Robert Brown John

Robert Brownjohn is a graphic designer from America who is known for blending formal graphic design concepts with wit and sixties pop culture, he is best known for his movie title sequences the opening title sequences for the James Bond films, 'From Russia With Love' and 'Goldfinger'

In the two title sequences that Brownjohn created for James Bond consisted of typography and film shots 'projected' onto a naked/half naked female body, this was more than likely to represent the way that women are portrayed in bond films and to go with what has been a running theme with pretty much all of the opening titles of James Bond films.

I like Brownjohn's works as they are something different from other film openings and are a very imaginative ideas.

Narative Code

Roland Barthes developed a concept that every narrative is interwoven with five codes that drive one to maintain interest in a story. The first two codes involve ways of creating suspense in narrative, the first by unanswered questions, the second by anticipation of an action's resolution. These two codes are essentially connected to the temporal order of the narrative.

The Hermeneutic Code

The hermeneutic code refers to plot elements of a story that are not explained. They exist as enigmas that the reader wishes to be resolved. A detective story, for example, is a narrative that operates primarily by the hermeneutic code. A crime is exposed or postulated and the rest of the narrative is devoted to answering questions raised by the initial event.

The Proairetic Code

The proairetic code refers to plot events that imply further narrative action. For example, a story character confronts an adversary and the reader wonders what the resolution of this action will be. Suspense is created by action rather than by a reader's wish to have mysteries explained. The final three codes are related to how the reader comprehends and interprets the narrative discourse.

The Semic Code

A seme is a unit of meaning or a sign that express cultural stereotypes. These signs allow the author to describe characters, settings and events. The semic code focuses upon information that the narration provides in order to suggest abstract concepts. Any element in a narrative can suggest a particular, often additional, meaning by way of connotation through a correlation found in the narrative. The semic code allows the text to 'show' instead of 'tell' by describing material things.

The Symbolic Code

The symbolic code refers to a structural juxtaposition that organizes meanings by way of antitheses, binary oppositions or sexual and psychological conflicts. These oppositions can be expressed through action, character and setting.

The Cultural Code

The cultural code designates any element in a narrative that refers to common bodies of knowledge such as historical, mythological or scientific. The cultural codes point to knowledge about the way the world works as shared by a community or culture.

Gordon Douglas Ball

“To some extent I realized that the journey toward making a work of art was as important as the work of art itself. I’ve always made my photographs autobiographical. I like the idea that my photographs are poetry, in the way a poem is not a statement but a summary of feelings that somehow cohere into a meaning which can only be felt, rather than spoken. These photographs will tell you what I cannot say in words. I have always been attracted to the themes of romance, chaos, alienation and mainly reestablishing a sense of identity. I want to emphasize the beauty of those themes, and if my work is rooted with abstract ideas, then so be it”.
Gordon Douglas Ball
New York City            
2011

Gordon Douglas Ball is both a visionary and a rebel, whose interests center on an internal rather than an external reality. On the flat surface of the photographic plane, Gordon Douglas juxtaposes near and far, light and dark, large and small. His clear and sophisticated manipulation of light follows none of the established conventions of photography. - http://www.gordondouglasball.com/index.php?/statement/statement/

Some of Gordon Ball's photography looks very urban art like in the fact that they look like walls that have had paint splashed on them, and in turn they look very graffiti like. Most of Gordon Ball's photography consist of vibrant colours and most of the time show the whole range of the colour spectrum.

I like Gordon Ball's work as they are simple ideas that have a great look to them and they would easily catch the eye of anyone passing by.

James Bond Photoshoot

During this Project we had three different Photoshoots, one for photos of bond, one for photos of the bond girl and one for photos of Aston Martins. We also used the photos of the dancers that were taken for the Chi Fest project. I decided to take photos that would fit into what I wanted in my story board. The only real difficulty that I had whilst doing these photoshoots is that I was modeling as James Bond in two of them so I therefore had to ask me friends for there photos.

Different Kinds of Typography

Loverboy Font - This font gives the feel of love by using the shape of a love heart around each letter, also the way that the font is in a kind of wave, instead of a straight line, gives a less serious look.

Oh The Horror - This font is perfect for the horror genre as it looks like it has been painted on by blood and looks like it could be used in a horror movie, although it does look a bit cartoony.

Funny Pages - As the title suggests, this is a great font to used in a comic or a cartoon based images as the font has a very informal look to it even though it has a pretty consistant shape to it.

5th Agent Font - this font has a very futuristic look as well as looking quite square, it also lloks like it is writing that would be seen on a computer, this is why it would make a good spy themed font.

Top Secret - This font is pretty much a typical font that would be used on something that has a war theme as it is a stencil effect and looks like the stamp that is used for Top Secret files.

Celtic MD - This font looks almost like the font used in The Lord of The Rings, it also looks like it belongs in a fantasy as the time era that the font is based on is a time when most fanasy themed things are based.

Rio Grande Font - This font looks completely Western as it all square like and bold. This is the font that would be very recognisable in a cowboy film etc.

Life Drawing Session

Due to openings of James Bond having silhouettes of women, the class had a life drawing session in which a female model came in for us to draw, this was so that we could get he right proportions when drawing a human figure, we tried many different techniques for life drawing.

This picture is an example of drawing a moving figure, this technique allows me to get used to drawing a figure moving into different positions, during this exercise the model moved into four different positions and we each had 3 minutes to draw the each pose she took.

This technique of drawing with straight lines created an absract look to the figure and looks very picasso like (cubist) I also attempted to add some tone to the figure.

This was my attempt at using the negative space on the paper to create a silhouette of the model, this is a technique that I could improve on.

This is just a simple portrait that I did so theat I could get used to drawing the outlines of a human figure.

This was me using white and black pastel on black paper, this was so then I could practise the different tones (Light and Dark). This one is my personal favourite and I'm pleased with how this one turned out.

Maurice Binder

Maurice Binder is best known for creating the gun barrel sequence for the the James Bond films, as well as designing and creating the openings for all the Bond films (excluding From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, both created by Robert Brownjohn) prior to Godeneye in which he was succeeded by Daniel Kleinman after his death in 1991 from Lung Cancer.

Binder's work for the bond films mostly consisted of silhouettes of naked women and shapes, his style of work has made the bond title sequences some of the most recognisable pices of cinema. His title sequences help create the fantasy of James Bond and instantly gets the viewers into the mood of the film.

Just by using auch a simple style Binder has managed to create on of the most iconic title sequences in the history of cinema and has become the influence of his successors that have created James Bond openings.