Dumpster Diorama

In a slight change of plans I decided not to go with the storyboard idea for the dumpster. Inspired by one quote that really stuck with me;

"I think we use extinction as a safety blanket. When really, the more harrowing truth is that a thousand years from now.. this exact same thing will continue." - Katehrine Ryan, NWO

I agreed with this truly 'harrowing' thought the sheer idea that things might be fated to continue as they do now is a frightful one. So, fully inspired at this thought, I made a diorama to house the dumpster in and instead of the scenario changing with each stage, it will stay the exact same, slowly decaying and rotting with the dumpster.

This is as far as I've got with it at the point of hand in but should have it painted by tomorrow and will join all parts together once I've returned to Manchester.

Graffiti

I thought I should start thinking and planning what graffiti I might want to put on to the models, particularly the dumpster. So I did a couple of double page spreads.

Clearly I've not grown too rusty at this so graffiti isn't much of a worry, I can still throw these up nice and quickly, though working with fine paintbrushes and tiny posca pens will be a bit different from spray cans but still, I'll manage.

 

 BackDrops

Just thought I'd maybe show evidence of my backdrops and their separations for when they're taken to woodblocks.

This one as far as I can think was not used in any of the storyboard scenarios but was probably the most complicated of the lot, wanted to show it's breakdown at the very least.

These last two I didn't spare time to create separation pages but did also produce myself

This, I was so happy with the turn out for I ended up using multiple times, as many as I could really loved the water effect.

(For influences of each of these backdrops see earlier in the blog)

 The Spares

These were all spares for the Dumpster I won't spend much time talking about these as my plan for the dumpster has drastically changed I'm hoping I can get photos uploaded in time for hand in but will show what I mean soon.

 The spares 

The Phone Box storyboard I struggled with least, again as mentioned in 'the spares' for my Utility Pole, I think because I'm currently surrounded by very natural landscape and scenery and have been trying to get out for a walk most days. 

On top of that I had most fun with these images, I think because this storyboard was mostly influenced by comedian Frankie Boyle and his outspoken version of the future. With certain slides, like the one of the phone box in a desert, I didn't spent much time on them, they seemed fairly nihilistic and yet funny without loads of work. I will be the first to admit though some of them could maybe use a slight finessing, not the desert one though, perfect as is, like low budget Doctor Who.

(See lower in the blog for finalised storyboard)

I love the work of Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle. He challenges where most others don't dare, pushing the more important subjects in modern society to the forefront of his routines. a lot of his more modern work sees him talk about the challenges we face as a society going forward and so I thought it couldn't hurt to maybe look over some of his 'New World Order' series on BBC.

The wealth of quotes I could choose from here is extraordinary, though I will try to be selective.

"I've a message for young People, dont be afraid of the future, it's going to be... so brief!" - NWO Series 4, mid Covid Pandemic

"Its impossible to know what it'll be like to die in a nuclear explosion... maybe you'll get to see your family melt before the blast picks you up and your finally memory will be of their faces devolving into cubism" - NWO, little art based.

"People say the best thing you can do for the planet is veganism, I don't think so. I think the best thing you can do for the planet is cannibalism. If you can eat one other person, you've managed to reduce your carbon footprint by 100 percent"

I think it is fair to say that Frankie Boyle's outlook on the future is, to say the least, bleak. Though, that said, it did really help me to imagine my own, I think because in the larger sense, I agree with these views and feel humor is necessary when trying to visualise a harrowing truth.

 The Spares

When I first started making the scenarios for my storyboards I fell victim to thinking I had more time than I did. I began with the utility pole scenarios and spent most time on them, it did help me get to grips with using photoshop to put these together but I wasn't decisive enough at the start and kept going over what I had already done.

This was the first, I tried to blow up a sketch I was fairly happy with from my sketchbook and use the photos I had taken to create a landscape in the same composition of the rough but lost interest half way through.

I then set to creating landscapes from photography but using only single photos to create the landscape and throwing in descriptors of what I imagined the space around to look like.

I played around with this idea and began retracting sections and removing whole areas, I got this idea from an album I listened to where the artist had changed production style, previously he would loop sounds and build one on top of another layering dozens of strings until he got tired of this style of production and so instead started removing whole sections of sound in order to suggest violence and destruction. I wanted something similar for this scenario and so thought to try it out for this slide

album = Public Speaking- Caress Redact

I wasn't a fan of the album but the method of creation I found fascinating. discovered through 'Perfect Sound, Whatever' mentioned in earlier blog post.

This was the first slide I began putting custom backdrops in, this is what I meant by thinking I had more time than I did. Each of these took quite a long time and not even all of them were used in the final storyboards (e.g below). They are all still quite nice though, I will show layer breakdowns of each of these later as I have planned each one for print too.

The bush here too, was ultimately not used in the utility pole storyboard, I was so happy with it though I ended up throwing it into the phone box instead, I felt the windswept look of the leaves really helped to suggest the idea of movement.

All of these were made before realising I wanted the U.P to follow a timeline that led to Philip K. Dick, Cyberpunk inspired efficacy.

This was where I realised I wanted it to follow a more William Gibson/Phillip K. Dick inspired style.

These last two show that I really struggled with creating such a feeling/aesthetic, I think not being surrounded by a built up city effected this, being in the outskirts of Glasgow, surrounded by rolling hills and lochs I didn't have much room for real life inspiration here, to the point that the last slide (below), really isn't anything just a collection of images almost none of which are mine.

After a long struggle though, I managed to get something I was happy with for the finalised storyboard and actually, the two last slides in the U.P storyboard are two of the ones I'm most pleased with.

 I mentioned Philip K. Dick as a huge influence on me earlier in the year, he tried with his work to describe a future setting, though in all of his work he described a human presence in the futures he postulated, now we wonder if there will even be one.

 Dick described future society's as mass consumerist populations controlled by advertising, mega conglomeration companies that owned all the wealth upholding social divides and influencing the population and the planets surface destroyed by war and radiation with animals dying out. With today's world having reached almost all of these criteria, what would he have written about now?

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K. Dick

IF THIS IS THE ANSWER WHAT IS THE QUESTION?

265 MILLION

"Is it.. when the machines finally take over. How many humans will die in the first 24 hours, that the machines will later refer to as.. The Great Adjustment?" - a quote from Frankie Boyle in a popular segment from Mock the Week.

Films helped a lot with this storyboard. To name a few;

The Stalker- Andrei Tarkovsky

Blade Runner 2049- Denis Villeneuve

Fahrenheit 451- Francois Truffaut 

(See the finalised boards lower in blog)