Thursday, 15 December 2016

Final statement

My theme for advanced image creation is called masking identity. It is about society and the media putting pressure on young girls and women to look and act a certain way. The masks take many forms but the mask I’m focusing on is the one we create in order to hide our true identities. From a young age we are shown images of beautiful women who are photoshopped by the media and film industries. They create the illusion of what women ‘should’ look like. Obviously these images are fake and unnatural but we are still influenced and brainwashed by them. This can have a negative impact on people and cause self confidence issues. One negative result is that people hide behind a mask because they feel as though they wont fit in with their real identity. Therefore they create a mask to hide behind and over time become dependent on the mask.

This poster is about hiding your identity from the world. It shows how easily we are influenced by other people, society and the media. It shows how the innocent are easily manipulated and controlled. It represents the dark side of the film industry and shows how you loose your identity when you step foot into that world. When you do loose your identity, you loose your voice and your own free will. If you don’t do as they say they will put you in the background where you will fade away. This image represent the mask we create in order to shield us from the negativity in the media. Its about not having confidence and belief in ourselves because of the pressure from the media and society. It also shows how we can have multiple personalities and each of those is its own mask.  We wear different personalities in different environment. But the question is; Which personality is our real identity? Who are we really? We become so dependent on hiding behind our hands that our own identity disappears from existence.  After a while we are then trying to control what we present to the world and overtime cracks begin to appear. The secrets of your real identity start to escape between the cracks in the mask.

When I was designing this poster I researched different artist for inspiration. One artist who influenced my poster was Jackson Pollok. I am intrigued by the dramatic chaotic brush strokes he uses. His work is about emotion and the gestures associated with the emotions which then cause the actions of the brush strokes. The paint represents the inner state of the artists and the emotions he is feeling while painting. I incorporated the same effect in my poster. I used a drip brush effect on the faces which represent the inner emotion of the character. I used a dodging and burning technique to lighten and darken some areas which create the spotlight effect.

The logo I selected was the MGM film companies logo. My theme is about masking identity because of the pressure the media put on young women to look and act a certain way. This company is the perfect example because they put a serious amount of pressure on their actresses. Even child actresses. They had control over the women and basically told them how to act, live and look. They lost their voice and own freedom when they entered the film industry. I am focusing on the dark side of the film industry and how it caused actresses to loose their identities and wear these fake masks when they were in the spotlight.

Final poster! Masking Identity