Oddballers,
Another amazing post today because it is inspired by a new book I just bought from Angie Taylor called "Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist." As I was reading the introduction I came across some ideas that I think will be beneficial for all of you. Not only will you understand artistry a little better, but get into an artist's shoes and see what kinds of things they struggle with on a daily basis.
The first thing that I find important to talk about is the difference between art and design. The author says that "art is pure self-expression and is visually achieved with a combination of explanation, discovery, experimentation, and freedom." This, I will agree with. Making something art is entirely self-expressionist and requires complete artistic freedom to execute. In film making, art films will come about when they are either independent filmmakers on their own, or someone says to them, "tell a story in 'such and such' time." Its hard for an artist to fully express themselves when they are bombarded by parameters that they have to uphold to. So for this reason, I do agree with this idea.
On the other hand, the author defines design as "communicating ideas to other people." She also continues on writing that, "you can use techniques you have stumbled upon while being "artists" within your designs, but the execution is generally more considered and structured than a piece of pure self-expressionistic art." Now this, I think, is where film creation stands in it's field. It is a design field. Not an art field. You can be artistic in film but it won't be successful unless there is some structure to the art that you are creating. Film forces you to think about all the elements and how the piece will be executed before you even turn on the camera. This is absolutely essential to understand.
Design isn't always about pleasing other people, it is being able to have common ground with someone. Have you ever felt disconnected from an artist when you look at a painting in an art gallery. I do. I feel their emotion, I engulf myself in their worldview, and I explore their every stroke, but I cannot understand them completely. I am forced to just take the piece as creative freedom and not as a form of structure that I can critique the artist by.
Film is different. There is a structure to it. There is a "good" and a "bad" movie. I don't believe in art ever being good or bad because it is entirely defined by the person critiquing. However, there are areas in film making that can be critiqued. Like story, and character development, and lighting, and camera. You can't necessarily critique the execution all the time or say that "so in so" can't make a film because it is extremely team collaborative and involves more people than the director, I can assure you that. But you can say that "the person in this shot was very overexposed" and most people will write it off as a legitimate critique. That's what we have to understand about Design and Art. Design has critiquing parameters and Art does not. You can dislike an art piece, but you cannot say its bad. You can say a film is bad and you can explain why by critiquing it.
Starting to Make any Sense?
Probably Not....haha
But I will leave you to your thoughts. Feel free to comment on this piece explaining what art and design means to you. I am fascinated in knowing what kinds of things you all are thinking about today.
For the Grace of God,
Oddball
Another amazing post today because it is inspired by a new book I just bought from Angie Taylor called "Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist." As I was reading the introduction I came across some ideas that I think will be beneficial for all of you. Not only will you understand artistry a little better, but get into an artist's shoes and see what kinds of things they struggle with on a daily basis.
The first thing that I find important to talk about is the difference between art and design. The author says that "art is pure self-expression and is visually achieved with a combination of explanation, discovery, experimentation, and freedom." This, I will agree with. Making something art is entirely self-expressionist and requires complete artistic freedom to execute. In film making, art films will come about when they are either independent filmmakers on their own, or someone says to them, "tell a story in 'such and such' time." Its hard for an artist to fully express themselves when they are bombarded by parameters that they have to uphold to. So for this reason, I do agree with this idea.
On the other hand, the author defines design as "communicating ideas to other people." She also continues on writing that, "you can use techniques you have stumbled upon while being "artists" within your designs, but the execution is generally more considered and structured than a piece of pure self-expressionistic art." Now this, I think, is where film creation stands in it's field. It is a design field. Not an art field. You can be artistic in film but it won't be successful unless there is some structure to the art that you are creating. Film forces you to think about all the elements and how the piece will be executed before you even turn on the camera. This is absolutely essential to understand.
Design isn't always about pleasing other people, it is being able to have common ground with someone. Have you ever felt disconnected from an artist when you look at a painting in an art gallery. I do. I feel their emotion, I engulf myself in their worldview, and I explore their every stroke, but I cannot understand them completely. I am forced to just take the piece as creative freedom and not as a form of structure that I can critique the artist by.
Film is different. There is a structure to it. There is a "good" and a "bad" movie. I don't believe in art ever being good or bad because it is entirely defined by the person critiquing. However, there are areas in film making that can be critiqued. Like story, and character development, and lighting, and camera. You can't necessarily critique the execution all the time or say that "so in so" can't make a film because it is extremely team collaborative and involves more people than the director, I can assure you that. But you can say that "the person in this shot was very overexposed" and most people will write it off as a legitimate critique. That's what we have to understand about Design and Art. Design has critiquing parameters and Art does not. You can dislike an art piece, but you cannot say its bad. You can say a film is bad and you can explain why by critiquing it.
Starting to Make any Sense?
Probably Not....haha
But I will leave you to your thoughts. Feel free to comment on this piece explaining what art and design means to you. I am fascinated in knowing what kinds of things you all are thinking about today.
For the Grace of God,
Oddball
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