You Are Here: Visiting Cannon Street Station

Photos I took whilst at Cannon Street

Sketches and recordings made at Cannon Street Station

All photos are authors own

Going to Cannon Street and taking time to get in touch with the area, study it, delving into its finest details was a really fascinating experience and it provoked many potential ideas. I found this way of working to be really successful in generating ideas. A great way to become inspired. As I sat just watching, listening and experiencing the ambiance my brain was already working up potential narratives. It was also a really good opportunity just to do some drawing and study mundane life. However, I did find the whole experience rather exhausting and I barely left the station as I wanted to explore it before going out on the street. Although, I think it would be quite interesting just to concentrate on the station. More specifically, the underground.

'You Are Here' Project

Photos of my surroundings on a walk along the Thames, in Greenwich

Authors own

Screen shot of Ed Barrnett's Man Up 

 Screen shot of Sally Arthur's A to Z 

The aim of this project is to produce a 30 second animation that says something about a certain area within London. This area was picked randomly, using a map, a pin and blindfold. I was blindfolded and asked to place the pin anywhere on the map after being spun round multiple times. My pinned area was Cannon Street.

In preparation for this project we watched a few short animations based on the notion of the city. They all had a very strong sense of style and something different to communicate about the city. Man Up looked into the life of a builder working on a crane, it was highly comical, but ending in tragedy. A to Z looked into the busy life of woman that lived in the city and her habit of collecting and gathering. These short films opened my eyes to the possible avenues I could go down, but also urged me to think more outside the box and concern myself with ideas that have not yet been explored.
I also went on a drawing trip around Greenwich and made some interesting sketches, took photos and wrote down thoughts, feelings etc. This was a great way to practice gathering primary research and try out a new way of work (being on the move). This experience will make my first visit to Cannon Street a lot more productive.

Rastaman Final Image: 6

This image is the final image of the story that embodies the resolution. Here Rastaman has reached enlightenment and the goat that dragged him to the top of the mountain is disappearing in the bottom righthand corner to reveal itself as a hallucination that embodied his own will power. However, it is not very clear that the goat is present in the image, but the viewer can clearly see that Rastaman has reached a more positive place and is at peace.

Rastaman Final Image: 5

This image depicts the scene where Rastaman see's the blurred outline of a goat when he awakens several hours later after he collapsed from OD'ing. This is the view that Rastaman see's as he stretches out his hand to grab onto the goat to be rescued. Most of my peers found this to be the most effective image of all the 6, clearly depicting the predicament of Rastaman by blurring the image and using high exposure. I have also continued the element of illustration in this photo.

Rastaman Final Image: 4

This image depicts the scene where Rastaman cannot resist the temptation of the cocaine and ends up OD'ing and collapsing on the side of the mountain. I chose to use a birds eye view because it emphasises the vulnerability of Rastaman, making him look smaller and more isolated than in previous images. Once again I have used an illustrated Rastaman.

Rastaman Final Image: 3

This image depicts the scene where Rastaman arrives at the mountain and is shocked to find out it is covered in cocaine instead of snow. Here we see the world from Rastaman's point of view, looking down at the pile of cocaine in his hand. Through is fingertips the viewer can see the terrain of the mountain, which acts as a clue to the location of this image. To create this image, I used decorative house stones, shells, my hand and talcum powder. I draw over my hand to match the illustrated Rastaman that has appeared in the images so far. My peers said that it was successful in capturing the environment of the mountain e.g. the cold climate. However, the image visual communication is slightly unclear.

Rastaman Final Image: 1

This is the film still for the beginning of my Rastaman story. Here, Rastaman has collapsed on the floor due to OD'ing on cocaine as an attempted to numb the pain of his wife leaving him for a Doll. I found the task rewarding as I was able to see my story come to life in a small. but I feel effective, kind of way.  I really like my use of illustration over a photograph, each medium compliments each other well as the photography brings an element of reality to the image, whilst the illustration keeps the image light-hearted to avoid completely depressing the viewer. However, in contrast, if was wanting to creat a very serious vibe throughout my story illustration would hinder that goal.
Other students found the illustration to not be quite bold enough, only by studying the image did they notice the body I had draw onto the photo. In future I will make sure my illustrations are bold enough in contrast with the image.

Final Rastaman 6 Film Stills

These 6 images are my final visual embodiments of the Rastaman story I presented in my sketch book in my previous post. They are layout here like a comic book would be. I'm overall quite proud of my final 6 images. However, in the last image there is a goat slowly disappearing, which isn't very clear at all.

Happy

Crush

Sad

Echo

These images are supposed to be a visual interpretation of an echo, using a particular object/pattern that drags out through the image.

Fall

This image is supposed to display the idea of falling, from a first person perspective.

Jump

Currently trying my hand out at photography. This image is supposed to insinuate the act of jumping, using feet as the focus point, accompanied by a lot of negative space beneath them.

Experimenting with frames: 1

This exercise of cutting out and framing parts of the original image was used for me to try and create different moods and narratives from the same image. Here emphasis is placed on the base of the stump.

Photo of a place that evokes memories

This is a photo of a tree stump that had been made into a bird bath. Chose to take a photo of it because I found it endearing. The memories evoked are not specifically attached to this tree, but more the area in which is situated.