#5 Poster Ideas - Blue Velvet

After working on my quick thumbnail sketches, I decided to illustrate the idea, so I had a starting point. As I began drawing, I considered each choice I made to respond to the research rather than my own initial thoughts. These are just initial working ideas, so I want to leave space to come back and rework them as I discover more. I have included a bibliography of the research I am drawing upon and my Padlet of the notes I have gathered on various authors' opinions on the subject.

This is the full sketch collating all my ideas regarding representing the 2 leading females in Blue Velvet (1986). Voyeurism seems to be a key aspect of the film from how our leading male views our 2 female characters. I have made this clear by incorporating the binoculars in the design, with each character being 'viewed' on either side. I believe the binoculars also work well as our protagonist takes on a 'detective' role in the film. He is portrayed here as viewing, reviewing and judging the female characters the same way he ways up evidence within the investigation.

I chose to use silhouettes rather than clear depictions of the characters. I wanted to emphasise that the women are being judged at face value and merely images presenting the character archetypes they represent rather than in-depth characters themselves.

It is argued that the female protagonists push the boundaries of these traditional character archetypes. Our 'femme fatale' is a caring mother while our 'girl next door' obsesses over the macabre. Despite this, this is seen as a problem for our male protagonist. He wants them to fit within their designated personality types. The silhouettes present the way he wants to see them and define them. On the right, we have the 'femme fatale' archetype, while on the left is the 'girl next door'. The outcome is a sketch compiling all the different elements I have considered.

The next step is to work out how to create this outcome. As mentioned previously, I usually prefer a more minimalist approach; however, I still want some depth within the work.

Bibliography

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.

Chainey, S. (1995). From Reverence to Rape. Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series, 1–3.

Collins, L. (2017). Mulvey, patriarchy and gender: expression and disruption in visual art. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 15(4), 415-420. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2017.1376878

Gledhill, C. (1978). Klute 1: A Contemporary Film Noir and Feminist Criticism. In E. A. Kaplan (Ed.). Women in Film Noir (pp. 20-34). British Film Institute. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781838710163.ch-001

Harvey, S. (1978). Woman’s Place: The Absent Family of Film Noir. In E.A. Kaplan (Ed.). Women in Film Noir (pp. 35–46). British Film Institute. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781838710163.ch-002

Lafky, S. (1999). GENDER, POWER, AND CULTURE IN THE TELEVISUAL WORLD OF TWIN PEAKS: A FEMINIST CRITIQUE. Journal of Film and Video, 51(3/4), 5-19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688217.

Lynch, D. (Director), & Caruso, F. (Producer). (1986). Blue Velvet [Film]. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.

Mulvey, L. (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.

Place, J. (1978). Women in Film Noir. In E.A. Kaplan (Ed.). Women in Film Noir (pp. 47–68). British Film Institute.

Scott, S. (2018). Postfeminism and the Fatale Figure in Neo-Noir Cinema. Film & History (03603695), 48(1), 71-73.

Sturken, M., Cartright, L. (2009) Practises of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture. (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Wilson, E G. (2007). The Strange World of David Lynch. The Continuum International Publishing Group.