts. However my proficiency in Photoshop is not up to par with what I wanted to create hence I switched to a more manipulative option. Despite the lack in skill though the resulting manipulations created some surprising results.

The choice of a greyscale and monotone blue colour scheme throughout these manipulations are meant to represent another idea of how the song can be shown. The monotone variations relate to the emotional and sombre tones of the song. Blue was chosen because of its connotation to sadness which the song may evoke towards a listener. The following 4 compositions are reflections of the original image to create surreal landscapes and patterns. The reflections done on the Grand canyon produced some surreal results with one resembling the two halves of the brain.

From the research done on Studio Ghibli landscape animations, I noticed that the texture of the clouds played a large part in creating that dream like feel to the scene. Therefore in this picture, the focus of the manipulation was to create designs based on these clouds. The colour as well was manipulated to add to the surrealism. So far the experimentation's have been concentrated on creating intricate patterns to draw the viewer. 

These are still based on the same image as before, however the compositions are taken from a less hectic area of the reflections. In some ways, this approach may be better suited for the song as the song itself is not complicated. The simplicity of these compositions also relate to the serenity of the song. 

The manipulation of photos did not apply to all landscapes however. In these two images, it was more successful to reflect the explicit mood of the song instead of creating surreal landscapes. 

The less hectic designs also suited the seascapes which have both aspects of cloud texture and landscape. What also adds to the suitability is the pastel colour palette which leans more towards the idea of day dreaming rather than sleep dreaming. 

  

To combine both aspects of a less hectic design and surrealism, the images were inverted. The resulting effect is a landscape depiction that reflects the dark, moody atmosphere of the song as well as the simplistic melody. The white highlights caused by the rocks unintentionally act as a point of focus and draws the viewers attention.

The feedback of on these designs were much more well received than that of the Abstract Expressionist ideas. People were drawn towards the effectiveness of reflecting the landscapes. However there were different responses to what they thought the landscapes represented. Some suggested Clearest Blue while some Tame Impala's The Less I Know The Better. The reason for this are the unintentional psychedelic designs of the reflected landscapes, especially the canyon, as well as the vivid colours. Amongst all of the landscapes, the seascapes were the most well received, with comments stating that it represents the calm and serenity of the song. Furthermore the inverted effect was effective in communicating the idea of dreaming. To take the manipulations further, people suggested to maybe layer different images on top each other and to experiment with the colour. Overall this idea has worked more successfully than the abstract expressionist idea. People are able to draw the similarities between the songs atmosphere and the compositions of the manipulations.